Megaload Stalled Again as Indigenous Ceremony Honors Tradition of Resistance
Cross posted from Earth First! Newswire
We have reports that the second megaload is stalled out in Pendleton, Oregon, due to weather, after Umatilla hereditary chiefs, drummers and tribal members gathered with allies for a ceremony.
Nixyaawii Drummers, from the Confederated Umatilla Tribes, gathered in prayer and song with 70 friends for a ceremony called by Chief Carl Sampson, Yellowbird, of the Wiluulapam tribe (one of the four confederated Umatilla tribes).
Chief Sampson spoke of the history of the treaty of 1855, and the ensuing war of settler encroachment. Another person from the Caddo tribe, of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, spoke about how TansCanada desecrated their sacred sites and created divisions in their tribe to make the Keystone XL pipeline.
There was one brush up with police.
According to a Portland Rising Tide member, “We said prayers at the megaload site and then approached it to take a group picture. The security guard flipped out and called the police, so we moved several feet away … A few Pendleton police cars showed up within 3 minutes, and advised everyone not to get into any physical confrontations with the workers or get hit by drunk holiday drivers.”
The megaload is illegally slated to move through Umatilla Accustomed Sites for hunting, gathering, and fishing, on its way to the Alberta tar sands, where it will manufacture oil to be shipped through the KXL pipeline (and, potentially, the Pacific Northwest).
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