Worker "man camps" for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline would potentially bring thousands of out-of-state workers to live in close quarters in rural communities for months during the coronavirus pandemic, on top of the threat that these man camps already pose in the form of increased crime and sexual violence -- especially targeting Indigenous women.
On Thursday, Dec. 10, a coalition of local Indigenous women's societies will host a livestream event on the grounds of the oldest Native women's shelter in the U.S. -- the White Buffalo Calf Women's Society facility in Mission, S.D. -- from within the solar-powered Brave Heart Society Solar XL "Tiny Home of the Ihanktonwan Homelands."
The tiny home was constructed both as a physical safe space, and also an educational center to raise awareness in the community about the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR) that research shows accompanies the construction of large fossil fuel infrastructure projects -- like interstate pipelines, such as the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, whose man camps currently under construction in South Dakota threaten nearby Tribal communities on the Rosebud Sioux, Cheyenne River Sioux, Yankton Sioux, Lower Brule, and other Oceti Sakowin communities.
The Brave Heart Society "Tiny Home of the Ihanktonwan Homelands" campaign grew out of the Solar XL project, which has crowdsourced funding to erect solar installations with local farmers whose land lies directly in the proposed path of Keystone XL, and is supported by a broad coalition of regional and national grassroots organizations that created the "Promise to Protect," including Indigenous Environmental Network, Brave Heart Society, 350.org, Dakota Rural Action, Native Organizers Alliance, NDN Collective, Bold Alliance, and Wiconi Un Tipi.
The "Promise to Protect" coalition also includes over 47,000 people who have made a promise to come -- if asked by local communities -- to the Keystone XL pipeline route and engage in actions of nonviolent civil disobedience to stop pipeline construction if it ever begins.
While President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to rescind the permit for Keystone XL and kill the project, TC Energy is still continuing to seek local permits, and engage in "pre-construction" activities like building several man camps, pump stations, and pipe yards, which would potentially bring the added irresponsible risk of housing thousands of out-of-state pipeline workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
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