ROSEAU RIVER ANISHINABE FIRST NATION
GOVERNMENT
P.O. Box 30, GINEW, Manitoba R0A 2R0
Fax # 204-427-2584
Phone # 204-427-2312
(204) 427-2312 FAX: (204) 427-2584
October 14th 2009
Senator Byron Dorgan
312 Federal Building
PO Box 2579
Bismarck, ND 58502
Fax 701-250-4484
Senate Office FAX: (204) 427(204) 427-2312
322 Hart Senate Office Bldg
2584DC
Washington,
20510
Fax 202-224-1193
Dear Senator Dorgan
Re: Canadian Indigenous People and Oil
Four Dakota Nations in North and South Dakota are currently in US court over the Transcanada
Keystone Project. This pipeline will eventually send 1.1 million barrels of Alberta Tarsands oil
per day to Cushing Oklahoma through a pipeline crossing not only North and South Dakota but
also Manitoba. I wish to advise you that this is an issue we as Indigenous people north of the 49th
parallel share with our Dakota brothers and sisters. Your service as Chairman of the Senate
Indian Affairs Committee and the Democratic Policy Committee proves that you are the key
person we need to communicate with.
Your website is modern and shows your ability to communicate effectively.
Senator Dorgan is a strong advocate of energy policy that will move our country
aggressively toward the use of renewable energy and domestic energy sources, and
away from our dangerous reliance on foreign oil. As Chairman of the Senate Energy
and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, he has worked to fund development of
renewable energy sources like wind, solar and biofuels, as well as clean coal research
that will help us find better ways to use the resource that fulfill 50 percent of our
nation's energy needs.
Senator Dorgan is the author of the New York Times bestselling book "Take This Job
and Ship It: How Corporate Greed and Brain-Dead Politics Are Selling Out
America," and a newly released book "Reckless: How Debt, Deregulation, and Dark
Money Nearly Bankrupted America (And How We Can Fix It!)."
As an author on economics, you may appreciate that in May of 2005, I wrote a two page article called the
New Reality which no mainstream media outlet would publish. The first two paragraphs were
In 2001, the United States economy was extremely healthy with a $128 billion surplus and
expected $5.6 trillion worth of surpluses for the next ten years. Within four years the bright
economic forecast had become a far different reality. In 2004, United States deficit was $412
billion; public debt was pegged at $43 trillion. Federally, US national debt was $7.7 trillion
and in 2005 the expected deficit is $427 billion, an average $1.2 billion daily increase in
debt. By far, United States is the world’s biggest economy, 15 times larger than Canada’s
economy but no one expects United States can maintain it’s current debt load. Even at
current low interest rates it requires 80% of all money borrowed at the World Bank just to
cover interest on the US debt. This is the new reality; United States can financially implode
and cause a worldwide recession perhaps even a depression.
United States by itself spends as much on military expenses as the next 13 largest military
countries in the world combined. Steven Maich reports in Macleans (March 02, 2005),
“Between 2001 and 2004, the annual budget for the Pentagon and domestic security rose by
US87.1 billion, an increase of 27.5 percent in four years”. The cost of wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan coupled with a future that includes 77 million baby boomers reaching their
unproductive years, high medical costs, and a commitment to lower taxes makes Americans
used to living on credit, a country headed for financial disaster. Credit card junkies,
Americans represent 5% of the world population but consume 25% of the world’s oil.
Americans in a deep recession unable to live in their accustomed lifestyle could become a
military superpower with an unstable government.
Your fight to get America independent of foreign oil is a matter of national security, one
which I share with you. In July 2008, oil was $147 a barrel and some Americans were
paying $4 a gallon at the gas pump. At that rate the United States was sending over $500
billion a year to foreign nations for oil. Oil is again nearing $75 a barrel. Watch it climb in
the next few months. The security of oil from Canada is critical to the States.
President Obama has issued an invitation to all Native American leadership to meet with
him on November 5th in Washington D.C. and it is being billed as a Nation to Nation
summit. A day before the Obama/Native American summit, Indigenous leadership from
Canada will be in Washington D.C. to speak to the issue of Canadian oil and resources
being purchased by the United States. We need Congress and the Senate to hear us.
Please be assured that our only objective is to get Americans to organize fact finding trips to
Canada and to be able to judge for themselves what is happening in Canada. You can view our
information at www.runforhumanrights.com, to see whether or not we are on the right track. Please
find attached an agenda for our Press Conference at the National Press Club for November 4 th
2009 in Washington. I invite you to attend. Every week, the Canadian Department of Natural
Resources is in Washington working with and lobbying for the sale of resources to the
Americans. I ask you to hear from the real owners of those resources. When 72% of all foreign
investment in Canada comes from Americans, you need to ensure that potential events in Canada
don’t blindside the United States.
Both United States and Canada voted against the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous People. The Declaration is however, an international standard, whether the U.S. and
Canada supported it or not. Shouldn’t America and Canada be bound by the Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous People, because like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it too is
an international standard!
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. We hope that both the Senate and Congress will
send people to hear the information we will present on Wednesday November 4th 2009 in
Washington. If you can suggest some other venue or process by which we can get information to
the Senate and Congress, we would appreciate any advice you are able to give us. My direct
contact number is my cell phone at 204-782-4827.
As our Dakota brothers and sisters say, Wopida!
Sincerely
Chief Terrance Nelson
c.c.
Prime Minister Harper
President Obama
National Congress of American Indians
Assembly of First Nations
Embassies and Consulates
General Release and posted on our website
First Nations from Canada will be in Washington D.C. November 4th 2009
National Press Club, First Amendment Room (seats up to 85 people)
Agenda
11:00 a.m.
Chief Terrance Nelson and Treaty 1 Chiefs
How dangerous is the situation in Canada?
20 minutes
11:20 a.m.
Buffalo Point First Nation members – Ernest Cobiness
The quest for democracy
11:30 a.m.
Presentation from Dakotas
Government considers Dakotas “Refugees” in Canada
11:40 a.m.
500 Murdered and Missing Women in Canada
Presentation by First Nations Women
11:50 a.m.
Grand Chief David Harper on Health
Northern isolated First Nations
12:00 Noon
Treaty 6, 7, & 8 on the issue of Canadian Oil and Gas
“We are the Real Owners of the Tarsands”
12:15 p.m.
Shoal Lake First Nation
Re: Water, lifeblood of the people
12:25 p.m.
Question and answers media
What can Americans do?
12:45 p.m.
Summary of Press Conference
Restate the objective and solutions
President Obama invites Native American Nations to meet in
Washington D.C.
Subject: White House announces summit
Monday, October 12, 2009
Filed Under: Politics
The first Tribal Nations Conference will be held in Washington, D.C.,
on Thursday, November 5, the White House announced today.
Invitations are being sent to all 564 federally recognized tribes.
Each tribe can send one representative.
"I look forward to hearing directly from the leaders in Indian Country
about what my administration can do to not only meet their needs, but
help improve their lives and the lives of their peoples," President
Barack Obama said. "This conference will serve as part of the ongoing
and important consultation process that I value, and further
strengthen the nation-to-nation relationship."
Tribal leaders heard about the summit during the morning session of
the National Congress of American Indians conference in Palm Springs,
California. Kim Teehee, a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma
who serves as Indian policy adviser at the White House, said Obama is
listening to Indian Country."
"It's your house too," Teehee told attendees.
NCAI President Joe Garcia welcomed news of the summit. “Indian Country
has been waiting for well over a decade for a meeting of this calibre
with the President of the United States. I commend President Obama for
setting this precedent for his administration’s nation to nation
working relationship with tribes."
"We have an ambitious agenda to strengthen economic development and
improve tribal government services. Tribal leaders are very satisfied
that President Obama is fulfilling his promise to meet with tribal
leaders on a regular basis during his term in office," added Garcia,
who will end his term as president this week.