February: TransCanada Corporation proposes the Keystone Pipeline project. Jessica Ravitz, CNN. 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. 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. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe has retained the NARF to represent its interests with regard to the Keystone XL pipeline. Obama says TransCanada is free to submit another application. We invite anyone interested in providing testimony to attend. The construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline would strengthen the United States economy, provide energy security and have minimal environmental impact. Obviously, that is not the case. Only until November 18, 2019, you can comment on the KXL Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS). 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. On the same day the Trump Administration announced that up to 240,000 people may succumb to the COVID-19 virus, TransCanada announced it is proceeding with KXL pipeline construction. The tribes filed a response to TransCanadas motion for summary judgment and a memorandum in support of their own motion for partial summary judgment. When they entered into treaties with the United States, the tribal nations meant to protect their natural resources (water, grasslands, and game) and keep people from crossing their lands. Meet some of the people who are striving to stop TransCanadas dirty tar sands oil pipeline once and for all. 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. The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes. The goal was to transport 830,000 barrels of crude, tar sand oil to refineries on the American Gulf Coast each day. This lines up with an industry trend: Oil and gas companies are exporting 8.4 million barrels of crude oil and refined fuels every single day. 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. The District Court blocked pipeline construction until the government and TC Energy met those legal requirements. 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. For tribal lands, the treaties absolutely require this sort of review. Many indigenous populations have fought for over a decade to defend their water and land rights against fossil fuel companies. The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user. In short, tar sands oil represents no small threat to our environment, and our best stance against it, as the rallying cry goes, is to keep it in the ground.. A study published in early 2020, co-authored by TC Energys own scientists, found that the anti-corrosion coating on the projects pipes was damaged from being stored outside and exposed to the elements for the last decade, notes NRDC senior attorney Jaclyn Prange, who spent years working on KXL litigation. The goal was to transport 830,000 barrels of crude, tar sand oil to refineries on the American Gulf Coast each day. In 2015, the Obama administration vetoed the pipeline due to its potential threats to the climate, drinking water, public health, and ecosystems of the local communities. The federal government has a treaty obligation to protect tribal citizens likely to suffer increased rates of violence and abuse. We are joined in a fight against an invisible enemy that we now know is highly contagious before its hosts even show symptoms, said President Bordeaux of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Based on these extraordinary circumstances, we ask that TransCanada halt any construction during this pandemic.. The Keystone XL pipeline was proposed by the energy infrastructure company TC Energy. 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. Since 2015, CAMP has worked with Indigenous and environmental organizations to build interactive maps that tell stories about climate justice across the Americas. By that point, Keystone XL faced an unfriendly administration, numerous legal challenges, declining oil prices, worsening climate impacts, and a growing movement of climate organizersalong the pipelines route and around the worldunwilling to look the other way. It was proposed to be an extension of the existing Keystone Pipeline System, which has been in operation since 2010. Workers had to excavate sections of the affected pipeline to find and repair the leak. The proposed Keystone XL (KXL) Pipeline would cross Nebraska, Montana, and South Dakota, including tribal lands. In their permit application, TransCanada agreed to abide by tribal laws and regulation, which they have failed to do. Police arrest approximately one thousand people. In fact, the treaties were created specifically for this sort of violation. In creating this version of the map, we were grateful to build on the substantial efforts of the Keystone Mapping Project to determine an accurate pipeline route. We look forward to holding the Trump Administration and TransCanada accountable to the Tribes and the applicable laws that must be followed., NARF Staff Attorney Matthew Campbell also reacted to the news, Of course, the treaties were agreed to by the president of the United States and ratified by the Senate, so the treaties clearly apply. 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. The Keystone XL pipeline was proposed by the energy infrastructure company TC Energy. This decision reversed two previous administrative decisions and was done without any public comment or environmental analysis. We hope the Keystone XL Map will add a visual resource that supports the education and advocacy efforts of social movements working for Indigenous sovereignty and a just transition to renewable energy.. For more than a decade, we've fought to keep this filthy fossil fuel from being dredged up and piped through the United States. The Native American Rights Fund is prepared to fight to ensure those treaties are honored and the water is protected.. In June 2021, TC Energy announced that it was abandoning its plans for building the pipeline for goodputting an end to a fossil fuel project that had loomed over waterways, communities, and the climate for more than a decade. These sands contain bitumen, a gooey type of petroleum that can be converted into fuel. The proposed Keystone XL extension actually comprised two segments. As you know, our natural resources are finite. If and when TransCanada provides sufficient maps of the pipelines route, we expect that we will see even more affected tribal lands. To that end, the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Utility Commission will be holding a public hearing on Tuesday, May 28, 2019, and Wednesday, May 29, 2019, to address the Keystone XL pipeline and its impacts on our territory and people. Keystone XL will need permission from the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, so this is not over.. Since it first went into operation in 2010, TC Energys original Keystone Pipeline System has leaked more than a dozen times; one incident in North Dakota sent a 60-foot, 21,000-gallon geyser of tar sands oil spewing into the air. Less than two years before the project was finally pulled, the Keystone tar sands pipeline was temporarily shut down after a spill in North Dakota of reportedly more than 378,000 gallons in late October 2019. Frontline Indigenous youth, who have been standing up against destructive oil pipelines for years, are imploring President Biden to join them in protecting their water, lands, and cultures. It has been determined that the pervasive violence against indigenous women amounts to genocide. WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump greenlighted the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline on Friday, declaring it a "great day for American jobs" and siding with energy advocates over environmental groups in a heated debate over climate change. Natural Resources Defense Council 2023 Privacy Policy Regardless of the new permit and political maneuvering, the President is required to honor the treaties and the Constitution. It connects Steele City, Nebraska, to Cushing, Oklahoma. The governments analysis does not meaningfully address how an influx of out-of-state construction workers will affect the health, welfare, and safety of tribal members, and in particular Native women and children. Even worse, building Keystone XL would have meant enduring those risks just to send the fuel to our overseas rivalsand the profits to Big Oil. See the related statement from Rosebud Sioux Tribe President Bordeaux. 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. Thanks for signing up. President Bidens action today is an important first step in correcting the callous disregard for tribal sovereignty that has flourished in recent years. The presidential permit comes nearly a decade after Calgary-based TransCanada applied to . Some three million miles of oil and gas pipelines already run through our country, but KXL wasnt your average pipeline, and tar sands oil isnt your average crude. In 2017, the Trump administration reversed Obamas veto, signing an executive order to advance the Keystone pipeline as well as a similar crude oil project, the Dakota Access Pipeline despite the many valid arguments made against the two pipelines. The injunction blocking KXL construction has now been lifted. The pipeline would cross the two sources of water for the Mni Wiconi Project. The notorious tar sands pipeline was a lightning rod in the fight against climate change and the seemingly unstoppable oil industry. The judge found that the US State Department had not fulfilled its duties to the American people when it issued TransCanada a 2017 permit for the Keystone XL pipeline without the required environmental and safety review. But activists say the water protector strategy has proven effective with the cancelation of the Keystone XL pipeline. NARF is honored to represent the Rosebud Sioux and Fort Belknap Tribes to fully enforce the laws and fight this illegal pipeline.. its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends. 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. It was first initiated in 2010, and Indigenous activists protested for a decade against its construction. September: The Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the Fort Belknap Indian Community, in coordination with their counsel, the Native American Rights Fund, on September 10, 2018, sued the Trump Administration in the U.S. District Court for the District of MT for numerous violations of the law in the Keystone XL pipeline permitting process. Any new pipeline will leak, it is just a question of when. In the two years leading up to the November 2014 midterm elections, the fossil fuel industry spent more than $721 million to court allies in Congress. Digital maps are a powerful way to educate the public about connections between oil and gas extraction, climate change, social justice, and Indigenous rights. Five years ago, a pipeline spilled a million gallons of tar sands crude into a Michigan riverand were still cleaning it up. It's derived from a sludgy, sticky deposit found beneath the wilds of northern Albertas boreal forest. 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 following are quotes from the project partners: The pipeline would cross less than 100 miles from the headquarters of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and run directly through sacred and historic sites as well as the ancestral lands of the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine Tribes. 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. Construction has begun despite the fact that there are three lawsuits currently going on. In the meantime, the court issued an injunction pursuant to the Clean Water Act in another case that prevents TransCanada from crossing any rivers. 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. Upon entering office, President Trumpwith his pro-polluter cabinet of fossil fuel advocates, billionaires, and bankersquickly demonstrated that his priorities differed. The Tribes are taking a stand for their people, their culture, their water and their future, but they also are taking a stand for YOU, said NARF Staff Attorney Natalie Landreth. On November 17, 2020, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the Fort Belknap Indian Community, represented by the Native American Rights Fund and co-counsel, filed a federal lawsuit against the United States Department of Interior (DOI) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over their issuing of the KXL permit. June: Phase 1 of the Keystone Pipeline goes online. Its route intercepted Native American land and posed a threat to their water supply. With this construction, workers will descend on the communities along the pipelines proposed path. But Nebraskas got a slew of public hearings on the calendar, and legal challenges loom large. This pipeline will benefit a Canadian company and its shareholders. (AP) The Trump administration on Wednesday approved a right-of-way allowing the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline to be built across U.S. land, pushing the controversial $8 . The Rosebud Sioux Tribealso known as the Siangu Lakota Oyateis one of the seven tribes that make up the Oeti Sakowin (the Seven Council Fires of the Lakota people). 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. On the map users will be able to locate the pipeline route, pumping stations, pipe storage yards, and man camp locations (also known as construction camps). In granting a permit for the pipeline, the President has ignored his obligation to protect the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in direct violation of the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868, ignored federal right of way and mineral statutes, and ignored basic principles of federal Indian law. The pipeline had been projected to carry oil nearly 1,200 miles (1,900km). Trespassing into Rosebuds mineral estates, held in trust, without Rosebuds consent is a violation of the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie Treaties. But the path to victory wasnt always clear. In 2015, the U.S. State Department, under President Barack Obama, declined to grant the northern leg of the Keystone XL project the permit required to construct, maintain, and operate the pipeline across the U.S.Canada bordera permit that President Trump later granted and President Biden once again revoked. November: TransCanada says the costs of Keystone XL have grown to US$8 billion from US$5.4 billion. 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. They are proposing to do so without the tribal consent required under the treaty law. The pipeline continually threatens the sanctity of indigenous sacred lands and the purity and safety of the local water supply. This hearing will focus on the United States motion to dismiss. During this time of uncertainty and crisis, NARF is committed to protecting the health, safety, and rights of Native Americans. At every turn, the Tar Sands Invasion would put people and the environment in harm's way. 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. In South Dakota, the pipeline would cross through Tripp County, just miles from the boundaries of the Rosebud Indian Reservation and within yards of Rosebuds trust lands and tribal members allotments. How a single pipeline project became the epicenter of an enormous environmental, public health, and civil rights battle. It was a political step, having nothing to do with what the law actually requires. NRDC.org stories are available for online republication by news media outlets or nonprofits under these conditions: The writer(s) must be credited with a byline; you must note prominently that the story was originally published by NRDC.org and link to the original; the story cannot be edited (beyond simple things such as time and place elements, style, and grammar); you cant resell the story in any form or grant republishing rights to other outlets; you cant republish our material wholesale or automaticallyyou need to select stories individually; you can't republish the photos or graphics on our site without specific permission; you should drop us a note to let us know when youve used one of our stories. It was expected to transport 830,000 barrels of Alberta tar sands oil per day to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Washington, DC (202) 785-4166. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe (Sicangu Lakota Oyate) and the Fort Belknap Indian Community (Assiniboine (Nakoda) and Gros Ventre (Aaniiih) Tribes) in coordination with their counsel, the Native American Rights Fund, on September 10, 2018, sued the Trump Administration for numerous violations of the law in the Keystone XL pipeline permitting process. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe (Sicangu Lakota Oyate) and the Fort Belknap Indian Community (Assiniboine (Nakoda) and Gros Ventre (Aaniiih) Tribes) in coordination with their counsel, the Native American Rights Fund, on September 10, 2018, sued the Trump Administration in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, Great Falls Division, for numerous violations of the law in the Keystone XL pipeline permitting process. These lands are Indian lands. As such, they are protected by treaties as well as tribal and federal laws. This portion of the pipeline is called the Gulf Coast Pipeline. Heres why thats a disaster in the making. June 25, 2020 (Bemidji, MN) - The Indigenous Environmental Network, in collaboration with the Climate Alliance Mapping Project and the Keystone XL Mapping Project, have just launched the KXL Pipeline Map, an interactive tool that highlights the route of the Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline, a tar sands project of the TC Energy corporation.This map is a free and public tool designed to support . In late 2018 and early 2019, the courts repeatedly blocked TransCanadas attempts to start construction on the Keystone XL pipeline. TC Energy has indicated it will be looking at a very ambitious 2020 construction season to make up for the lost time, as well.