Tar Sands / Keystone XL Pipeline Issues

I mentioned this in class, so here is some information on the anti-tar-sands protests that are happening in Canada and the U.S., and which centrally involve Indigenous people. Activists are protesting against a proposed oil pipeline which would move oil from the Alberta tar sands to the U.S. Gulf Coast in Texas (right, because the U.S. Gulf Coast doesn't have enough of its own problems...), while the primary issue is the damage the pipeline's construction and use would do, there is also concern about the environmental damage caused by extracting oil from the tar sands, which is among the most environmentally detrimental ways of obtaining oil.

Protests against the pipeline in the U.S. and Canada have had substantial Indigenous participation, including some that led to arrests:

Cree protesters were among those arrested in Ottawa on Monday, demanding an end to the dirty tarsands and the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, an environmental disaster in the making from Canada to the Gulf Coast. George Poitras, former Chief of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, and First Nation youths, were among those arrested Mon., Sept. 26.

The Aboriginal Peoples' Television Network also reported on the arrests:

Lionel Lepine, 33, and Gitz, 28, from Fort Chipewyan, Alta., were in the first line of protestors to get arrested. After smudging themselves with sweet grass smoke, the two hugged, then held hands before marching toward the metal barricade and the ribbon of yellow police tape strung from one end to the other.

They both climbed over the barricade and peacefully surrendered to the RCMP officers waiting for them on the other side. Their hands were bound behind their backs with zip ties before being led away.

“I vow, till my dying breath, to continue this fight,” Lepine told the crowd of protestors shortly before his arrest.

“We are gathered here today to wake up the rest of Canadians,” said Gitz, who also spoke to the crowd.

Indian Country Today, a U.S. Native newspaper, reported on parallel protests outside the White House in Washington, D.C. (which also resulted in arrests):

“We have to stand up for Mother Earth. We have to stand up for our sacred water—for our children, our grandchildren, for the coming generations,” said Lakota activist Debra White Plume at a rally prior to her arrest. She said that the aftereffects of oil sands drilling that would come along with the expansion of the pipeline would likely desecrate the freshwater Ogallala Aquifer near her homelands in Pine Ridge, S.D.

Meanwhile, a pro-pipeline Aboriginal senator, George Brazeau, criticized what he called a tokenizing use of First Nations people to fight this environmental battle:

“What is really problematic is when you have organizations like Greenpeace…who use Aboriginal leaders and communities to basically ask them to support their message,” said Brazeau, during APTN National News’ weekly political panel. “For organizations like that to use Aboriginal people when it is creating jobs and when it’s good for the economy and good for the country, I find it very hypocritical.”

Of course, his assumption appears to be that the Native leaders in the protests didn't really know what they were doing, which is also problematic.