The company behind the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline is trying to get tribes in the U.S. on board, a spokesperson said.

TransCanada is reaching out to 17 tribes in South Dakota, Montana and Nebraska, the spokesperson said. But most tribes and Native activists in those states have already spoken out against the huge pipeline.

“If you like to drink water, if you like your children not being harmed, if you don’t want your women being harmed, then say no to the pipeline,” Greg Grey Cloud, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, told McClatchy Newspapers. “Because once it comes, it’s going to destruct everything.”

Grey Cloud and other Native activists are preparing for peaceful demonstrations, camps and other acts of civil disobedience if the pipeline gets approved. But they are hoping President Barack Obama won't go that far.

“For those of us who have the history, it smacks of repetitive economics, when they put us in forts and they wanted our land," Faith Spotted Eagle, a member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, told McClatchy. All we’re willing to do here is sell our soul, just for the economy. That’s the dark side.”

Get the Story:
Native Americans vow a last stand to block Keystone XL oil pipeline (McClatchy Newspapers 2/28)

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