by Erin Flegg, Vancouver Observer, February 7, 2014
In the latest in a series of announcements escalating resistance to
oil and gas development in North America, the Oglala Sioux nation and
its allies have committed to stopping the construction of the Keystone
XL pipeline on their territory if Obama approves the project.
In response to the US State Department’s environmental report that
says Keystone wouldn’t increase the country’s carbon emissions Oglala
Sioux president Bryan Brewer, along with organizations Honour the Earth,
Owe Aku and Protect the Sacred, released a statement declaring
they will stand with the Lakota people to block the pipeline. The
statement, seen by many as a significant step toward approval, sparked
solidarity action across the US on Monday.
Moccasins on the Ground is
a grassroots direct action training organization, and trainer Debra
White Plum of the Lakota Sioux nation said the group has been working
toward this moment, giving nations the skills they need to defend their
land, for years
now.
The training is available to anyone who
invites the group onto their land, and it consists of four days of
training in areas such as knowing your rights, blockading and
self-defence, first aid and social media. White Plume said a large part
of the impetus for offering the training is the size of the territory at
risk. Tribes can be several hundred kilometres away from each other,
often making quick help hard to come by.
“This way a community can do whatever they need to do when threatened
and they’ll have the skills right here, and that’s really important out
here where we live,” she said. “We want this non-violent, direct way
that everybody engaging in across the country to be successful,” she
said. “But if it’s not and if the final door is closed, then that’s why
we’re doing the training.”
The organization has toured the United States and has received
requests for training from several nations in Canada. She said the
political process has left the people with little choice.
“Every door has been closed through this process. Court decisions
have been made that favoured the corporations and there are a few cases
here and there where the landowners are still asserting their rights
under American law.” But if the government can’t be counted on to uphold
its own laws, she said, there’s nothing to stop them violating
indigenous treaty rights.
“As red nations people we have seen the federal government violate treaties clear to this day.”
The violation of the treaties—in the case of Keystone it’s primarily the Fort Laramie Treaty between
the American government and the Oglala Sioux—is the key reason Phil
Lane says it’s unfair to call direct action by indigenous people civil
disobedience.
“It is not civil disobedience. This is simply acting out of an
aboriginal legal order to stand up for what is right. It is standing up
for an ancient aboriginal legal order that has never been extinguished.”
Just as the US and Canada and any other sovereign nation has the
right to enter into legally binding treaties, so do First Nations. When a
treaty such as the one between the Sioux and the American government is
broken by one of the parties bound by it, Lane said a third legal party
is required to resolve the situation. Because the governments of the
United States and Canada are handling the administration of the treaties
they themselves have broken, Lane said it’s impossible to expect
justice from them.
What direct action resistance against Keystone looks like will ultimately be up to the Obama administration.
“What’s going to happen if he chooses to give in to the oil companies
and their allies is he’s going to empower the rising of indigenous
people everywhere on Mother Earth,” he said. “This will be another final
violation people aren’t ready to take.”
Ottawa-based Idle No More organizer Clayton Thomas-Muller added that
it’s crucial to remember that opposition to Keystone XL was initiated
and pushed forward by indigenous people. And what’s more, that much of
the progress made has been thanks to the indigenous peoples who have
demanded recognition of their rights, namely consultation.
In December of 2011 at the annual White House Tribal Leaders Summit,
indigenous leaders, including former president of the Rosebud Sioux
nation Rodney Bordeaux, presented President Obama with Mother Earth
Accord, a document stating indigenous opposition to Keystone XL. The
document was endorsed by numerous nations from both sides of the border,
NGOs, landowners and the NDP party. Thomas-Muller said it’s the only
such document that was delivered into Obama’s hands directly.
“It was only through native rights-based framework being used by
indigenous organizations and networks that provide that unparalleled
access to the state department and White House,” he said.
He traveled to New York City on Monday night to speak at one of more
than 300 actions across 44 states this week. He read a statement written
by Debra White Plume and spoke on behalf of Idle No More in Canada.
So many people have been preparing for this moment, he said, and are now coming together for a final push.
“Moving forward, we have a very short timeline. Within the next
couple of months we will see a variety of very direct messages like the
one we heard from Bryan Brewer of Oglala Sioux nation.”
http://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/2014/02/07/oglala-sioux-vow-to-stop-keystone-xl-on-the-ground-if-obama-wont-say-no/
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