The federal government violated the 1851 Treaty of Ft Laramie and 1855 Lame Bull Treaty, in which the US committed to protect against future harm to the tribes natural resources. Our water sources are threatened by the dirty tar sand crude, our ancestral homelands are in the direct path of the pipeline, and our people already are suffering the effects of nearby construction worker man camps. State Disclosures. The Tribes filed this amended complaint (1) to stop the President from trying to circumvent the court and (2) to add claims against TC Energy Corp. (formerly TransCanada Corp.) because maps now show the pipeline corridor crossing tribal territory and water supplies. Revoking the Trump administrations illegal permit is a necessary first step towards fixing this situation, Fort Belknap Indian Community President Andrew Werk Jr. explained. March: The Trump White House exempts the Keystone Pipeline from the requirement to use U.S. steel. 6210 Bristol Pkwy. They were bargained for with the blood of our ancestors. Its a threat to our climate, our drinking water, and our safety. President Bidens executive order was a landmark achievement and a sigh of relief for indigenous and environmental activists alike. Today, the Presidents of Rosebud Sioux Tribe and Fort Belknap Indian Community were in federal court to invoke their sacred inheritance from these treatiesbecause the KXL pipeline is exactly the kind of depredation the Tribes sought to prevent, NARF Staff Attorney Natalie Landreth explained after the hearings. We will The Tribes are entitled to protect the health and welfare of their people and territory and to ensure that their treaties are upheld. Rosebud Sioux Tribe President Rodney M. Bordeaux spoke to the KXL issue, In approving the Keystone XL pipeline, the federal government repeatedly ignored treaty rights, tribal sovereignty, and widespread opposition to push forward the interests of a foreign oil and gas company. 840 miles (1,351 km) in the United States (Phillips County, Mont. In 2017, the US State Department released a study which proved that carbon emissions could be between 5 and 20 percent higher than the original 17 percent estimation. 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. Recent governmental reports contain new data about climate change, which necessitates new analysis. The one filed by Rosebud Sioux last week cites the fact that the Trump Administration has not undertaken any analysis of: trust obligations, the potential impact on tribal hunting and fishing rights, the potential impacts on the Rosebud Sioux Tribes unique water system, the potential impact of spills on tribal citizens, or the potential impact on cultural sites in the path of the pipeline. Although, TransCanada, now known as TC Energy, has said that it has lost the 2019 construction season for the KXL pipeline, the company has asked the courts to lift the current injunction so that they can immediately begin to build their man-camps and pipe-yards. With this construction, workers will descend on the communities along the pipelines proposed path. President Trump tried to go around the courts, the laws, and the will of the American people, in order to put a foreign-owned pipeline on tribal lands, said NARF Staff Attorney Natalie Landreth. Additionally, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe operates its own water delivery system, which is part of the Mni Wiconi Rural Water Supply Project. At the hearings, the US government argued that the treaties that the United States signed with tribal nations are not relevant to the Keystone pipeline. The market case had also deteriorated. 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. A study set between the years 2007 and 2010 found that pipelines carrying tar sands oil spilled three times more per mile than pipelines carrying conventional crude oil. Nebraska appeals. US President Joe Biden has cancelled permits for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office. 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 US did not adequately review the pipelines proposed route and whether it crosses tribal territory. January: Obama rejects the Keystone Pipeline, saying the December bill did not allow enough time to review the new route. This pipeline transports 470,000 barrels of crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois, over 1,172 miles. Good Luck Persuading These Nebraskans, The Dirty Fight Over Canadian Tar Sands Oil, 10 Threats from the Canadian Tar Sands Industry, The Dakota Access Pipeline Fight Fuels Battles Across the Country, Still No Approved Route for KXL in Nebraska, Meet Jane Kleeb: One of Nebraskas First and Fiercest KXL Opponents, Why We Must Stop the Flow of Tar Sands Oil, Win! The Keystone XL pipeline, briefly explained The Keystone XL pipeline became an almost perfect example of the various stakeholders Native communities, climate activists, scientists,. The courts intervention is needed to protect the Tribes precious lands, water, natural, and cultural resources. Obama says TransCanada is free to submit another application. The United States must answer to the Tribes for violations of the treaties and be instructed to honor them. Opposition outside the courts was swift and strong as well. The 2019 supplemental environmental impact statement has numerous issues and shortcomings. 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. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe will take any and all necessary steps, up to and including litigation, to protect our people, our land and water, and our cultural and historic resources., As we have seen, spills from such projects can be catastrophic, said NARF Staff Attorney Matt Campbell. November: TransCanada says the costs of Keystone XL have grown to US$8 billion from US$5.4 billion. The Dakota Access Pipeline The controversial construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) gained national and international attention when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers accepted an application filed by Energy Transfer Partners, a Texas-based developer behind the project. But, the President must comply with the Treaties, and TC Energy must comply with Rosebud law. June: TransCanada announces it will buy ConocoPhillips stake in Keystone. Five years ago, a pipeline spilled a million gallons of tar sands crude into a Michigan riverand were still cleaning it up. Tar sands oil is thicker, more acidic, and more corrosive than lighter conventional crude, and this ups the likelihood that a pipeline carrying it will leak. TransCanada's plan to dig a trench and bury part of its $7 billion, 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline right through this land has unearthed a host of Native American opposition, resentments and . February: A Nebraska judge rules that the law that allowed the governor to approve Keystone XL over the objections of landowners was unconstitutional. The online map can be found here: https://climatealliancemap.org/kxl-map May: TransCanada files a new application with the State Department for the northern part of Keystone XL. But activists say the water protector strategy has proven effective with the cancelation of the Keystone XL pipeline. The first, a southern leg, had already been completed and now runs between Cushing, Oklahoma,. Many indigenous populations have fought for over a decade to defend their water and land rights against fossil fuel companies. Some of the current concerns are rooted in our responsibility to take care of Unci Maka, which is grandmother earth. When that failedthanks to a lawsuit brought by NRDC and other groupsTrump reissued the cross-border permit himself. Until 2016,Canadaofficially objected to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. These sands contain bitumen, a gooey type of petroleum that can be converted into fuel. Leading climate scientist and former NASA researcher James Hansen has warned that fully exploiting Canadas tar sands reserves by moving forward with these projects would mean game over for our climate. UAB also encourages applications from individuals with disabilities and veterans. Indigenous leaders are encouraging him to go even further and cancel more controversial fossil fuel projects, such as the Dakota Access pipeline. As of 2019, the estimated population was 39,185. In addition, the possibility of damaging community water supplies, valuable agricultural lands, and wildlife habitats is not a cost our clients are willing to bear on behalf of a foreign extractive company propping up a dying energy industry. The District Court blocked pipeline construction until the government and TC Energy met those legal requirements. The federal government argues that the treaties dont matter. August-September: Keystone XL protesters organize two weeks of civil disobedience at the White House. Today, as in the past, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the Fort Belknap Indian Community drink the water that comes from the rivers and the ground sources to provide for their communities. The protests were primarily peaceful, with camps and prayer circles set up on the land where construction was to take place. The city was named after its founder, Harry Culver. The injunction blocking KXL construction has now been lifted. See our original complaint filed. 6210 Bristol Pkwy Culver City CA 90230-6924. We invite anyone interested in providing testimony to attend. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. August: The State Department releases its final environmental assessment that the pipeline would have a limited environmental impact. 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. Among other things, the complaint describes: NARF Staff Attorney Matthew Campbell explained, Before we allow a foreign company to build another pipeline to haul dirty tar sands across any American soil, we should be taking a hard look at the possible impact on American land, water, health, and safety. Many had hoped that the disastrous project was finally done for in November 2015, when the Obama administration vetoed the pipelineacknowledging its pervasive threats to climate, ecosystems, drinking water sources, and public health. 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. For companies considering whether to invest in a long-lived tar sands project (which could last for 50 years), access to cheap pipeline capacity plays a major role in the decision to move forward or not. On Thursday, April 16, NARF attorneys appeared before Judge Brian Morris of the United States District Court of Montana for oral arguments in Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. Trump. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe (Sicangu Lakota Oyate) and the Fort Belknap Indian Community (Assiniboine (Nakoda) and Gros Ventre (Aaniiih) Tribes) along with their counsel, the Native American Rights Fund, applaud the Biden administrations action to revoke the illegally issued KXL permit. But Keystone XL . In return, they asked that the United States protect their lands from trespass and their resources from destruction. The pipeline continually threatens the sanctity of indigenous sacred lands and the purity and safety of the local water supply. If the Keystone XL pipeline is built, about 830,000 barrels of heavy crude oil per day will flow from Alberta, Canada, to the refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast, which are built to handle. Goldtooth called Bidens decision a vindication of the hard work and struggle many indigenous communities have put forth in protest of the pipeline. And TC Energy still must abide by federal and tribal law. "The Keystone XL Pipeline is an environmental crime in progress." "It's also been called the most destructive project on the planet." The major issues with the Keystone XL Pipeline are "the dirty tar sands oil, the water waste, indigenous populations, refining tar sands oil and don't forget the inevitable; pipeline spills." Indeed, one study found that between 2007 and 2010, pipelines moving tar sands oil in Midwestern states spilled three times more per mile than the U.S. national average for pipelines carrying conventional crude. Like that of the United States, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe also has laws that require us to ensure that any company seeking to build a pipeline in our territory must obtain our consent. The Native American Rights Fund is prepared to fight to ensure those treaties are honored and the water is protected.. The briefest look at American and Canadian history clearly shows that the pipeline situations are most certainly not the first instance of the government refusing to respect the lands, waters, and even peoples of indigenous groups. (Indeed, Keystone XL was viewed as an essential ingredient in the oil industrys plans to triple tar sands production by 2030. The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, commissioned in 2010 and owned by TC EnergyAs of March 2020, the Government of Alberta. This is not a pipeline to America, said the late civil rights activist Julian Bond, among the many arrested. March: Canadas National Energy Board approves the Canadian section of the Keystone XL. 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. The pipeline would have stretched 1,179 . 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. So this is a complete win for the tribes on the motions to dismiss. Once they are gone and depleted, they are gone. What is missing is an appreciation of the long-term effects of an oil pipeline going through our sacred land. Opposition to Keystone XL centered on the devastating environmental consequences of the project. The projects corporate backerthe Canadian energy infrastructure company TC Energyofficially abandoned the project in June 2021 following President Joe Bidens denial of a key permit on his first day in office. People and wildlife coming into contact with tar sands oil are exposed to toxic chemicals, and rivers and wetland environments are at particular risk from a spill. While the tar sands industry was once seen as an unbeatable opponent in a David-and-Goliath fight, the victory against Keystone XL shows that the tables have begun to turnand that more power now lies with the advocates for climate justice than ever before. Therefore, on Monday March 2, 2020, the Fort Belknap Indian Community and Rosebud Sioux Tribe filed a motion for preliminary injunction and asked the court to not allow TransCanada to begin construction of the pipeline while the case is under review. On his fourth day in office, Trump signed an executive order to allow Keystone XL to move forward. Bulldozers were seen this week grading the land in Tripp County, South Dakota, adjacent to Rosebud lands. April: The State Department suspends the regulatory process indefinitely, citing uncertainty about the court case in Nebraska. The authority to permit the pipeline falls within Congresss exclusive and plenary power to regulate foreign commerce. On Friday, December 20, 2019, NARF and their clients, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the Fort Belknap Indian Community (the Tribes) received some great news from a Montana court. Obviously, that is not the case. As such, they are protected by treaties as well as tribal and federal laws. Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this blog post are the authors only and do not necessarily reflect the official position of UAB or the Institute for Human Rights. NARF and our clients are confident in our claims against the construction of the pipeline, and we are optimistic the court will not allow this case to be dismissed. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initially stated that, on a wells-to-wheels basis, tar sands oil emits 17 percent more carbon than other types of crude, but several years later, the State Department revised this number upward, stating that the emissions could be 5 percent to 20 percent higher than previously indicated. That means burdening the planet with an extra 178.3 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, the same impact as 38.5 million passenger vehicles or 45.8 coal-fired power plants.
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