News For All Americans
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Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau greets former Indian residential school student Toby Obed. Trudeau apologized to former students from Newfoundland and Labrador for the abuses they suffered at the schools. (Screenshot, CBC Indigenous)
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Fawn Douglas recently named Nevada’s Indian American Leader of the Year. (Photo-Fawn Douglas)
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Maori people from New Zealand perform the Haka in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo-Antonia Gonzales)
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The annual National Day of Mourning is planned for Thanksgiving Day in Plymouth, Massachusetts. (Photo-United American Indians of New England)
by Jim Kent
The Treaty Alliance, an organization representing 150 U.S. and Canadian tribes, has voiced its opposition to the Nebraska Public Service Commission’s approval of the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline. Nebraska regulators announced the decision on Monday.
Treaty Alliance members were disappointed that the pipeline would be approved only days after an associated TransCanada pipeline in South Dakota leaked more than 200,000 gallons of crude oil. In approving the Keystone XL pipeline, the Nebraska Public Service Commission noted that it “could not factor in spill considerations.”
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Chairman Harold Frazier. The tribe was among others to oppose the Keystone XL project in July 2017. (Photo courtesy-Treaty Alliance)
Chairman Larry Wright, Jr. of the Ponca Tribe in Nebraska was not surprised by the decision.
“It really shows you what mentality is going on here that even in light of that leak that is half a state away from Nebraska on a scale that we don’t even know yet, how can we possibly say yes to that?” said Wright. “And yet they did. Time and time again, example after example is given and people just choose to ignore those things.”
Ponca tribal members are concerned over the impact the pipeline may have on traditional lands it will cross and the Ogallala Aquifer.
Crow Creek Tribal Chairman Brandon Sazue was among those who protested the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation last year. Sazue believes–like the Dakota Access Pipeline and the South Dakota Keystone pipeline leak–Keystone XL is an issue that crosses all racial boundaries.
“This is a human being issue about what’s good for our environment. What’s good for children,” said Sazue.
The Crow Creek tribal chairman anticipates an even greater protest against Keystone XL than there was against the Dakota Access Pipeline. In July, Treaty Alliance members gathered together in South Dakota to oppose the Keystone XL project and tar sands expansion.
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Representatives of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe joined in an alliance against the Keystone XL Pipeline in South Dakota. (Photo-July 2017, Treaty Alliance)
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This image of Jason Pero is making its way around social media. The Native teen was shot and killed by a sheriff’s deputy on the Bad River reservation in Wisconsin.
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Eriel Deranger discusses climate change and health at the recent American Public Health Association Conference in Atlanta. (Photo-Eriel Deranger, Twitter)
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Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation’s chicken coop is part of the organization’s Food Sovereignty Initiative. (Photo-Jerry Matthews)
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Shelter dogs are being paired with veterans in South Dakota. Tripp was matched with a Desert Storm veteran with PTSD to help him feel more comfortable in public. (Photo-Super Dogs for Super Heroes)
