Pipeline resister: US an apartheid government vs. oppressed minority

After Manape LaMere renounced his citizenship, disenrolled from the Yankton Sioux Tribe, and gave up his Social Security number he joined the resistance to the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline at the Wiconi Un Tipi Camp near Lower Brule.

He describes the current state of American-tribal relations as that of an apartheid government toward an oppressed minority. To break free from that dysfunctional relationship, tribes must break free from America completely in order to be treated as equals, LaMere said.

Read the Kevin Abourezk story at indianz.

Launching a $30,000 fundraising drive for a kitchen at Wiconi Un Tipi Camp, the No KXL Dakota Alliance announced a November 21 signing ceremony for the International Treaty to Protect the Sacred Against Tar Sands and the KXL Pipeline. The camp in Lower Brule is strategically located to block the path of a proposed power line that TransCanada Corp. has slated to carry electricity to a pumping station on the Keystone XL tar-sands crude pipeline route through unceded 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaty territory.

Read that here.

Crews from TransCanada shut down its Keystone pipeline after 5,000 barrels of diluted bitumen (dilbit) spilled near Amherst in Marshall County, South Dakota.

An assessment and investigation are underway after the leak was detected around 0600 local time. Hackers with nefarious intent have been stepping up attacks against American infrastructure recently and overloading sensors that control pipeline pressure has not been ruled out.

The Nebraska Public Service Commission has just approved an alternate route for the planet-killing pipeline but anti-KXL leader Jane Kleeb says an appeal of the decision is expected.

Pipeline opponents already had planned to appeal the commission's decision in court. They say the panel's decision on Monday brings up new issues that could be challenged in court. Ken Winston is an attorney representing environmental groups. He says the vote, "opens up a whole new bag of issues that we can raise."

Read more here.

The spill came just days before Nebraska ruled on a permit for the Keystone XL.

Human error is cited as the cause in a Sunday spill in North Dakota that leaked 270 barrels, or 11,340 gallons of saltwater mine waste because crews there failed to close a valve.

The Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux have filed court documents urging a federal judge to reject the recent arguments of federal officials and the pipeline developer that the tribes' proposals aren't needed. The Army Corps of Engineers is conducting an additional court-ordered review of the pipeline's impact on tribal interests. While that's done, the tribes want additional protections such as emergency equipment staging at the pipeline's Lake Oahe crossing on the Missouri River, which is their water source. [KSFY teevee]

In 2016 even earth hater South Dakota Public Utilities Commissioner Chris Nelson said the Keystone XL won’t happen without State Department approval.

Despite the construction of the Keystone and Dakota Excess Pipelines fuel costs in the region are soaring.

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is expected to take up two water rights settlement bills next month.

Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Chairman Dave Flute said his tribe will stand with other tribal nations and oppose the KXL pipeline.

The same West River geology that thwarts railroad improvements in South Dakota makes KXL untenable.