Sung to the tune of the Sesame Street song…

Who are the people in Your Neighborhood?

Whose Getting Rich from COVID – 19 in Your Neighborhood?

Keystone XL Oil Pipeline vs the Sioux.

Čhetáŋ Sápa' (Black Hawk) (c. 1832 – c. 1890)

Sans Arc Lakota

Dream or Vision or Himself Changed to a Destroyer or Riding a Bufalo Eagle, 1880 – 1881 

Ledger Art: Paper, ink, graphite

https://americanhistory.si.edu/documentsgallery/exhibitions/ledger_drawing_2.html

Over 103,000 people have now died from COVID - 19. Our government officials want you to only see numbers but we know each number is/was a person. Athraigh Studio continues its effort to look beyond the numbers and into the art made by the people.

In the U.S. people of color are at greater risk than others. Among the most vulnerable are Native Americans. Today, in the third exhibit detailing Who are the people COVID – 19 is Killing in Your Neighborhood ?, Athraigh Studio brings you examples of the art of the Sioux and a few related details regarding their battle to save the earth and their people from the greed of big oil companies.

Historically, the Sioux reside in reservations, communities, and reserves in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Montana; and Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan, and Alberta in Canada.

The Sioux include the Lakota - the westernmost people, the Nakota - the middle of the three Sioux nations, and the eastern - Dakota.

For this post let’s focus on a brief history of the Lakota people:

In the early 1860’s U.S. greed for gold resulted in the Bozeman Trail carving through Sioux lands in violation of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851.

The Bozeman War or Red Cloud’s war resulted and lasted until the late 1860’s. Red Cloud’s victories left the Sioux in control of the Western Powder River country and permanently closed the Bozeman trail resulting in the, The 1868 Treaty/Treaty of Fort Laramie,

( https://catalog.archives.gov/id/299803)

which established the Great Sioux Reservation lands west of the Missouri River including the Black Hills.

Sitting Bull and his group of Hunkpapas did not sign the treaty and did not confine themselves to the reservation, thus they were characterized as "hostiles” by the U.S. Government.

The discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874 by an Army expedition led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, prompted the US Government to offer to purchase the Black Hills from the Sioux, who refused to sell their sacred land.

The army allowed miners to enter Sioux land and demanded all Sioux, including Sitting Bull, to report to the reservation. Sitting Bull’s refusal resulted in the Army efforts to forcibly bring him in, culminating in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-battle-of-little-bighorn-was-won-63880188/

Congress’s Act of February 28, 1877 (19 stat. 254), quickly stole back the Black Hills from the Great Sioux Reservation.

Further the Act of March 2, 1889 (Dawes Act and the Allotment Act) reduced the Great Sioux Reservation, into six separate reservations. The Act opened reservations throughout the U.S to development by non-Indian business, thus creating checker-boarded land ownership within Sioux (and other Native American) reservations.

Though the Sioux legally maintain jurisdiction on all reservation lands, on-going jurisdictional disputes in criminal and civil court result from the Act. The Sioux’s ongoing battles to stop encroaching greed and preserve their land is today centered in their opposition to major oil pipeline construction.

The 1,210 mile Keystone XL oil pipeline (similar to the operational pipe, also called Keystone) runs from Hardisty, Alberta, to Steele City, Nebraska and is designed to transport Canadian tar sands, the world’s dirtiest oil, creating major risks to climate and water.

in November 2015, President Obama vetoed the Keystone pipeline due to its’ threats to ecosystems, drinking water sources, and public health.

In January 2017, Trump reversed Obama’s veto, by signing an executive order to advance Keystone XL (as well as the Dakota Access Pipeline). Thankfully the pipeline had been on hold. TC Energy, formerly known as TransCanada, has had financing and permits issues and nonviolent civil protests have continued to slow the progress.

In March of 2020, though an epic glut of oil exists, oil prices have reached their lowest level in nearly two decades and though tar sands crude is some of the most expensive in the world to produce, the president and CEO of TC Energy announced a new effort to complete the pipeline, thanking his main supporters, Trump and Alberta Premier Jason Kenney who is dumping a billion Alberta dollars into the project.

Work started in April at the border crossing in northern Montana. In addition, site work for construction labor camps, some would house up to 1,000 temporary workers near Baker, Montana, and Philip, South Dakota has begun. The work in South Dakota has resulted in conflict between South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) and the Sioux.

The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes and the Oglala Sioux Tribe have established checkpoints on federal and state highways running through reservation land in an attempt to keep COVID 19 infections away from their reservations.

Noem has turned to her allies in the Trump administration to force the Sioux to take down the checkpoints, allowing oil companies to access reservation land. Earlier, in March, Noem signed into law legislation that would include oil equipment as “critical infrastructure, ” along with fossil-fuel-backed anti-protest laws.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/489960-three-states-push-criminal-penalties-for-fossil-fuel-protests-amid

The Sioux and their supporters would risk not only criminal actions but exposure to COVID – 19 by engaging in the types of protests that have successfully slowed down pipeline construction on the past. This sets the stage for oil companies and their political supporters to profit while the Sioux and the world attempts to survive the pandemic.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/in-the-midst-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic-construction-is-set-to-resume-on-the-keystone-pipeline

The Sioux have diligently kept COVOID – 19 at bay since the first reports of COVID-19 in China. They have consulted the medical community and followed the path of science. In addition to the checkpoints they’ve stockpiled food supplies and established health policies including travel bans from the reservation as well as encouraging outsiders not to come to the reservations in order to prevent COVID-19 from reaching the people.

https://www.indianz.com/News/2020/03/09/tribes-test-trump-administrations-commit.asp

So, as the Sioux once again battle the U.S. government’s greed and desire for it’s current gold: OIL.

We can only hope they can continue to keep COVID – 19 from infesting their land as it has the Navajo. This will be impossible if the checkpoints are forced to be taken down and the oil companies fill their labor camps with temporary workers from across the country.

In celebration of the monumental efforts of the Sioux to preserve their existence (and our world), Athraigh Studio would like to help make you familiar with the art created by the people of the Sioux nation by presenting a small exhibition of current Lakota Sioux artists:

Please check out the YouTube version:

Joel Elgin. Athraigh Print Studio

Monday, June 1, 2020

Whose Getting Rich from COVID – 19 in Your Neighborhood: Keystone XL Oil Pipeline vs the Sioux.

Sung to the tune of the Sesame Street song…

Who are the people in Your Neighborhood?

Whose Getting Rich from COVID – 19 in Your Neighborhood?

Keystone XL Oil Pipeline vs the Sioux.

Over 103,000 people have now died from COVID - 19. Our government officials want you to only see numbers but we know each number is/was a person. Athraigh Studio continues its effort to look beyond the numbers and into the art made by the people.

Historically, the Sioux reside in reservations, communities, and reserves in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Montana; and Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan, and Alberta in Canada.

The Sioux include the Lakota - the westernmost people, the Nakota - the middle of the three Sioux nations, and the eastern - Dakota.

For this post let’s focus on a brief history of the Lakota people:

In the early 1860’s U.S. greed for gold resulted in the Bozeman Trail carving through Sioux lands in violation of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851.

The Bozeman War or Red Cloud’s war resulted and lasted until the late 1860’s. Red Cloud’s victories left the Sioux in control of the Western Powder River country and permanently closed the Bozeman trail resulting in the, The 1868 Treaty/Treaty of Fort Laramie,

( https://catalog.archives.gov/id/299803)

which established the Great Sioux Reservation lands west of the Missouri River including the Black Hills.

Sitting Bull and his group of Hunkpapas did not sign the treaty and did not confine themselves to the reservation, thus they were characterized as "hostiles” by the U.S. Government.

The discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874 by an Army expedition led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, prompted the US Government to offer to purchase the Black Hills from the Sioux, who refused to sell their sacred land.

The army allowed miners to enter Sioux land and demanded all Sioux, including Sitting Bull, to report to the reservation. Sitting Bull’s refusal resulted in the Army efforts to forcibly bring him in, culminating in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-battle-of-little-bighorn-was-won-63880188/

Congress’s Act of February 28, 1877 (19 stat. 254), quickly stole back the Black Hills from the Great Sioux Reservation.

The 1,210 mile Keystone XL oil pipeline (similar to the operational pipe, also called Keystone) runs from Hardisty, Alberta, to Steele City, Nebraska and is designed to transport Canadian tar sands, the world’s dirtiest oil, creating major risks to climate and water.

in November 2015, President Obama vetoed the Keystone pipeline due to its’ threats to ecosystems, drinking water sources, and public health.

The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes and the Oglala Sioux Tribe have established checkpoints on federal and state highways running through reservation land in an attempt to keep COVID 19 infections away from their reservations.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/489960-three-states-push-criminal-penalties-for-fossil-fuel-protests-amid

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/in-the-midst-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic-construction-is-set-to-resume-on-the-keystone-pipeline

https://www.indianz.com/News/2020/03/09/tribes-test-trump-administrations-commit.asp

So, as the Sioux once again battle the U.S. government’s greed and desire for it’s current gold: OIL.

We can only hope they can continue to keep COVID – 19 from infesting their land as it has the Navajo. This will be impossible if the checkpoints are forced to be taken down and the oil companies fill their labor camps with temporary workers from across the country.

In celebration of the monumental efforts of the Sioux to preserve their existence (and our world), Athraigh Studio would like to help make you familiar with the art created by the people of the Sioux nation by presenting a small exhibition of current Lakota Sioux artists:

Please check out the YouTube version: