Oglala Sioux VP Poor Bear Tells Obama to Stop Keystone XL

The press gave some attention to some protesters who interrupted President Obama's speech at the University of Colorado in Denver Wednesday by raising a banner and shouting for him to block the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline project. The President actually took a moment to acknowledge the protesters and tell them he hears them and has not made a decision yet on the pipeline... before the Secrete Service the protesters out of the lecture hall.

It turns out one of the protesters who got the President's attention was South Dakota's Tom Poor Bear, Vice President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. While South Dakota's white officialdom is blissfully acquiescing to the TransCanada corporation's usurpation of our land and threat to our environment, Poor Bear and the Oglala Sioux Nation (who know a thing or two about paleface intrusions and empty promises) are fighting to stop Keystone XL:

The Oglala Sioux Tribal Council passed a resolution opposing the pipeline because it "involves accessing a 300-foot-wide corridor through unceded treaty lands of the Great Sioux Nation," he said, explaining that the lands are as represented in the Fort Laramie treaties of 1851 and 1868.

A related Mother Earth Accord insists on consultation under the principles of free, prior and informed consent from the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, he said, and the pipeline is "not in the national interest of the United States," a precondition for presidential approval.

"I want the voice of the Oglala Sioux to be heard," Poor Bear said in a meeting with Native students and others. "I will put my body on the line, if necessary."

"We view this (pipeline) as a priority; not just for us, but for future generations," he said, noting that support was expected from the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council and others [Carol Berry, "Lakota Official Tom Poor Bear Chides President Obama about Keystone XL Pipeline," Indian Country Today, 2011.10.27].

Well said, Tom!

The man above Poor Bear, OST President John Yellow Bird Steele, is also on record demanding much better guarantees that TransCanada will protect our environmental and cultural resources. But the best guarantee of our drinking water, our land, and our sovereignty is to stop Keystone XL completely.