Tribal members set up protest on highway to Cannon Ball, North Dakota, the community President Barack Obama visited on Friday. Photo from Aldo Seoane on Twitter

Tribal leaders and activists called on President Barack Obama to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline but he didn't address the controversial project during his historic visit to Indian Country on Friday.

President Bryan Brewer of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota called the pipeline “a death warrant for our people," citing environmental and treaty concerns. He attended Obama's visit to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota.

“President Obama must reject this pipeline and protect our sacred land and water,” Brewer said in the statement, Bloomberg News.

Avis Little Eagle, a council member for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, was on hand when Obama visited her reservation. She too opposes the pipeline.

“We don’t want that pipeline running through our lands, we want protection of the water, of our health, we want protection of our homeland,” Little Eagle told Al Jazeera America.

Tribal members also used the historic event to show their Keystone. A group staged up a protest on the highway to Cannon Ball, the community Obama visited.

“We feel we have the right to be consulted,” Aldo Seoane, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, told The Grand Forks Herlad. “We’re concerned for the future well-being of every child.”

The State Department is reviewing public comments for the pipeline. A final decision by Obama isn't expected until 2015.

Get the Story:
Sioux reservation has mixed feelings about Obama's visit (Al Jazeera America 6/13)
Obama’s Indian Country debut greeted by Keystone protest (Bloomberg News 6/13)
Group protests Keystone XL pipeline in advance of Obama’s visit (The Grand Forks Herald 6/14)
Oglalas support, question Obama's policies (KOTA 6/16)

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