Pine Ridge Residents Halt Canadian Mine Equipment Transportation Through Reservation

Pine Ridge Reservation residents sit in the middle of the road blocking tractor-trailers carrying mining equipment from passing through the reservation.

By Vincent Schilling: March 9, 2012

One morning a Wanblee resident was forced off the road as huge semi-tractor-trailers made their way through the Oglala Sioux Nation’s Pine Ridge Reservation. The woman made a few phone calls to other residents and within a short time a parade of cars came to stop in Wanblee, just inside Pine Ridge. Tribal residents set up an impromptu blockade and did not allow two trucks bearing the logos TOTRAN Transportation Services, Inc. to progress any further. After a six-hour standoff, several tribal members were arrested and tribal police escorted the trucks on their route.

It was not clear if the trucks were equipment with parts for the Keystone XL Pipeline project, although the drivers of the semi-trucks said they were heading to Canadian mines. According to the paperwork of the drivers, their two oversized vehicles were hauling equipment called “treater vessels” (equipment that uses intense heat to separate gas and oil and other elements) from Houston, Texas to Alberta, Canada.

One of the residents contacted Poor Bear, a leader in the community. While Poor Bear was in transit to join tribal members at the blockade he spoke with JR LaPlante, the Secretary of Tribal Relations for the Governor of South Dakota Dennis Daugaard and that LaPlante admitted to the arrangement.

“He said, ‘Mr. Poor Bear, I want to apologize. The South Dakota Department of Transportation and… ’—and then he named a couple senators and himself—‘had a meeting a couple weeks ago to reroute these trucks that are holding these pipes and water tanks that are going to Canada for the Keystone pipeline,” said Poor Bear. “He said, ‘We had to reroute them through your reservation.’”

Poor Bear says the tribe is setting up a meeting with Daugaard and LaPlante and the Department of Transportation, scheduled for either March 13 or 14. At that meeting Poor Bears says he plans to inform the state that the trucking company owes the Nation $100,000 for using Nation roads, since the Canadian Corporation was going to pay a $50,000 permit fee for each of the two trucks to pass through the state of South Dakota.

The people appear to be outraged by the fact that the trucks are moving through their land. I understand they they probably want to stop the project all together, so using their land to get to the project is against their beliefs. I don't think the trucking company should have just used the roads in the first place without contacting the Native people that live there. It is their homes that these trucks are going to be passing thought. I would consider it a safety issue if nothing else. I can't believe the company would feel so entitled to using other peoples lands. I hope they end up having to pay all that money to the reservation.