(MintPress)— “America is built on stolen land and was built with stolen hands. XL Pipeline equipment, anything that has to do with the destruction of Unci Maka (Mother Earth), we don’t want any part of it. They need to stay out of our territory,” Lakota activist Olowan Martinez said, after Native American activists were arrested in South Dakota earlier this week.
The protesters were peacefully demonstrating on the Pine Ridge Indian land against the hauling of materials to the Keystone XL pipeline.
Members of the Oglala Lakota tribe stand in opposition to the proposed plans for the pipeline, arguing that its construction could compromise their water supply in two locations, cause environmental damage to the Earth and poison their people for the sake of profit. A leading scholar of Lakota Studies, Professor Karen Lone Hill, says part of the problem is that those seeking to create the pipeline don’t understand the connection between indigenous spiritual values and the environment.
“We are taught that what is on the earth is a mirror of what is in the sky,” she said in an interview with MintPress, “we are out of balance. What we take from the earth, we have to give back.”
After a six-hour standoff on Monday in which about 75 people temporarily blocked trucks from moving equipment thought to be destined for the Keystone XL Pipeline, at least 5 protesters were arrested, according to Raw Story.
Mother Earth Accord
Both the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council and the Oglala Sioux Tribe, have passed legislation against the Keystone XL oil pipeline and have adopted the Mother Earth Accord.
The Mother Earth Accord, presented to President Obama late last year, is a document which details the impacts of tar sands mining, pipeline leaks and carbon emissions. In presenting the document to the President, tribal leaders from across the continent met for their third summit in Washington to discuss their fight against the Keystone Pipeline. It calls for a moratorium on tar sands development and asks the US and Canada to reduce their reliance on oil, including tar sands, and invest in the research and development of cleaner, safer forms of sustainable energy including biofuels, solar and wind energy.
It has been noted that the pipeline and the process of approving it have violated treaties, according to a story in the Huffington Post.
Keystone Controversy
Keystone XL has faced lawsuits from oil refineries and sharp criticism from environmentalists as well as members of Congress.
The U.S. Department of State in 2010 extended the deadline for federal agencies to decide if the pipeline is in the national interest.
In November, 2011, President Obama postponed the decision until 2013, and the White House has said it believes the pipeline would have devastating effects on the water source for eight states.
However, TransCanada, the Canadian company involved, plans to begin construction later this year on an alternate route that they believe will be approved by US officials.
Martinez said on Monday, “You got white racists, white men driving these trucks, probably armed and scared of any Indians. When the white man sees us and their fear overcomes them, they just don’t see one, they see ten, they see a hundred of us. I’m sure they will have more armed guards. We’ll see, though. We’re keeping our eyes out for them now and it’s not just this territory doing this anymore either.”
Martinez said that sister tribes were also working to get restraining orders against future transports.
Arrested Activist Speaks Out
Debra White Plume, who was arrested along with at least four others, authored a blog on Censored News where she described the event, writing “were all arrested by the tribal police. We were all handcuffed and charged with disorderly conduct, as the police said there were no other charges to bring against us. We were taken to Kyle jail. We stood our ground for our land, our treaty rights, our human rights to clean drinking water and our coming generations.”
White Plume also stated that Oglala Sioux Tribal Vice President Tom Poor Bear was at the protest, and he verified that state government officials in Pierre had authorized the trucks to drive across Indian lands.
The state of South Dakota has an agreement in place with Canadian officials to route trucks through Pine Ridge Reservation in order to save money. Chase Iron Eyes, a writer for the Last Real Indians website was quoted by the Russian Times as saying, “One of the drivers responded that they did not know they were crossing Indian land, only that they were following company directives regarding their assigned routes.”
Pine Ridge’s Place in American History
Historically, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation has been the site of several events that marked tragic milestones in the history between the Sioux of the area and the US government .
Stronghold Table — a mesa in what is today the Oglala-administered portion of Badlands National Park — was the location of the last of the Ghost Dances, a Native American spiritual ritual and social protest movement which was outlawed by the US Government in the late nineteenth century.
The U.S. authorities’ attempt to repress this movement eventually led to the Wounded Knee Massacre on December 29, 1890, in which at least 150 men, women, and children of the Lakota Sioux were killed, and many other wounded. Many of them were unarmed.
This was the last large violent engagement between U.S. forces and Native Americans.
Native Scholar Speaks out on Exploitation and Education
Professor Karen Lone Hill, Chair of the Lakota Studies Department at Oglala Lakota College in Kyle, South Dakota says she was not surprised about the arrests. “They (law enforcement) have been known to arrest people, even on the reservation,” she commented.
Lone Hill, a Lakota woman who has taught at the college, one of the first tribally controlled colleges in the United States, for almost 30 years, agrees with the protesters in believing the pipeline will cause irreversible damage to the environment.
“Lakota people are connected to the land and universe,” Lone Hill points out, “We don’t just see it as the environment, to us it is sacred. The land, the water, the sky, even people. Everything is sacred.”
Lone Hill says the pipeline exploits the environment, and to those seeking to exploit the environment, she says: “We come from two very different cultures. The other culture needs to be educated.”