Obama Endorses KXL Pipeline, Native Americans Forced to Protest from 'Cage'

Published on Thursday, March 22, 2012 by









Obama Endorses KXL Pipeline, Native Americans Forced to Protest from 'Cage'


Obama: indefinite 'development of oil and gas infrastructure'









Today, President Obama has endorsed a southern portion of the Keystone XL pipeline.
"As long as I'm president, I'm going to keep encouraging the
development of oil and gas infrastructure," Obama said in a speech in
Cushing, Okla.
As the president spoke, Native American pipeline protesters were 'caged' miles away from the event.

Native American activists in Oklahoma have expressed outrage at the
proposal of the pipeline as it will "desecrate known sacred sites and
artifacts" on its path to refineries in Texas, in addition to the
evident environmental degradation involved.

Local authorities have forced the activists to hold their protest in a
cage erected in Memorial Park far away from the speech. "The protestors
were stunned that their community, so long mistreated, would be
insulted in such an open manner instead of being given the same freedom
of speech expected by all Americans simply for taking a stance
consistent with their values," reports the Global Justice Ecology
Project.




BREAKING NEWS: Native Americans Protest Keystone XL From A Cage (Global Justice Ecology Project):

“President Obama is an adopted member of the Crow Tribe, so his
fast-tracking a project that will desecrate known sacred sites and
artifacts is a real betrayal and disappointment for his Native relatives
everywhere,” said Marty Cobenais of the Indigenous Environmental
Network. “Tar sands is devastating First Nations communities in Canada
already and now they want to bring that environmental, health, and
social devastation to US tribes.”

The President visited Cushing to stand with executives from
TransCanada and throw his support behind a plan to build the southern
half of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline to move tar sands bitumen
and crude oil from Cushing to the Gulf Coast refineries in Texas.

A major concern for Native Americans in Oklahoma, according to
spokespeople at the event, is that Keystone XL and the Canadian tar
sands mines that would supply it ignore impacts to indigenous
communities and their sacred spaces.

“Natives in Canada live downstream from toxic tar sands mines,” said
Earl Hatley, “and they are experiencing spikes in colon, liver, blood
and rare bile-duct cancers which the Canadian government and oil
companies simply ignore. And now they want to pipe these tar sands
through the heart of Indian country, bulldozing grave sites and ripping
out our heritage.”

The group points to a survey done by the Oklahoma Archeological
Survey which found 88 archaeological sites and 34 historic structures
that were threatened by Keystone XL. TransCanada was asked to reroute
around only a small portion of these, leaving 71 archaeological sites
and 22 historic structures at risk. The group says they have asked for a
list of these sites and to oversee operations that might threaten
sacred burial grounds, but neither request has been honored. [...]

“The Ogallala Aquifer is not the only source of water in the plains,”
said RoseMary Crawford, Project Manager of the Center for Energy
Matters. “Tar sands pipelines have a terrible safety record and leaks
are inevitable.”

“We can’t stop global warming with more fossil fuel pipelines,” added
Crawford. “The people who voted for this President did so believing he
would help us address the global environmental catastrophe that our
pollution is creating. He said he would free us from ‘the tyranny of
oil.’ Today that campaign promise is being trampled to boost the
President’s poll numbers.”


REALLY? STICK A PIPELINE OVER A
sacred burial grounds!!!!!!!!!! JERKS!

He wouldn't be so on board if that pipline was charted to go thru a mosque....it would be ALL OVER the news if they were infringing on Muslims rights...

Those burial grounds are sacred to their people, what makes it any less important than a church or a mosque?? I'd be pissed as hell too...To me, it's one and the same..and it's been there for hundreds of years longer than anything else.