The Keystone XL pipeline was commissioned in 2010. It “is a $7 billion pipeline approximately 1,661 miles in length and 36 inches wide” (Palliser 2012, 8). The company that would run this project is TransCanada and the pipeline “would run from Hardisty, Alberta, to Nederland, Texas, and traverse Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas” (Palliser 2012, 8). The media has written about the different perspectives on this proposed project. The Indian Country Today article is written from a Native Peoples perspective and is stating that in many cases when it comes to environmental projects, Native Peoples are not taken into consideration by the Federal Government. For Native Peoples it feels that yet again their land is taken
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The issues the EPA was dealing with was the actual implementation of the Indian Policy, which meant that 10 years after the program was designed, the EPA was still struggling with the concept of tribal environmental self-determination. It is interesting to think about the fact that the EPA has been trying to get this program started since the 1980s and that to date the government still does not grant the tribes environmental self-determination. The primary goal of the Indian Policy was to ensure that “Indian communities did not face disproportionately high environmental risks as result of a regulatory gap in the cooperative federalism model” (Grijalva 2010, 13). Moreover, the EPA describes that the Native Peoples have to prove that “potential health and welfare impacts of non-Indian water pollution are serious and substantial” (Grijalva 2010, 14), which is true for the Keystone pipeline. The problem with the actual implementation of this program is that it only applies to “lands considered Indian country, but the status of any particular parcel turns on a …show more content…
The eastern part of the Plains consists out of taller grass and more rivers, and “a number of widely spaced, broad valleys of the east-flowing rivers. […] it is relatively well watered and wooded and contains tall grasses with deep roots” (Sutton 2008, 259). This could be a devastating project if there would be a small leak because the Native Peoples in the eastern region of the Plains use the water to live and survive. Not to mention that the United States government has never asked the Native Peoples if they would be fine with the pipeline. The United States treats them as if they are not a vital part of the region. The government only thinks about their own interests as it has done through the years. The Indian Country Today article, phrased it in a good way: “You see, your local, state or federal government will not protect you. That’s because those governments have been taken over by other interests, mainly corporate interest” (Jacobs
The issues the EPA was dealing with was the actual implementation of the Indian Policy, which meant that 10 years after the program was designed, the EPA was still struggling with the concept of tribal environmental self-determination. It is interesting to think about the fact that the EPA has been trying to get this program started since the 1980s and that to date the government still does not grant the tribes environmental self-determination. The primary goal of the Indian Policy was to ensure that “Indian communities did not face disproportionately high environmental risks as result of a regulatory gap in the cooperative federalism model” (Grijalva 2010, 13). Moreover, the EPA describes that the Native Peoples have to prove that “potential health and welfare impacts of non-Indian water pollution are serious and substantial” (Grijalva 2010, 14), which is true for the Keystone pipeline. The problem with the actual implementation of this program is that it only applies to “lands considered Indian country, but the status of any particular parcel turns on a …show more content…
The eastern part of the Plains consists out of taller grass and more rivers, and “a number of widely spaced, broad valleys of the east-flowing rivers. […] it is relatively well watered and wooded and contains tall grasses with deep roots” (Sutton 2008, 259). This could be a devastating project if there would be a small leak because the Native Peoples in the eastern region of the Plains use the water to live and survive. Not to mention that the United States government has never asked the Native Peoples if they would be fine with the pipeline. The United States treats them as if they are not a vital part of the region. The government only thinks about their own interests as it has done through the years. The Indian Country Today article, phrased it in a good way: “You see, your local, state or federal government will not protect you. That’s because those governments have been taken over by other interests, mainly corporate interest” (Jacobs