Gary Dorr and Wizipan Little Elk
Indian opposition to XL Pipeline finally makes national news
By Tim Giago Native Sun News Health and Environment Editor, Talli Nauman, has been writing about the Keystone XL Pipeline for our newspaper since 2009. We were the first newspaper in South Dakota to tackle this heavy issue and we were the first Indian newspaper in America to touch upon it. We were aware of the dire implications of this TransCanada project and we wanted our readers to take note and follow its progress through the pages of our newspaper. Nauman’s coverage of this issue brought Native Sun News a First Place Award from the South Dakota Newspaper Association for the early series she wrote on the topic. Her repeated coverage brought NSN another First Place Award the following year. On Wednesday of last week Ed Schultz, the anchor of the Ed Show on MSNBC, followed up on his show the coverage he gave to the pipeline through Nebraska by interviewing a Nez Perce Indian named Gary Dorr and Wizipan Little Elk of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe about the impact the pipeline would have on the Indian people in South Dakota. Some good points were made including the fact that in planning the route of the pipeline none of the Indian Nations whose lands were about to be crossed were included in the consultation or decision making. The Indian people were treated as if they did not exist. The decisions on the path of the pipeline were made with the states involved and TransCanada. This has happened so much in the past that one Indian man said, “What are we: chopped liver?” There are several other Native Americans that should have been included in the presentation by Schultz. Debbie White Plume and Charmaine White Face have been strong opponents of the XL Pipeline. They have been the most outspoken on this topic. The Vice President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Tom Poor Bear, has been the highest ranking tribal member to speak out against it. Native Sun News has sent newspapers with articles we published addressing Indian opposition to the pipeline to the offices of TransCanada without ever getting a response. So far President Barack Obama has not signed off on the pipeline, but will he wilt under the pressure from the energy companies? We don’t know the answer to that, but we do know that if he does and the XL Pipeline moves forward and starts to cross the Treaty Lands of the Oglala and Sicangu Lakota, there will be all hell to pay. This may be the last war between the Indians and those who would rape the lands held dear to the Indian people. When Schultz asked what the Indians would do if the pipeline proceeded, Wizipan said, “We will block it.” Shultz pressed on with “How would you block it?” Again he was told, “We will block it.” The answer should have been that there are hundreds of Lakota who will block it with their bodies and with their lives. It is no small matter to the Lakota and the rest of America simply fails to understand the dire determination of the Lakota people. If the efforts to block the pipeline are done peaceably by the Lakota, thousands of others from across America will join in the efforts. Hece tu welo! Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, is the editor and publisher of Native Sun News. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard with the Class of 1991. His book Children Left Behind was awarded the Bronze Medal by Independent Book Publishers. He was the first Native American ever inducted into the South Dakota Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2007. He can be reached at editor@nsweekly.com
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