EAGLE BUTTE, S.D. (AP) - A Native American tribal chairman says a “struggle” will begin soon against the Keystone XL oil pipeline after the project developer started pre-construction work near the tribe’s South Dakota reservation.
Cheyenne River Sioux Chairman Harold Frazier said in a statement this week that the struggle is approaching with “forces intent on taking treaty territory” with “government forces that have decided to treat us as enemies instead of friends.”
A spokesman for the tribe says the message is meant to let its allies know that developer TransCanada has started activities on the ground. The tribe says the pipeline would run through Great Sioux Nation homelands.
A TransCanada spokeswoman says its site near the reservation is a pipe yard, one of four being prepared in South Dakota before planned construction next year.
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