In a prelude to their Reject and Protect Gathering scheduled on the Washington Mall April 26, participants in the Cowboy and Indian Alliance recently joined forces at the Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s Shield the People spirit camp near Mission, South Dakota, to protest the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline route through ancestral territory. Photo courtesy/Matt Sloan for Bold Nebraska
Looking Horse calls Earth Day prayer ceremony to counter pipeline
By Talli Nauman
Native Sun News
Health & Environment Editor GREEN GRASS — Arvol Looking Horse, 19th generation keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe Bundle of the Oceti Sakowin, targeted the proposed Keystone XL tar-sands crude-oil pipeline in a statement to commemorate Earth Day April 22. In the written statement entitled “U-Wi-Ta: Coming Together,” Looking Horse declared, “The Keystone XL Pipeline and the dirty oil that it transports creates an urgent threat to our collective future and poses the greatest immediate risk of contaminating our sacred waters, land, air, our communities and our way of life as the People of the Earth.” Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. has built the southern portion of the pipeline to slurry tar-sands to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast for export overseas. The remaining proposed 1,179 miles of 36-inch-diameter underground pipe would run from the tar-sands pits in Alberta through Lakota Territory in Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska. Looking Horse invited the public to a prayer gathering April 23-26, opening with a fire-lighting ceremony at Green Grass, South Dakota, on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. “We are inviting all nations to the home of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe Bundle to pray with the sacred fire and one another,” he said in the message signed jointly with Bobby C. Billie, spiritual and clan leader of the Council of the Original Miccosukee Simanolee Nation Aboriginal Peoples. “There will be a Sacred Horse Ride on the 25th: With the help of the Horse Nation, we will carry our prayers to the sacred fire. We are asking all nations to pray at their sacred sites as well, if you cannot attend,” the statement said. The U.S. State Department charged with deciding whether to recommend a Presidential Permit for the heated and diluted bitumen (dilbit) pipeline to cross into the United States, announced April 18 that it will delay the decision indefinitely. A decision had been expected this spring, but State said, eight agencies need more time to submit comments on whether the proposal is in the national interest. The department also cited a Nebraska State Supreme Court case pending over the portion of the pipeline in the area of the Ogallala Aquifer. “Agencies need additional time based on the uncertainty created by the on-going litigation in the Nebraska Supreme Court, which could ultimately affect the pipeline route in that state,” the State Department’s Office of the Spokesperson said in a news release. The pipeline would not only cross the Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies 30 percent of the nation’s freshwater, but also major river basins, including the Missouri, and the Mni Wiconi Rural Water System, which supplies the drinking water for several South Dakota Indian reservation communities. The final supplemental environmental impact statement for the project notes that "exact locations for the Mni Wiconi pipeline are not available.” The U.S Bureau of Reclamation would be responsible for submitting that information in the decision-making process. Public comments are also under consideration. “We will review and appropriately consider the unprecedented number of new public comments, approximately 2.5 million, received during the public comment period that closed on March 7,” the State Department said. It has no deadline for a decision. “The permit process will conclude once factors that have a significant impact on determining the national interest of the proposed project have been evaluated and appropriately reflected in the decision documents,” it said. TransCanada President and CEO Russ Girling said he and his colleagues are “extremely disappointed and frustrated” with the delay. “Our view remains that the current 90-day National Interest Determination process that is now underway should not be impacted by the Nebraska lower court ruling since the approved re-route remains valid during appeal,” he said. “The Nebraska routing situation is being managed appropriately,” he argued. “Another delay is inexplicable,” he added. “The first leg of our Keystone pipeline began shipping oil to refineries outside of St. Louis in 2010. It is about the same length of pipe as Keystone XL, carries the same oil and also crosses the 49th parallel. It took just 21 months to study and approve. After more than 2,000 days, five exhaustive environmental reviews and over 17,000 pages of scientific data, Keystone XL continues to languish.” The first leg, known as Keystone I, which runs from Alberta through eastern North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska, spilled 14 times in its first 12 months of operation. “This is the Cheyenne River homeland of the four Lakota bands, where they keep the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe, so if the federal government and the corporations think they’re gonna come in here with the KXL Pipeline as promised by TransCanada, I think they kind of have something wrong with their minds,” non-profit Owe Aku (Bring Back the Way) founder Debra White Plume said a recent Moccasins on the Ground activist training session for Bridger and Takini area residents of South Dakota. The Cowboy and Indian Alliance planned a national action against the pipeline for Washington. D.C., expecting thousands of people to join them in taking a stand at the Reject and Protect Gathering on the National Mall April 26. Pipeline plans encounter tipis, tips, prayers
Alliance participants recently met at the Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s Shield the People spirit camp near Mission, South Dakota, as a prelude to the national action. Businesses on the Rosebud Indian Reservation have posted signs stating “Rosebud Casino, Quality Inn, and Plaza 83 have been directed by Tribal President Cyril Scott and the governing body of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe to prohibit the purchase of fuel utilized in transporting any material affiliated with the construction of the TransCanada XL Pipeline.” White Plume scheduled Looking Horse to join in another Moccasins On the Ground activist training at Red Shirt on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation April 25-27. “We, the original caretakers of Mother Earth, have no choice but to follow and uphold the original instructions, which sustains the continuity of life,” Looking Horse said in his Earth Day Statement. “We recognize our umbilical connection to Mother Earth and understand that she is the source of Life, not a resource to be exploited. We speak on behalf of all Creation today, to communicate an urgent message that man has gone too far, placing us in the state of survival. In time, we will reconcile our differences, but for now we must come together for Mother Earth. “We, the people of the Earth, were instructed that the original wisdom must be shared again when imbalance and disharmony are upon Mother Earth. In 1994, the birth of a white buffalo calf revealed Pte San Win’s (White Buffalo Calf Woman’s) prophecy: ‘When a white buffalo calf stands upon the Earth it will be the sign of great changes to come.’ “This prophecy was given to the Pte Oyate, the Buffalo People (Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota dialects), to bring forth the sacred message that the winds of change are here. On behalf of our future generations, we urge all nations and human beings around the world to come together with good minds and prayer as a global community of all faiths to unite spiritually to heal the minds of those that are bringing danger with their decisions. “In the Sacred Hoop of Life, where there is no ending and no beginning… Ana-h’opta po. Hear my words!” (Contact Talli Nauman NSN Health and Environment Editor at talli.nauman@gmail.com) Copyright permission Native Sun News
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