However, maps now reveal that the pipeline will cross tribal lands and water suppliesso the pipeline and the president MUST comply with tribal laws and treaties. The Natural Resources Defense Council works to safeguard the earth - its people, TransCanada ignores the threat that this influx of people creates during the COVID-19 pandemic. The following are quotes from the project partners: One such protest, a historic act of civil disobedience outside the White House in August 2011, resulted in the arrest of more than 1,200 demonstrators. The construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline would strengthen the United States economy, provide energy security and have minimal environmental impact. An influx of itinerant workers, like those required for pipeline man-camps, correlates with increased sexual assaults, domestic violence, and sexual trafficking. In the face of the rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic, the Ft. Belknap Indian Community and Rosebud Sioux Tribe asked the court to grant a temporary restraining order on pipeline construction. This is not a pipeline to America, said the late civil rights activist Julian Bond, among the many arrested. Natural Resources Defense Council 2023 Privacy Policy November: TransCanada says the costs of Keystone XL have grown to US$8 billion from US$5.4 billion. This dirty, dangerous oil, which is almost impossible to clean and affects the health of people, is bad news for our countryand the planet. We are ensuring that TC Energy (TransCanada) follows and respects our law. For tribal lands, the treaties absolutely require this sort of review. Any new pipeline will leak, it is just a question of when. Nevertheless, in the mid-2000s, with gas prices on the rise, oil companies ramped up production and sought additional ways to move their product from Canadas remote tar sands fields to midwestern and Gulf Coast refineries. Paramount Network just released a new mini-documentary entitled Take Action: Protect Our Land. The documentary explores the potential impact of the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline on our client, the Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana. Some people, seeing a map of the pipeline's proposed 875-mile route through the Great Plains, may picture the region in the terms of 19th-century explorers who called it the "great American desert . However, despite youth and elderly leaders being in the front during the inevitable standoffs with police, Mace, tasers, and rubber bullets were used against the protestors. NARF will help the Tribe make sure it has considered all of its options for ensuring the safety of the Tribes citizens, territory, and resources., This is their land, their water, said NARF Staff Attorney Natalie Landreth. When industry-friendly politicians took charge of both congressional houses in January 2015, their first order of business was to pass a bill to speed up approval of Keystone XL. TransCanada must comply with Rosebud law. To that end, the government must examine the potential impact of pipeline construction and man-camps on Native people, especially women and children. Workers had to excavate sections of the affected pipeline to find and repair the leak. In an unprecedented action, President Trump has attempted to circumvent the law by issuing TransCanada yet another presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. On March 23, 2017, the U.S. Department of State granted TransCanadas permit application and issued it a presidential permit to construct and operate the Keystone XL Pipeline. According to NARF Staff Attorney Natalie Landreth, What we have seen in these recent filings is that TransCanadas Keystone XL pipeline route crosses Rosebud-controlled lands. June: Phase 1 of the Keystone Pipeline goes online. Those leaks will be undetected unless/until they are huge. In fact, the treaties were created specifically for this sort of violation. View detailed information and reviews for 5855 Green Valley Cir in Culver City, CA and get driving directions with road conditions and live traffic updates along the way. The 2019 supplemental environmental impact statement has numerous issues and shortcomings. Many indigenous populations have fought for over a decade to defend their water and land rights against fossil fuel companies. The pipeline path skirts federal tribal land boundaries in South Dakota, Baker said, yet will still cut "almost through the heart" of a large protion of the land set aside for exclusive use by tribal nations, as recognized by the 1851 and 1868 Laramie Treaties.The pipe would cross native spiritual sites, burial grounds, hunting lands and sources of drinking water, including the Mni Wiconi . The most recent leak, large enough to partially fill a swimming pool, was not big enough to trigger the leak detection system. How a single pipeline project became the epicenter of an enormous environmental, public health, and civil rights battle. When TC Energy said the pipeline would create nearly 119,000 jobs, a State Department report instead concluded the project would require fewer than 2,000 two-year construction jobs and that the number of full-time, permanent jobs would hover around 35 after construction. TC Energy has indicated it will be looking at a very ambitious 2020 construction season to make up for the lost time, as well. NARF Staff Attorney Natalie Landreth praised the decision, The courts decision means that ALL of the tribes claims on the current permits will proceed. The pipeline, which had severe environmental and human rights implications, has been on a long road towards failure. The government failed to even evaluate an alternate route to avoids tribal treaty lands. We will In his recent proclamation, Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives Awareness Day, 2019, President Trump declared it imperative to end the violence that disproportionately affects American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Later, fossil fuel companies funnelled millions into Trumps 2017 inauguration ceremony, days after which he brought the Keystone XL project back from the dead, and ramped up federal lobbying efforts in the first months of his administration. Despite a court order to reassess the Dakota Access Pipelines environmental impact, the agency wont share the results of its new study. When the Tribes negotiated their treaties, they gave millions of acres of land to the United Statesincluding, ironically, the land on which the courthouse now stands. Additionally, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe operates its own water delivery system, which is part of the Mni Wiconi Rural Water Supply Project. Regardless of the new permit and political maneuvering, the President is required to honor the treaties and the Constitution. President Trump did not like these decisions. Anchorage, AK (907) 276-0680 The notorious tar sands pipeline was a lightning rod in the fight against climate change and the seemingly unstoppable oil industry. The Native American Rights Fund and our clients will continue to fight to ensure our treaties are upheld and that the health and welfare of our people is protected. amended complaint in what will now be known as, an amended complaint against TransCanada and President Trump. You'll receive your first NRDC action alert and September: TransCanada and ConocoPhillips file an application for the Keystone XL Phase 4 extension. In return, they asked that the United States protect their lands from trespass and their resources from destruction. In the United States, there live over 5.2 million indigenous peoples and among them, 573 federally recognized tribes, numerous unrecognized nations, and many communities scattered across the North American continent, displaced by a long history of western oppression and forced assimilation. Though she lives on the Yankton Sioux Reservation of South Dakota, Spotted . With the original permit revoked, the Ninth Circuit yesterday decided to dismiss as moot the case based on that original permit. See the related statement from Rosebud Sioux Tribe President Bordeaux. Complicating matters, leaks can be difficult to detect. Because of the highly corrosive and acidic nature of the tar sands oil, there contains a higher likelihood that the pipeline will leak. Today, the United States District Court for the District of Montana, Great Falls Division, heard arguments in Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. Trump. Its mines are a blight on Canadas boreal, where mining operations dig up and flatten forests to access the oil below, destroying wildlife habitat and one of the worlds largest carbon sinks. When the Obama administration refused to grant the cross-border permit necessary to build TC Energys Keystone XL oil pipeline in November 2015, it struck a blow against polluting powers and acknowledged the consensus on this misguided project from a wide swath of communities, experts, and organizations. In granting the right-of-way, the BLM failed to analyze and uphold the United States treaty obligations to protect the Tribes lands and natural resources. August-September: Keystone XL protesters organize two weeks of civil disobedience at the White House. update email soon. And these exports are more than 10 times the capacity of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Keystone XL would have crossed agriculturally important and environmentally sensitive areas, including hundreds of rivers, streams, aquifers, and water bodies. The biggest concern with the Keystone XL Pipeline would be a spill in an environmentally sensitive area, such as the . This story was originally published on April 7, 2017, and has been updated with new information and links. The revoked permit became the final nail in the pipelines coffin. The company behind the controversial Keystone XL project that President Joe Biden effectively killed on his first day of office had an oil spill record "worse than the national average" over a. Browse our map catalog downloadable PDFs and our interactive maps. This interactive tool is a powerful visual for Indigenous communities and our allies along the KXL route. It celebrated its 40th Anniversary last year, and, even after all this time, is still facing controversy. However, for the Tribes, the KXL fight is just beginning. It was expected to transport 830,000 barrels of Alberta tar sands oil per day to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas. It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Alberta to refineries in Illinois and Texas, and also to oil tank farms and an oil pipeline distribution center in Cushing, Oklahoma. The State Department provided no explanation in the 2017 decision for its contradictory factual finding; instead, it simply disregarded its previous factual findings and replaced them with a new one. 36-inch diameter pipeline Capacity of 830,000 barrels per day MYTH: Since the route permit was first certified in 2010, there is less need for Keystone XL in South Dakota. In addition to extensive violations of law outlined in the original complaint, the new complaint raises the following issues: Maps released by TransCanada show the pipeline corridor and access roads crossing Rosebud territory, some of which is held in trust, as well as Rosebuds Mni Wiconi Water system. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe and Fort Belknap Indian Community successfully stood strong for years to protect their people, water, and sacred lands from the threat of the Keystone XL Pipeline. The activities described in the projects Environmental Impact Statement, namely rock ripping, blasting, trenching, top soil removal, and replacement of removed materials as backfill would adversely affect Rosebuds mineral estate.