Idle No More Takes Protests to Oklahoma State Capitol

A local group of Idle No More protesters will march around the Oklahoma State Capitol this Monday, January 28. The group of Native Americans and environmentally conscious citizens will protest in solidarity with the international grassroots movement Idle No More as well as raise key local issues in an event titled Land of the Red Man. The procession will include Native hand drummers, singers and other participants and will begin at 11 a.m. at the corner of Northeast 16^th Street and Lincoln Boulevard. Land of the Red Man organizers predict the event to be the largest Idle No More event held in Oklahoma thus far. At the time of publication, over 380 participants had joined the event’s Facebook page.

Idle No More is a response to two major omnibus bills passed by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his administration. Bill C-45, in particular, amends several pieces of Canadian legislation that directly relate to the indigenous First Nations. Its revision of the Navigable Waters Protection Act permits the construction of works including bridges and pipelines across and along navigable waterways with government approval. Additionally, it revises the Indian Act to allow tribes to lease their lands by a majority vote of the present members at any tribal meeting or referendum. Before the bill, tribes could only lease their lands by a majority vote of the majority of all voting tribal members. Prime Minister Harper has argued that Bill C-45 and his other omnibus bills are essential to stimulate Canada’s slumping economy. 

Idle No More protesters are not so certain. Land of the Red Man participant, Kimberly Roppolo says, “When I first heard of this going on in Canada, a major red flag went up for me. The tribes are going to lose their land. It’s like the Dawes Act here [in the United States]. It will force this land into private ownership.” Roppolo, a former Alberta resident, has several friends directly affected by Bill C-45 and first learned of the legislation via Facebook. Several Land of the Red Man participants are tying local issues to the movement and to Monday’s event. Brenda Golden, one of the primary event organizers, claims the water issue in Oklahoma remains a concern as tribes fight for the rights to the resources on their own lands. The Keystone XL pipeline is another major issue. TransCanada Corporation submitted a revised application for the pipeline that addresses major environmental concerns to the Obama administration in early September 2012. Bill C-45 may appear irrelevant to Oklahomans. However, the crude oil Keystone XL would transport is pumped from northern Alberta. The Keystone Pipeline System cannot be built across any Canadian waterways without the passage of Bill C-45. Native American protesters are concerned that the pipeline will cut across Midwestern tribal lands. The problem of receiving sufficient, balanced press coverage persists for Idle No More in both Canada and the U.S. Monday's protesters planned the march around the Oklahoma State Capitol to voice these issues. “There’s a captive audience,” says Golden. “They have no choice but to hear us.”

Rance Weryackwe, a citizen of the Comanche Nation and son of the late Suzanne Sockey Lester, former chair of the now defunct Oklahoma Human Rights Commission, claims the questions at stake affect all humanity, not just indigenous tribes, because they involve protecting accepted ways of living. “On Native lands, a lot of times, mines are on sacred sites. People can relate to that. Like if there was a historical church, and someone came and took everything and left just the frame.” For Weryackwe, the reason behind Land of the Red Man and other local protests is to serve posterity. “We’re not thinking about what we’re leaving our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” he claims. “I have a daughter, and what am I leaving her? A bunch of chaos.”

Oklahoma law makers will be confronted with the Land of the Red Man clamor as they go to lunch Monday. They and the state’s other citizens have several questions to consider. Though Oklahoma’s economy is currently better than most, is it in the state’s best interest to not consider the tribes’ rights to resources when the 38 tribes contribute an estimated $10.8 billion to the state economy every year? Is it a smart decision to allow a major petroleum pipeline to be built across Oklahoma when the state has experienced a dramatic increase in seismic activity in the last five years?  What are Oklahomans willing to sacrifice for the sake of making a profit?