Opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline enjoyed a temporary victory today when, by a narrow margin, the US Senate failed to override President Obama’s decision to deny TransCanada’s permit to build the huge pipeline across our country Still, TransCanada’s huge trucks rumble across out nation, tearing up our roads as they head for Oklahoma and Texas, where they will destroy dozens of archeological sites and historical structures.
Last night Oglala Sioux were joined by Occupy Boston in a candlelight vigil opposing the Keystone XL pipeline at the Canadian Embassy in Boston.
In the meantime, 92-year-old respected Lakota elder Gracie Randall continues to stand as an example of an honorable warrior in the fight against greed, while TransCanada continues to bring its gigantic and ominous monster trucks across Indian Country.
Another Lakota grandmother, Debra White Plume, was arrested along with four other Lakota tribal members for trying to block a Keystone truck from coming on tribal lands this week.
David Duenas stated:
“Through NAGPRA (the Native American Graves Repatriation Act)
an injunction should be ordered as it is currently illegal to knowingly desecrate any type of grave. If ran into during construction activities the law says to cease and desist. A state archeologicalist must be called in to monitor the site.”
In the meantime, Native Americans, environmentalists and members of the Occupy movement focus their attention on Oklahoma and Texas. It is believed that we have only a few weeks to take a variety of necessary actions to stop the destruction of our archeological sites, historical structures and ancestors’ graves, as well as the pollution of our land and water.
There is a huge amount of ground work that needs to be done. If a thousand of us go out and get arrested, it won’t even phase TransCanada. We are the ones who will have to pay the fines. We need people to drive and walk the route, looking for Indian graveyards. There are federal laws protecting all Indian graves. We need a lawsuit demanding an archeological study of the 29 changes to the route which were made in Oklahoma, and I don’t know how many in Texas. We need legal support for all the landowners who are holding out, refusing to risk their water and soil so TransCanada can make a profit. We need 93 lawsuits, asking for restraining orders regarding all the archeological sites and historical structures they are planning to destroy. And that is in Oklahoma alone. We need artists to draw and paint and sculpt about this. We need song writers to write songs about it. We need film makers to quickly create short clips. We need poets to write poems. We need someone to do fundraising so we can have a world class art contest. We need people to walk the already existing Keystone pipeline to discover leaks they haven’t discovered or failed to report. We need thousands of people on the ground and on their computers, fighting this on every level.
If you want to help fight the Keystone XL pipeline, contact Fannie Bates at fannie_bates@yahoo.com.
See the candellight vigil here:
http://bluemassgroup.com/2012/03/today-a-candle-lit-circle-stood-in-solidarity-with-the-oglala-sioux-of-wanble-against-keystone-tar-sands-pipeline/