Keystone Pipeline’s Last Stand

Indigenous Environmental Network organizer Joye Braun from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, wearing an Oceti Sakowin shirt from her many months at the Standing Rock camps, waits to speak at the Pipeline Fighter Summit in Lincoln, Nebraska on Sunday, August 6. Braun, like many of the other speakers at the summit, called on attendees to stand up against TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which awaits final approval pending public hearings this week before the Nebraska Public Service Commission.

Horseback riders from the Kickapoo Nation lead the March to Give Keystone XL the Boot, which began and ended at the Nebraska State Capitol following that morning’s Pipeline Fighter Summit. Both the summit and the march had a diverse crowd of attendees, including farmers and ranchers, native tribal leaders, representatives of environmental groups such as 350.org and Sierra Club, and busloads of activists from other Midwestern states.

More than 500 people from across the country showed up to march on the eve of a weeklong public hearing before the Nebraska Public Service Commission, meant to determine if the once-dead Keystone XL project serves the public interest. At a rally beforehand, John Crabtree, a campaign representative with Sierra Club, said "the only people who would benefit from this pipeline being built are oil executives in Canada, while Nebraskans would face the daily threat of a devastating tar sands spill.”

An onlooker watches the march pass from inside the Bennett Martin Public Library.

A young indigenous boy, along with other demonstrators, holds burning sage during the march. Along with the immediate consequences of an approved Keystone XL pipeline, water protectors argue that it would harm the drinking water, environment, and sovereignty of generations to come.