My first introduction to the Keystone XL Pipeline
was we were looking out that window
and there was a survey crew working across the creek
and I got very concerned,
I called the county sheriff
and then that's the first time I'd ever heard the name TransCanada (laughs).
From day one, I was informed they would have power of condemnation.
This fight, my whole life's been dominated by it.
The State Department has decided that the Keystone XL Pipeline
would not serve the national interests of the United States.
Today, I'm pleased to announce the official approval
of the presidential permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline.
It's a great day for American jobs and a historic moment
for North America and energy independence.
President Trump's comments about the jobs and all that,
I don't know, ah, do ... do people even believe that anymore?
I've been on this land all my life.
When they show up to construct,
it'll be a very traumatic time and I dread it.
It would cross a draw right here in front of us
and it follows this draw down.
The pipeline's going to impact me by 3 miles of a direct pipeline
in addition to a 2.5-mile access road
that they will build through me into the route.
I settled, but they had the power to seize me.
My biggest concern with eminent domain in this situation
was a foreign company, an international foreign company,
TransCanada was able to use these laws and I ...
I've ... I have a little trouble with that.
I'm a registered Republican.
Let me just make one little statement about climate change.
Anybody that thinks that we as a human race are not affecting this planet
needs to rethink that because we are.
My Indian name is Eagle Featherwoman.
I'm from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.
I was the first camper at Sacred Stone Camps of Standing Rock.
In 2010, we heard that TransCanada was going to put Keystone XL
directly through the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation.
We weren't going to let that fly.
This fight for us is not about us wanting oil
or going through our reservation or anything like that.
What it really comes down to is that this is a fight
for the protection of our people,
fight for the protection of the sacred and then,
one of the most sacred things is water.
Should Keystone XL break along Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation
along the river,
it will reach our main water intake within 33 minutes.
That is totally unacceptable.
This is not a native American issue. This is a human issue.
Everybody needs water.
This is a mule ear that I, ah, harvested it
at the Lower Brule Indian Reservation in '93
and this is my medallion collection.
We have nine tribal nations.
As far as the route of the pipeline, ah,
it will come close to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe
and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.
A major concern is the spill and getting into the Ogallala Aquifer
and the waterways, ah, you know, because
the tribe's position is water is life and I certainly understand that.
Senate Bill 176 is a very controversial piece of legislation
and there's a feeling of lack of consultation on the bill itself
that the Governor had invited tribal leaders to come
and talk to him as the bill was passed.
Well, certainly, it was done in a fashion that required a ...
a timeliness about it because af ... after Trump took office,
he approved the Keystone and we didn't really have time to reach out.
I certainly wish we would have.
President Trump did say he would make America great again.
I don't necessarily agree that Keystone XL will make America great again.
I certainly don't think it's going to make any great economic impact
on South Dakota or on the native tribes that share our borders.
I'm a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.
You know, Senate Bill 176, ah, I think has serious implications
as we talk about First Amendment rights, ah, you know,
freedom to assemble, ah, the right to protest.
What upset me about it was they didn't reach out to the tribes beforehand.
It's really fear of the unknown and it's fear of people are finally
standing up for themselves against corporations.
I think President Trump is lying to the American public.
Let's just tell the truth.
We're not going to use this in the United States.
This is all going to be shipped out and refined
and sent to China or wherever.
So to me, I think it needs to stay in Canada.
I'm a realist. I travel the country rodeoing.
I use oil and petroleum products,
but there's a smarter way to do this.
You know, we don't get a do-over.
Where Keystone XL has proposed to cross my property,
it's been in the family since 1939.
It's ... it's kind of a matter of pride, you know,
to own and take care of the land.
You don't get it paid for, then you have a company like TransCanada
come in and tell you that they are going to take your land
to use it to make millions of dollars with it
and virtually pay you nothing for it.
On my land, a spill on that land, it would ruin that land forever.
This is all low wetland that sits on top of the Ogallala Aquifer.
The science is there to say that what they're doing is wrong,
but the government doesn't have the balls to ...
to say no to them.
This is the property that I grew up on the home place.
You know, if ... if they're lay ...
laying that pipeline in right now in parts of this, you know,
they wanted to go through just down on the other side
of where that REA pole is there ...
TransCanada, they're denying this now
that they took me to eminent domain,
but the eminent domain process was there.
They'd done it. The judge ruled on it.
We don't need this pipeline.
It's a want and not a need.
This ground is pretty much as God made it or whoever made it
and I just want it stayed that way,
but I've lost that battle so ...
We put that picture window in here about 10 years ago
and I look out that window and drink coffee every day
and I think I'm glad to live where I live.