U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), a Democratic candidate for president, is promising to rescind approvals for the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone XL Pipeline if he wins the election in 2020. He is seen here at the Meskwaki Nation's 105th annual powwow on August 10, 2019. Photo courtesy Cory 2020
Presidential hopefuls embrace Indigenous movement against unwanted pipelines
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
By Acee Agoyo
The Indigenous-led movement against pipelines, waged against Keystone XL and Dakota Access for years, has finally emerged as a critical component of the 2020 presidential campaign.
At least among Democrats, that is. President Donald Trump, who is running for re-election, and his Republican allies continue to support both projects despite widespread objections from tribes who fear negative impacts on their water, treaty rights and ways of life.
But for the party hoping to reclaim the White House, engaging in consultation with Indian Country isn't enough. Tribes must have a decision-making role in pipelines and other energy infrastructure that affects their communities, several Democratic candidates for president are asserting as they seek the Native vote.
"As President of the United States, Cory Booker will ensure that all people and all communities, especially those who have been traditionally left behind like indigenous communities, share in our progress," the U.S. Senator from New Jersey's campaign told Indianz.Com on Tuesday.
Indianz.Com
Video by Kevin Abourezk: 'Seeds of Resistance' Planted in
Pipeline's Path
Though Booker wasn't able to attend the Frank LaMere Native American Presidential Forum in Iowa last month due to a scheduling conflict, he's joined his colleagues in adopting a pro-Indigenous viewpoint in his climate change and environmental justice platform. He is among several hopefuls who are promising to rescind the presidential permits for both the Keystone XL Pipeline and the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Both projects were approved by the Trump administration with little to no input from those affected in Indian Country. The final Dakota Access permit in North Dakota, for example, was approved while the leader of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, whose reservation lies next to the $3.8 billion pipeline, was on a plane on his way for a meeting at the White House. The meeting was canceled since the decision had already been made.
Likewise, the first time Trump approved Keystone XL, he did so without conducting additional consultations among tribes along the route in Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. And after Indigenous activists won a major court decision, he simply went around the judiciary and issued another permit rather than address the deficiencies raised in the lawsuit.
But the politicians hoping to go up against Trump in 2020 are embracing an entirely different approach. A Booker administration will "require free, prior, and informed consent from tribal nations for all future major energy projects on federal lands," his campaign said on Tuesday, echoing a concept advanced by Faith Spotted Eagle, a respected elder from the Yankton Sioux Tribe, during the recent presidential forum.
"Consultation is just an artificial thing," Spotted Eagle said in Sioux City, Iowa, on August 20, which was the second day of the event. She noted that Independent presidential candidate Mark
Charles, who is a citizen of the Navajo
Nation, explained the fundamental shortfalls of existing policies during his presentation at the forum on the same day.
"What has to be changed is the basis of a country that considers itself a conqueror and has created laws that benefit only them," Spotted Eagle told Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, the U.S. Senator from Vermont, who has been an outspoken opponent of both Keystone XL and Dakota Access.
"Consultation needs to be consent," Spotted Eagle concluded from her seat on the stage next to Sanders.
Indianz.Com Video by Kevin Abourezk: Keystone XL
Pipeline Decision
Booker and Sanders aren't the only ones with anti-pipeline platforms either. Judith LeBlanc, a citizen of the Caddo Nation who helped organize and host the historic event, pointed out that "every presidential candidate who attended the Native Presidential Forum pledged to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline."
"No matter where they build the Keystone XL Pipeline, the impact on Mother Earth will be the same," said LeBlanc, who serves as director of the Native Organizers Alliance, one of the primary hosts of forum. "There is no alternative to clean water."
Though construction on Keystone XL has yet to begin, the project gained renewed attention on the same week of the forum. Two days after it was over, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the route was properly approved by state regulators despite opposition from Spotted Eagle's tribe, the Ponca Tribe and others in Indian Country.
"We have a collective responsibility and commitment to stop Keystone XL from being built and we will not stop," said Lewis Grass Rope, a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe who is hosting the Wiconi Un Tipi Resistance Camp on his family's homelands in South Dakota as part of the Indigenous movement against the unwanted pipeline.
"We will continue with our perseverance and fortitude to ensure our safety and livelihood continues within our ancestral lands," said Grass Rope.
Dakota Access likewise is back in the news even though it's been up and running for more than two years. The operators are planning to nearly double its capacity, a move opposed by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, whose water resources, subsistence sites and sacred and historical places are impacted by the pipeline, which already carries more than 500,000 barrels of oil a day through its homelands in North Dakota.
"The tribe has the right to protect these interests by participating in these proceedings to ensure that these interests are not adversely affected by the proposed nearly one hundred percent (100%) increase in the volume of crude oil transported through the Dakota Access Pipeline from 600,000 barrels today up to 1,100,000 barrels per day and siting of the new Dakota Access Pipeline Pump Station in Emmons County,' the tribe stated last week in a petiiton to intervene before the North Dakota Public Utilities Commission.
Additionally, the tribe continues to call for the shutdown of the pipeline due to the way it was approved by the Trump administration. A lawsuit is pending before a federal judge, who previously ruled that the final permit at Standing Rock was approved under a flawed process that failed to take Indian Country's concerns into account.
The U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers was required to take a second look at the project as a result of the judge's decision. But Chairman Mike Faith said his people were once again shut out by official Washington.
"The remand was insincere," Faith said last month after the tribe filed a motion for summary judgement, one that it hopes will halt operations once and for all
"The Corps ignored the tribe’s concerns and worked with DAPL to justify a foregone decision," Faith said of the federal agency and the operator of the pipeline.
"This illegal and dangerous pipeline must be shut down," Faith concluded.
Judith LeBlanc, the director of the Native Organizers Alliance, speaks at the Frank LaMere Native American Presidential Forum in Sioux City, Iowa, on August 20, 2019. Photo: Ho-Chunk Inc
Like other Democratic candidates for president, Cory Booker's environmental platform isn't just about pipelines. Among other actions, he's vowing to clean up every abandoned coal and uranium mine, including the more than 500 on the Navajo Nation and near the tribe's homelands.
"Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination and free and prior informed consent," Carol Davis, a Navajo citizen who serves as director of the grassroots organization Diné CARE (Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment), said at the Frank LaMere Native American Presidential Forum on August 20.
Booker wasn't able to attend the forum, which began on August 19, because of a scheduling conflict, his campaign said.
"Cory welcomes any opportunity to speak out about how our country can do a better job affirming the rights and dignity of Native Americans and hopes to continue moving this conversation forward on the campaign trail," said Mike Frosolone, his state director in Iowa.
Indianz.Com on Flickr: #NoDAPL Native Nations Rise in Washington, D.C.
Booker was able to make it to the Meskwaki Nation, where he campaigned at the Iowa-based tribe's 105th annual powwow, which took place prior to the forum. During last year's election season, prior to the official launch of his presidential bid, he went to Standing Rock.
More recently, he campaigned in New Mexico, home to nearly two dozen tribes, last week.
He's also partnered with Rep. Deb Haaland (D-New Mexico), who is one of the first two Native women in Congress, on the Climate Stewardship Act to help address the impacts of climate change across the nation.
Haaland, a citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna, has endorsed Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren, the U.S. Senator from
Massachusetts, for president. Haaland and Warren took part in the Frank LaMere Native American Presidential Forum on August 20.
