In 2020, looks like the infamous Keystone XL pipeline is finally going to be built. The pipeline will pass near many Native communities and reservation lands in western South Dakota, and a portion of the pipeline will be built under the longest undammed river in the contiguous United States. The portion of the pipeline which crosses the US-Canada border is tentatively scheduled to be constructed in April 2020.
– On 21 January 2020,
the South Dakota Water Management Board (the state-level agency that
oversees water rights) approved 5 critical water access permits for TC Energy (formerly TransCanada, the developers of the pipeline) to tap water from the Cheyenne, White, and Bad rivers for the
construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Throughout 2019, Oglala / Lakota and other local Native communiities consistently criticized the Water Management Board and the South Dakota governor’s support of 2019 legislation which would’ve severely punished activists protesting or even “encouraging” protesting against pipeline construction; during the dispute, in May 2019, the leadership at Pine Ridge reservation unanimously voted to ban South Dakota governor, Kristi Noem, from entering the reservation until and unless she rescinded her support of the law. The ACLU and a local judge eventually had the legislation dismissed as unconstitutional.
–
The next day, on 22 January 2020, the White House and US Department of
the Interior announced that they were granting a critically important
“right of way” permit for the construction of Keystone XL pipeline
on about 45 miles of land in eastern Montana. The Keystone XL pipeline had
basically been stalled in 2015 by the former US presidential
administration. The key roadblock to building the pipeline? The US federal
government still hadn’t granted Keystone XL and TransCanada access to
some BLM land in eastern Montana, making this Montana landscape the only
meaningful remaining obstacle preventing the oil pipeline from
beginning its construction on US land.
– 29 January 2020: That same notorious “anti-protesting” and so-called “riot-boosting”
law that got South Dakota governor Kristi Noem banned from Pine Ridge?
On this day, Governor Noem formally announced before state congress that she will again reintroduce a
slightly altered version of the law before the legislature this year. The House State Affairs Committee agreed to introduce the draconian anti-protesting bill, HB 1117, on her behalf. Observers believe the law is clearly and specifically meant to intimidate activists intending to protest construction of Keystone XL.
– In several stories in late January 2020, the Williston Herald reveals that a spokesperson for TC Energy confirmed that TC Energy filed a critical
updated status report with the US District Court of Montana in
mid-January 2020. TC Energy said that it would be moving heavy
equipment into storage yards in Montana and South Dakota in February
2020 in anticipation of construction; worker camp modules will then be
installed at construction sites in April 2020. The worker crew sites
have already been permitted by each state. The company also claimed
that it will be building access roads to these sites soon, including
some access road construction in Nebraska.TC Energy claimed that, in April 2020, they will build the 1.2 mile segment of the pipeline that crosses the US-Canada border.
The pipeline will be built under both the Missouri River and Yellowstone
River, the longest undammed river in the contiguous United States.
Why might the State of South Dakota be so antagonistic towards Native organizers and activists in recent months? Why is South Dakota so excited about criminalizing protests against oil pipeline infrastructure? Here’s a look at how the Keystone XL pipeline passes directly through Native land, especially in western South Dakota.
Reminder that South Dakota’s arbitrary political borders contain 9
formal reservations. Western South Dakota includes the site where the Six Grandfathers landmark was destroyed, and western South Dakota was also the site of the
Wounded Knee massacre [29 December 1890]. South Dakota also contains the
US county with the lowest
median household income [Buffalo County, home to Crow Creek
Reservation].
Here’s a look at where the pipeline will make contact with the Ogallala Aquifer and the ecologically unique Sand Hills ecoregion:
Here’s a look at where the pipeline will cross under both the Milk River and the Missouri River at Fort Peck in northeastern Montana:
Headline from 12 February 2020: “With Keystone XL coming, S.D. House panel recommends Noem’s anti-riot legislation”
As construction of Keystone XL pipeline infrastructure is scheduled to begin in the coming weeks, that South Dakota legislation which targets Indigenous leaders and activists - and criminalizes support of pipeline protests - is coming back in full force.
Excerpt:
Legislation that would rewrite some of South Dakota’s riot laws received a panel’s recommendation Wednesday [12 February 2020]. The House State Affairs Committee endorsed it 10-3. HB 1117
now goes to the full House of Representatives for consideration
possibly as early as Thursday afternoon. If the House passes it, the
bill would go to the Senate next. […]
The Legislature hurriedly passed two laws last year that Governor
Noem requested regarding pipeline projects. One required construction
bonds. The other penalized riot boosting.
The South Dakota Association of County Commissioners supported the
riot-boosting law last year, because of a long, expensive protest in
North Dakota against the Dakota Access pipeline. […]
The new legislation removes or changes those pieces. Key points of Noem’s proposal are:
Removal of the triple-damages penalty for riot boosting that was enacted last year.
Requires
that any injury to a person or damage to property by three or more
persons must be intentional to be accused of riot. This is based on a
South Dakota Supreme Court decision.
Removal of ‘threat’ language.
Says any person who urges three or more persons to cause injury or damage can be accused of inciting a riot.
Clarifies
it isn’t incitement of a riot if the person advocates, orally or in
writing, any action that doesn’t involve imminent force or violence.
—
In other words: Observers apparently worry that laws like this, which also exist in other Great Plains states with pipeline infrastructure, could potentially be interpreted in a way wherein, if you’ve attended an organizing meeting with an activist group or if you’ve written a social media post in support of a protest against Keystone XL, and, at that same protest, there was damage done to railroad property or pipeline infrastructure, you might be held liable for property damage, fines, a felony, or for inciting a riot.
Maybe it’s a bit of a stretch to worry that the law would be applied so loosely, but that’s the point. These “riot-boosting laws” are meant to intimidate you, to dissuade supporting pipeline protests even at a distance, to force you to worry about putting up a poster or attending an organizing event.
Peggy Gibson, a 67-year-old retired nurse, is one of more than a million Americans with Type 1 diabetes, a difficult-to-manage autoimmune disease. People with the disease face a constant struggle to control the amount of sugar in their bloodstream. If it gets too low, it can lead to seizures, loss of consciousness, or death.
Gibson’s community helped her raise money for Rocky, an alert dog specially trained to smell dangerous changes in someone’s blood sugar.
But while Gibson obviously loves Rocky, he doesn’t provide the service she and her neighbors paid for. Unfortunately, that may be par for the course. The diabetic alert dog industry is unstandardized and largely unregulated. And the science on a dog’s ability to reliably sniff out blood sugar changes may not be “reliable or accurate.”
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