American Indian and Canadian Native leaders were among the 1,009 people arrested on September 2, 2011 in front of the White House while protesting the construction of a controversial 1,700 mile Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast. The protesters were warning about the environmental and health risks and were asking President Obama not to issue a permit for the construction of the pipeline.
Among those arrested were Tom BK Goldtooth, Navajo Dakota executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, Marty Cobenais, Gitz Crazyboy, Rob Cee and Debra White Plume, Lakota from Pine Ridge, S.D. Kandi Mossett, who is Hitdatsa. Author Naomi Klein was also arrested. Leaders were arrested as they refused to move under orders from the police
Tar sands mining operations have already polluted the homelands of First Nations Peoples in Alberta and posed a health risk with increased cancer rates.
The Indigenous Environmental Network organized the Indigenous Day of Action in Washington, DC.
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