In the article "Keystone Blockade on Pine Ridge Reservation Leads to Arrests", written by the ICTMN Staff is about five American Indians that were arrested. After a six hour blockade they were arrested on March 5 on the Pine Ridge Reservation. This blockade tries to stop two trucks that were carrying parts of the Keystone XL Pipeline that tried to cross through the reservation. Debbie White Plume, one of the five people that was arrested, stated that her, along with the other four American Indians, were arrested and cited for disorderly conduct. She also stated that there were fifty to seventy-five people that took part in the blockade. This blockade was held in Eagle Nest District of Wanbi, which is on the northern side of the Pine Ridge Reservation. According to Debbie White Plume, "We formed a blockade to stop tarsands oil mine equipment from passing our land".
What I am failing to understand is that this reservation, is their land. I have also done some research on the Pine Ridge Reservation, and they are one of the poorest reservations. They are in poverty. So, how does it make sense that people can come into their reservation, their land, and most importantly their home and put pipes and oil mine equipment in order to obviously get oil from under their land? And other than that, they do it without even asking. If this was any other person's land, the oil companies would have to ask the owner's if they could use their land. Just because they are trying to mine oil on a reservation, on land that we "gave" to Native Americans they don't have to ask. That is complete crap to me.
Included is a clip from the blockade.
http://youtu.be/9OsHPnffvYI
What gets me the most is the fact that it sounds like these people were just trying to quietly protest...not that they were making a ruckus or causing any real troubles. Didn't we learn something last semester, thought, in Intro to Rhetoric that talked about the government being able to appropriate any lands they deemed worthy? Like, they can just swoop in and take your land and the land's resources just for their own use. I think that was something we talked about.
ReplyDeleteIt's ridiculous that this poor reservation is just being used over and over again. A simple solution could be for that company to pay/lease the land from the Native Americans, if the Natives agree to it. Then those reservation-living people could make some money and possibly have more say in how their land is being used/destroyed.