Lakota People's Law Project Statement on Biden Plan to Cancel KXL

The Lakota People’s Law Project is grateful to the incoming Biden administration for recognizing the calls of Indigenous communities in South Dakota over the past decade to shut down the Keystone XL pipeline.

According to Lakota People’s Law Project Lead Counsel, Chase Iron Eyes, “This is a pivot point in history: either we start recognizing the health of our Earth as the basis of civilization and progress, or we will find ourselves rich now at the expense of grinding poverty soon. We in Lakota Country relate to the shutting down of KXL as a first step: next should come the Dakota Access pipeline, a tortured and dangerous piece of infrastructure that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe continues to fight in court. I faced the potential of 6 years in prison in 2017 due to my peaceful resistance of DAPL, and others are still in custody because of their non-violent actions. Our struggle continues now. In December of 2016, Obama’s Army Corps of Engineers determined that construction of DAPL should cease while a full environmental impact statement was conducted. Trump — probably illegally — used his executive authority to override that science-based decision his second day in office. The National Environmental Policy Act must be respected, now that President-elect Biden is arriving in Washington. We will keep the pressure on.”

The Lakota People's Law Project operates under the 501(c)(3) Romero Institute, a nonprofit law and policy center.