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NARF has two important updates regarding our defense of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the Fort Belknap Indian Community against the Keystone XL pipeline. TransCanada estimated South Dakota spills at no more than once every 41 years. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe has retained the NARF to represent its interests with regard to the Keystone XL pipeline. Frontline Indigenous youth, who have been standing up against destructive oil pipelines for years, are imploring President Biden to join them in protecting their water, lands, and cultures. These lands are Indian lands. This pipeline was proposed in 2008 and has been referred to as either the Keystone XL pipeline or KXL. May: TransCanada files a new application with the State Department for the northern part of Keystone XL. You'll receive your first NRDC action alert and Over the years, the United States government willingly made very specific promises to tribal nations. TC Energy must follow the law, and that includes our laws and regulations with respect to the construction of this pipeline. It was a blatant attempt to prioritize corporate interests over the health and well-being of the regions citizens and tribes authority to govern their lands and protect their citizens. DAPL may be underway, but the water protectors at Standing Rock taught us a lot about going up against the fossil fuel industry. This hearing will focus on the United States motion to dismiss. The briefest look at American and Canadian history clearly shows that the pipeline situations are most certainly not the first instance of the government refusing to respect the lands, waters, and even peoples of indigenous groups. Because of the highly corrosive and acidic nature of the tar sands oil, there contains a higher likelihood that the pipeline will leak. On the map users will be able to locate the pipeline route, pumping stations, pipe storage yards, and man camp locations (also known as construction camps). While TransCanada replaced topsoil and reseeded the area affected by the spill, it will take decades for the lasting damage of the spill to be known and remedied. The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network. So, in March he withdrew the State Departments permit and issued his own presidential permit as an attempt to avoid any environmental or regulatory oversight and to circumvent the court decisions. Several indigenous leaders, including Dallas Goldtooth of the Mdewakanton Dakota and Dine nations and Faith Spotted Eagle of the Ihanktonwan Dakota nation, have seen Bidens executive order as a sign of the administration keeping its campaign promise to work against climate change and work with indigenous communities. The "replacement" pipeline runs mostly on a completely new route through Minnesota, barreling through hundreds of lakes, rivers, aqueducts and wetlands. This is one of the reasons for the lawsuit. It would increase mining by accelerating the production and transportation of crude oil. He also signs an order requiring pipelines in the United States to be built with U.S. steel. How a single pipeline project became the epicenter of an enormous environmental, public health, and civil rights battle. The United States must answer to the Tribes for violations of the treaties and be instructed to honor them. President Bidens action today is an important first step in correcting the callous disregard for tribal sovereignty that has flourished in recent years. The city was named after its founder, Harry Culver. An influx of itinerant workers, like those required for pipeline man-camps, correlates with increased sexual assaults, domestic violence, and sexual trafficking. With the original permit revoked, the Ninth Circuit yesterday decided to dismiss as moot the case based on that original permit. Those leaks will be undetected unless/until they are huge. The climate impact of a complete and fully operational Keystone XL would be drastic. Since the approval, the Trump administration has been sued twice by environmental organizations and lost each time. The Rosebud Sioux Tribealso known as the Siangu Lakota Oyateis one of the seven tribes that make up the Oeti Sakowin (the Seven Council Fires of the Lakota people). The U.S. Senate approves a bill to build Keystone XL. A similar crude oil project, the Dakota Access Pipeline has received media attention in previous years due to the police and state reactions to the protests over its creation. The reversal came as no surprise. See our original complaint filed. The government failed to even evaluate an alternate route to avoids tribal treaty lands. The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user. They are proposing to do so without the tribal consent required under the treaty law. Like the US Constitution, treaties are the law of the land, and no one is above that law, said NARF Staff Attorney Matthew Campbell. See the related statement from Rosebud Sioux Tribe President Bordeaux. Its route intercepted Native American land and posed a threat to their water supply. In addition to the intervention, a hearing has been scheduled in Rosebud Sioux Tribe et al v. United States Department of State et al. at a much higher rate than company estimates. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe and Fort Belknap Indian Community successfully stood strong for years to protect their people, water, and sacred lands from the threat of the Keystone XL Pipeline. (AP) The Trump administration on Wednesday approved a right-of-way allowing the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline to be built across U.S. land, pushing the controversial $8 . The authority to permit the pipeline falls within Congresss exclusive and plenary power to regulate foreign commerce. NARF Staff Attorney Natalie Landreth said, We believe its imperative for the voices of our tribal clients to be heard regarding the impacts of the proposed pipeline. The water delivery system for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe is called the Mni Wiconi, which translates to Water is Life. On February 11, 2019, an 1,800-gallon spill was detected in Missouri on the main Keystone line, and last year more than 400,000 gallons were spilled from the main Keystone line in South Dakota near a tribal community. The presidential permit comes nearly a decade after Calgary-based TransCanada applied to . Less than two years before the project was finally pulled, the Keystone tar sands pipeline was temporarily shut down after a spill in North Dakota of reportedly more than 378,000 gallons in late October 2019. As much as they would like to, TransCanada cannot ignore the laws that protect Native American people and lands.. These activities could cause irreparable harm to tribal waterways, cultural resources, and minerals in the path of the pipelines easement. We would score a victory, and it would have huge ramifications for holding off construction at critical times, says NRDC attorney Cecilia Segal, who has worked on KXL litigation since 2017. Its mines are a blight on Canadas boreal, where mining operations dig up and flatten forests to access the oil below, destroying wildlife habitat and one of the worlds largest carbon sinks. February: TransCanada announces it will build Phase 3 of the Keystone Pipeline as a separate project that is not subject to presidential permission, since it does not cross an international border. Listen to more voices from the community on the NARF YouTube channel. There did occur a series of protests for many months, in opposition of the creation of the pipeline. The southern portion of the pipeline, from Oklahoma to Texas, has already been completed. It was first initiated in 2010, and Indigenous activists protested for a decade against its construction. The pipeline would cross the two sources of water for the Mni Wiconi Project. The permitting process was completed only 56 days after TransCanada submitted its application for the third time. The second segment was the hotly contested 1,209-mile northern lega shortcut of sortsthat would have run from Hardisty, Alberta, through Montana and South Dakota to Steele City, Nebraska. Our Land Use, Environmental Protection, and Public Utilities Codes directly apply, and TC Energy has failed to comply with them. Neither the president nor wealthy foreign corporations are above the laws of our country. Hearings on the motion to dismiss were held Thursday, September 12, 2019, in the United States District Court for the District of Montana, Great Falls Division. We look forward to holding the Trump Administration and TransCanada accountable to the Tribes and the applicable laws that must be followed., NARF Staff Attorney Matthew Campbell also reacted to the news, Of course, the treaties were agreed to by the president of the United States and ratified by the Senate, so the treaties clearly apply. And the President and TC Energy would like to run a pipeline of highly toxic, cancer-causing sludge called tar sands right through it. April: TransCanada submits a new route to officials in Nebraska for approval. The court asked for supplemental briefing on whether the President had the constitutional authority to issue the permit in the first place, which the Tribes are working on now. Fort Belknap has declared a state of emergency on the reservation because of the extremely dangerous COVID-19 pandemic and its threat to the health and well-being of the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine tribal members, said President Werk of the Fort Belknap Indian Community, We are very concerned about TransCanada bringing in outside construction workers from all over to build this pipeline within an hour from our reservation., Rosebud has issued a curfew, closed businesses, and asked all to shelter in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic. TransCanada failed to comply with Rosebud and Fort Belknap law. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe has been one of the most vocal groups in working to oppose the creation of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer-based technology that combines geographic data and relevant information about specific locations. The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes. The market case had also deteriorated. This lines up with an industry trend: Oil and gas companies are exporting 8.4 million barrels of crude oil and refined fuels every single day. To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Its a threat to our climate, our drinking water, and our safety. The total for the Keystone pipeline's 2017 gush onto. The promises made to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, as well as the Oceti Sakowin, were broken before the ink on Fort Laramie treaties dried. Of course, TransCanada claims that KXL will be safe, that it will be state of the art. This isnt your grandfathers typical oil, says Anthony Swift, director of NRDCs Canada project. Pipeline under construction in Alberta, Canada. As such, they are protected by treaties as well as tribal and federal laws. amended complaint in what will now be known as, an amended complaint against TransCanada and President Trump. January: The Cushing MarketLink Phase 3a pipeline goes online. Low oil prices and increasing public concern over the climate led Shell, Exxon, Equinor (then Statoil), and Total to either sell their tar sands assets or whittle them down. November: The Obama administration rejects TransCanadas application to build the Keystone XL pipeline. its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Boulder, CO (303) 447-8760 February: A Nebraska judge rules that the law that allowed the governor to approve Keystone XL over the objections of landowners was unconstitutional. The injunction blocking KXL construction has now been lifted. One such protest, a historic act of civil disobedience outside the White House in August 2011, resulted in the arrest of more than 1,200 demonstrators. President William Kindle of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe (Sicangu Lakota Oyate) promised continued vigilance in light of the Nebraska Public Service Commissions decision today to permit TransCanada Corp.s proposed Keystone XL pipeline to cross that states lands. It was expected to transport 830,000 barrels of Alberta tar sands oil per day to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Even worse, building Keystone XL would have meant enduring those risks just to send the fuel to our overseas rivalsand the profits to Big Oil. Joye Braun, IEN Community Organizer, The Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the Fort Belknap Indian Community intend to move ahead with their claims against the United States and to demand that the United States honor its legal obligations. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. The Tribes argue that the 2019 permit, which would allow a Canadian company (TransCanada) to build another dirty tar sand crude pipeline across American soil, also creates a substantial risk of. But then the Trump administration would do something to undercut us outside of court. The administration also attempted to issue other permits for the project, all based on flawed environmental analyses, eventually prompting more lawsuits, including two from NRDC and its allies. As the elected President of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, I write regarding a critical issue affecting not only our Tribe, but all of the United States. To that end, the government must examine the potential impact of pipeline construction and man-camps on Native people, especially women and children. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. This pipeline will benefit a Canadian company and its shareholders. Five years ago, a pipeline spilled a million gallons of tar sands crude into a Michigan riverand were still cleaning it up. It has also been determined that tar sands oil emits 17 percent more carbon than other forms of crude oil. As of 2019, the estimated population was 39,185. (a) On March 29, 2019, the President granted to TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, L.P. a Presidential permit (the "Permit") to . Police arrest approximately one thousand people. Back in 2017, the mainline of the Keystone pipeline ruptured in South Dakota outside of the Lake Traverse Reservation, home to the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate. When they entered into treaties with the United States, the tribal nations meant to protect their natural resources (water, grasslands, and game) and keep people from crossing their lands. Even its maps do not give enough detail to show impacts on Indian lands. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe (Sicangu Lakota Oyate) and the Fort Belknap Indian Community (Assiniboine (Nakoda) and Gros Ventre (Aaniiih) Tribes) along with their counsel, the Native American Rights Fund, applaud the Biden administrations action to revoke the illegally issued KXL permit. The activities described in the projects Environmental Impact Statement, namely rock ripping, blasting, trenching, top soil removal, and replacement of removed materials as backfill would adversely affect Rosebuds mineral estate. The pipeline would cross less than 100 miles from the headquarters of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and run directly through sacred and historic sites as well as the ancestral lands of the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine Tribes. TransCanada's plan to dig a trench and bury part of its $7 billion, 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline right through this land has unearthed a host of Native opposition, resentments and ghosts of the . Rather than honoring these legal obligations, the United States has chosen to blatantly violate them. July: The State Department extends its review of Keystone, saying they need more time for review before a final environmental impact assessment can be released. The proposed Keystone XL extension actually comprised two segments. keep you informed with the latest alerts and progress reports. The federal government has a treaty obligation to protect tribal citizens likely to suffer increased rates of violence and abuse. Later, fossil fuel companies funnelled millions into Trumps 2017 inauguration ceremony, days after which he brought the Keystone XL project back from the dead, and ramped up federal lobbying efforts in the first months of his administration. If the Presidents goal was to avoid complying with the District Courts decision in that case, it worked. President Bordeaux had this to say about the KXL pipeline: There are a great many things that trouble us about this project. Heres why thats a disaster in the making. BILLINGS, Mont. Tar sands oil is thicker, more acidic, and more corrosive than lighter conventional crude, and this ups the likelihood that a pipeline carrying it will leak. View detailed information and reviews for 5855 Green Valley Cir in Culver City, CA and get driving directions with road conditions and live traffic updates along the way. NRDC advocates were part of a broad coalition that helped stop Keystone XLfor good. In fact, the treaties were created specifically for this sort of violation. All facets of the tar sands industry pose a threat to the environment. One was Nebraskas Ogallala Aquifer, which provides drinking water for millions as well as 30 percent of Americas irrigation water. The federal government must examine potential impacts on the safety and welfare of Native peopleespecially women and children. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe and Fort Belknap Indian Community have government-to-government treaties with the United States that the President cannot violate. The Keystone XL Developer's Position TransCanada, a Canadian corporation, owns or has interests in $48 billion of long-life assets primarily pipelines and power-generation facilities in Canada, the United States and Mexico and is expected to see $38 billion in new projects completed by the end of this decade 18. If and when TransCanada provides sufficient maps of the pipelines route, we expect that we will see even more affected tribal lands. On November 17, 2020, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the Fort Belknap Indian Community, represented by the Native American Rights Fund and co-counsel, filed a federal lawsuit against the United States Department of Interior (DOI) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over their issuing of the KXL permit. On November 17, 2020, the Tribes filed a federal lawsuit against the United States Department of Interior and the BLM over their January 2020 issuing of the KXL permit. Between the threat of sexual violence and contraction of the coronoavirus, arrival of KXL construction workers in our homelands poses deadlier risks than ever before and must be stopped. Until 2016,Canadaofficially objected to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. At every turn, the Tar Sands Invasion would put people and the environment in harm's way. In an unprecedented action, President Trump has attempted to circumvent the law by issuing TransCanada yet another presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. They were bargained for with the blood of our ancestors. The KXL phase of the pipeline cuts directly through the traditional homelands of our client tribes. Many indigenous populations have fought for over a decade to defend their water and land rights against fossil fuel companies. The pipelines proposed route crosses through traditional Lakota homelands and treaty territories, and will affect not only the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, but also Native Nations in Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska. In return, they asked that the United States protect their lands from trespass and their resources from destruction. Federal agencies have a duty to prevent mineral trespass and protect Indian lands and tribal mineral estates. It also endangers the Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies water for Native and non-Native users residential and agricultural needs on the High Plains in eight states. President Trump also issued a cross-border permit to the pipeline developer, a permit that had been long sought after for the developers. In 2015, the U.S. State Department, under President Barack Obama, declined to grant the northern leg of the Keystone XL project the permit required to construct, maintain, and operate the pipeline across the U.S.Canada bordera permit that President Trump later granted and President Biden once again revoked. The XL stands for export limited. If completed, KXL would add another 510,000 barrels of capacity. U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Second Class Lauren Jorgensen. Among other things, the complaint describes: NARF Staff Attorney Matthew Campbell explained, Before we allow a foreign company to build another pipeline to haul dirty tar sands across any American soil, we should be taking a hard look at the possible impact on American land, water, health, and safety. We are joined in a fight against an invisible enemy that we now know is highly contagious before its hosts even show symptoms, said President Bordeaux of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Based on these extraordinary circumstances, we ask that TransCanada halt any construction during this pandemic.. In the United States, there live over 5.2 million indigenous peoples and among them, 573 federally recognized tribes, numerous unrecognized nations, and many communities scattered across the North American continent, displaced by a long history of western oppression and forced assimilation. The court rightly found that today.. The most recent leak, large enough to partially fill a swimming pool, was not big enough to trigger the leak detection system. TransCanada's plan to dig a trench and bury part of its $7 billion, 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline right through this land has unearthed a host of Native American opposition, resentments and . NARF Staff Attorney Matthew Campbell responded to the action, The Rosebud Sioux Tribe and Fort Belknap Indian Community have both poured tremendous effort and resources to defend their treaty rights and the safety of their tribal communities during the last few years. Its no small feat extracting oil from tar sands, and doing so comes with steep environmental and economic costs. Pipeline opponents file a lawsuit against the Nebraska government claiming the state law used to review the new route is unconstitutional. Regardless of the new permit and political maneuvering, the President is required to honor the treaties and the Constitution. The federal government violated the 1851 Treaty of Ft Laramie and 1855 Lame Bull Treaty, in which the US committed to protect against future harm to the tribes natural resources. Because it crosses the U.S.-Canada border, Phase 4 does require a Presidential Permit; however, it has been met with opposition since its initial proposal. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe will take any and all necessary steps, up to and including litigation, to protect our people, our land and water, and our cultural and historic resources., As we have seen, spills from such projects can be catastrophic, said NARF Staff Attorney Matt Campbell. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you. President Trump did not like these decisions. If you are worried about the KXL pipeline, take action now. This has proved to be untrue. TransCanada must comply with Rosebud law. Now, after the courts have told the United States it must follow the law, President Trump has attempted to circumvent the courts by issuing a new permit. One of the central arguments made by pipeline pushers was that tar sands expansion will move forward with or without Keystone XL. Based on the current status of indigenous peoples within the United States, it is evident that these treaties and those that followed were either never fulfilled or were manipulated to provide leverage for the United States government. We look forward to working with the new administration to ensure that, going forward, Native peoples are included in decision-making discussions and policy development that affect their land, people, and treaty rights.. Frighteningly, the KXL pipeline design would only detect 13,000 barrels (535,000 gallons) of tar sands crude leaked in a 24-hour period. "The Keystone XL Pipeline is an environmental crime in progress." "It's also been called the most destructive project on the planet." The major issues with the Keystone XL Pipeline are "the dirty tar sands oil, the water waste, indigenous populations, refining tar sands oil and don't forget the inevitable; pipeline spills." September: The Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the Fort Belknap Indian Community, in coordination with their counsel, the Native American Rights Fund, on September 10, 2018, sued the Trump Administration in the U.S. District Court for the District of MT for numerous violations of the law in the Keystone XL pipeline permitting process. December: U.S. legislators pass a bill with a provision saying President Barack Obama must make a decision on the pipelines future in the next 60 days. The Native American Rights Fund represents the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and Fort Belknap Indian Community in this case. These lands are well within the area of impact for even a small rupture and spill. Additionally, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe operates its own water delivery system, which is part of the Mni Wiconi Rural Water Supply Project. Instead, despite the danger to tribal citizens and all of the people living in the area, TransCanada is pushing to quickly build as much of the pipeline as possible. Since its construction in 1977, the Trans Alaska Pipeline has transported almost 17 billion barrels of oil, and currently transports about 527,323 barrels a day. In fact, TransCanada outlined several activities scheduled for April all along the route of the pipeline, not just at the border. Meanwhile, major new tar sands projects stopped moving forward, despite investments from the government of Alberta, Canada. This undisputed fact, that the pipeline would cross Rosebud mineral estates held in trust, has several legal implications: The publicly available maps that the Tribes have seen show that the pipeline corridor also would cross Rosebud surface and mineral estates. The online map can be found here: https://climatealliancemap.org/kxl-map Upon entering office, President Trumpwith his pro-polluter cabinet of fossil fuel advocates, billionaires, and bankersquickly demonstrated that his priorities differed. But the movement has had setbacks: a federal judge in Louisisana recently. Indeed, moving crude by rail to the Gulf costs substantially more than moving it by pipe. The agencies have not considered the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on either health and safety or the global oil markets. They begin by displaying a map of the proposed pipeline that shows that the pipeline will not cross Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, and in fact, it is located entirely on privately owned land except for a 1,094 ft portion . They are also solemn promises between the citizens of those nations. TransCanada ignores the threat that this influx of people creates during the COVID-19 pandemic. Treaties are more than solemn promises between nations. Browse our map catalog downloadable PDFs and our interactive maps. Keystone XL would have crossed agriculturally important and environmentally sensitive areas, including hundreds of rivers, streams, aquifers, and water bodies. On the campaign trail, Biden vowed to cancel the Keystone XL cross-border permit should he win the presidencyand on his first day in office, he made good on that promise. The judge found that the US State Department had not fulfilled its duties to the American people when it issued TransCanada a 2017 permit for the Keystone XL pipeline without the required environmental and safety review. The decision echoed a seven-year State Department review process with EPA input that concluded the pipeline would fail to serve national interests. The Fort Belknap Indian Community and Rosebud Sioux Tribe, represented by the Native American Rights Fund, continued their fight against the illegal permitting of the Keystone XL Pipeline with two filings in the US District Court of Montana. It was proposed to be an extension of the existing Keystone Pipeline System, which has been in operation since 2010. March: The U.S. Department of State issues a Presidential Permit authorizing Keystone facilities at the U.S.-Canada border. A spill would have been devastating to the farms, ranches, and communities that depend on these crucial ecosystems. Today, the United States District Court for the District of Montana, Great Falls Division, heard arguments in Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. Trump.