Tribe: Keystone vote is ‘act of war’

The president of a South Dakota-based Native American tribe says it will be an “act of war” if Congress authorizes construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
 
“We are outraged by the lack of intergovernmental cooperation,” Rosebud Sioux Tribe President Cyril Scott said in a statement.

“We are a sovereign nation and we are not being treated as such,” Scott said in response to Friday’s House vote to approve the project. “We will close our reservation borders to Keystone XL. Authorizing Keystone XL is an act of war against our people.”

{mosads}The tribe isn’t alone in its fight to stop the construction of the pipeline, which would bring tar sands oil from Canada down to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico.
 
Members of Wica Agli, a Native American activist group, arrived in Washington, D.C., on Monday to back Scott and the Cowboy Indian Alliance, a multi-state activist organization, as the Senate prepares to vote on the project on Tuesday.
 
Wica Agli co-founder Aldo Seoane said his group wants to help in any way possible.
 
“The proposed route for the pipeline passes through the Ogallala Aquifer, which is North America’s largest fresh water aquifer,” he said. “In this and other ways, the pipeline threatens Native and non-native ways of life. Lately there seems to be more awareness of Indigenous issues in the media, but the House vote illustrates the unwillingness to acknowledge Indigenous’ treaty rights.”
 
At last count, the Keystone bill sponsored by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) appeared one vote shy of the 60 votes needed for a final vote to pass the legislation.