Rosebud Sioux Toss a Wrench into those Keystone XL plans

This story raises an extremely interesting point – Rosebud Sioux have said ‘no’ to the Keystone XL pipeline, even before the Senate had had a chance to vote on it.

In response to today’s vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to authorize the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, the Rosebud Sioux Tribal president announced that the Rosebud Sioux Tribe (Sicangu Lakota Oyate) recognizes the authorization of the this pipeline as an act of war.

The tribe has done its part to remain peaceful in its dealing with the United States in this matter, in spite of the fact that the Rosebud Sioux Tribe has yet to be properly consulted on the project, which would cross through tribal land, and the concerns brought to the Department of Interior and to the Department of State have yet to be addressed.

“The House has now signed our death warrants and the death warrants of our children and grandchildren. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe will not allow this pipeline through our lands,” said President Cyril Scott of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.

“We are outraged at the lack of intergovernmental cooperation. We are a sovereign nation and we are not being treated as such. We will close our reservation borders to Keystone XL. Authorizing Keystone XL is an act of war against our people.”

In February of this year, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and other members of the Great Sioux Nation adopted tribal resolutions opposing the Keystone XL project.

So what does that do to the government’s plans to simply sieze the land for the pipeline? Eminent Domain does not apply to reservations, so that’s out. Does TransCanada eat the extra cost of building around the reservation? Does the Oil Lobby-controlled Congress attempt an end run around long-standing treaties?

The term ‘act of war’ is not to be taken lightly here. If the government decides to just go ahead and build through Sioux land, it’s a fair bet that the pipeline may never be finished.