Native leaders arrested at the White House

Native Americans among 1,009 people arrested during two weeks of protests at the White House to halt tar sands

By Brenda Norrell

Photos 1-2 by Shadia Fayne Wood. Photos 3-4 by Josh Lopez/Tar Sands Action.

Portraits of Arrests, more photos at: http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/09/natives-portraits-of-arrests-white.html 

WASHINGTON -- First Nations and Native Americans were arrested at the White House today, Friday, Sept. 2, after traveling long distances to halt the Keystone XL pipeline, planned for the heartland of America and Indian country, including the massive Ogallala aquifer.

There have been 1,009 arrests at the White House sit-ins. There were another 166 arrests today, adding to the previous total of 843 arrests, during two weeks of sit-ins, which end tomorrow, on Saturday.

The dirty tar sands mining operations are already destroying the homelands of First Nations Peoples in Alberta.

Natives arrested today include Tom BK Goldtooth (photo above), Navajo Dakota executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, Marty Cobenais, Gitz Crazyboy, Rob Cee and Debra White Plume, Lakota from Pine Ridge, S.D. Kandi Mossett, (photo right below) who is Hitdatsa, Mandan and Arikara, is fighting the gas and oil drilling destroying her homeland in North Dakota.

Author Naomi Klein was also arrested. The Tar Sands Action said, "On the day that President Obama refused to tighten air-quality rules, American Indian and Canadian Native leaders, author and activist Naomi Klein, actor Omar Metwally, and Maryland State Sen. Paul Pinsky (D-Hyattsville) were arrested today in front of the White House protesting a proposed oil pipeline. "

American Indian and Canadian Native leaders were arrested in front of the White House as they refused to move under orders from the police. Representatives of Native governments and Native organizations from the United States and Canada traveled long distances to join thousands of people that have come to Washington DC during the past two weeks to tell US President Barack Obama not to issue a permit for the construction of a controversial 1,900 mile oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

(Photo below: Dene Chief Bill Erasmus at rally at White House.)

The Native delegation issued a statement as members were being arrested at the White House.

"Last Friday, the US Department of State issued the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) concluding the pipeline would have"no significant impact" on the environment. President Obama now has about three months to determine whether the controversial project is in the national interest of the US," the statement said.

  “The Dene National Assembly in northern Canada passed a resolution standing in solidarity with Native Americans and other people opposing this Keystone XL project. We want the people of America to hear our concerns first hand, as peoples’ that live downstream from the tar sands development” said Chief Bill Erasmus, Dene Regional Chief of Northwest Territories and representative of the Assembly of First Nations, Canada’s largest tribal organization.

Gitz Deranger, Dene from the village of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, located downstream of the tar sands says, “I have seen the devastation of our environment and people's health with increased cancer deaths. If Obama approves this pipeline, it would only lead to more of our people needlessly dying.”
 
(Photo right Debra White Plume, granddaughter of Chief Red Cloud, Oglala from Pine Ridge, S.D., who was arrested.)

“This is an issue of our right to say no, as sovereign independent indigenous nations. The US government doesn’t haveour best interest in mind, nor the rights of Mother Earth” says Deb White Plume, Lakota grassroots leader, with Owe Aku, an Oglala Lakota organization in South Dakota. “Our Lakota people oppose this pipeline because of the potentialcontamination of the surface water and of the Oglala aquifer. We have thousands of ancient andhistorical cultural resources that would be destroyed across our treaty lands."

“It’s my responsibility as a woman to stand with Mother Earth against corporate male-dominated greed." White Plume stood proud as her hands were handcuffed behind her back and led away.

"This is amatter of life and death, our way of life and our human rights should not be onthe altar of US energy policy,” says Pat Spears, a Lakota, with Intertribal Council on Utility Policy, of South Dakota. “The arrogant pollution from mining and pipelines for tar sands oil is totally unnecessary relative to meeting usoil needs. The building of this pipeline will result in the increase in the cost of oil and its exportation,from the Gulf Coast to other countries. This does not make good economic sense.”

Chief George Stanley, Cree Regional Chief of Alberta spoke eloquently reminding the protesters that the pipeline proposal was initiated under the previous Bush administration and inherited by Obama. “Our First Nations in Alberta have been concerned of the lack of consultation of the pipelines and tar sands expansion. President Obama can do what’s right. For the President to approve this pipeline is not in the national interest of US or Canada.”

Tom Goldtooth,director of the Indigenous Environmental Network whose group organized this Indigenous Day of Action in DC said, “The Canadian tar sands, the proposed Keystone XL and all the other current and proposed pipelines and heavy hauls are weapons of mass destruction leading the path to triggering the final overheating of Mother Earth. President Obama made promises to Native Nations. Here is an opportunity for him to honor those promises and be a man of conscience by standing up to corporate power, address the compounding changes of climate change and over consumption of the resources of Mother Earth; and saying no to the Keystone XL pipeline.”

The first Tar Sands Action will conclude with a final sit-in at the White House on Saturday. The sit-in will convene at the normal time, 10 a.m. at Lafayette Square Park, just in front of the White House.

"We expect Saturday’s sit-in to be the largest yet. Because of our increased size, arrests have been taking several hours, and the sit-in should last until late afternoon – perhaps as late as 4 pm. Please come prepared for a long stay in the sun," Tar Sands Action said.

Also on Saturday, the Sierra Club, 350.org and Interfaith Power and Light will be leading a rally against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline at Lafayette Square Park that begins at 12 noon.

This rally is organized separately from the sit-in, and is open to anyone who wants to send a message to President Obama about Keystone XL. If you cannot risk arrest, or have already been arrested once in this action, this is your opportunity to step up and get involved.

The rally will feature Bill McKibben, Naomi Klein, and Michael Marx with music from Joe Uehlein. We will be composing aerial art with our bodies, coodinated by Daniel Dancer. Please bring a black shirt and a water bottle for this part of the rally. 

Meanwhile, the National Congress of American Indians said today, "We continue to communicate and stand firm on the position from our resolution that the pipeline poses grave dangers to Tribal Nations."

 ."....l.'For more information: Clayton Thomas-Muller Cell: 613297 7515 or email monsterredlight@gmail.com
Melina Laboucan-Massimo Cell: 347471 6424 or email miyowapan@gmail.com

More photos and updates at Censored News www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com