I just found this story last night. (Cory also has a post) Good for them. It appears the truckers wanted to go through the reservation to avoid weigh stations and fees;
Five Lakotas on Pine Ridge Indian land in South Dakota were arrested Monday after attempting to block two tarsands pipeline trucks from entering their land. According to the Lakota activist the six-hour standoff started when the trucks refused to turn around claiming they had “corporate rights that supersede any other law.â€
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OsHPnffvYI&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
So rather than see an opportunity to set up a business serving these folks and create some economic sunshine in a cloudy area they instead protest. Bully for Pine Ridge!
Beating up their roads with overweight trucks is not economic sunshine.
The trucks start across the res, with no permission asked for from a sovereign nation, and they should be welcomed? Really?
The roads on the res are in poor shape. Those trucks would soon make them impassable. And then the truckers arrogantly tell them that they have no say in what happens to their roads?! And the people are supposed to be okay with that?!
I’m just thinking about someone deciding to drive a huge truck across our farm. Dad drives out there in a pickup, grille to grille with that truck. He asks them what the hell they are doing on his land. They tell him, “We are driving across here because the state said we could. If you don’t like it, too bad. You have no say in this.”
Dad says, “Oh. Okay sir. Whatever you say sir. In the meantime, can I sell you a glass of lemonade?”
Yeah, right.
“The Indian Reservation Roads Program addresses transportation needs of tribes by providing funds for planning, designing, construction, and maintenance activities. The program is jointly administered by the Federal Highway Administration’s Federals Lands Highway Office and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in accordance with an interagency agreement.” – http://flh.fhwa.dot.gov/programs/irr/
Sounds like a management issue then, as well the roads are PUBLIC, thus the public may use them. Also, Ogalala Sioux Tribe of Pine Ridge allocated 4.1 million for roads fiscal year 2011. So then I guess the road would be Federal and not so much sovereign?
Jim, the state of SD’s roads are federally funded. Who has sovereign authority over them? The Feds? Or the state?
It was a weigh station issue, as I understand it. And as far as I am concerned, Foreign companies using our roads is a privilege, not a right.
Depends on the road, for the most part the State does the maintenance. I’m not surprised they would be dodging the scales, however the whole foreign companies using our roads is a privilege, they pay taxes to use them just like U.s. based companies do.
Jim, have you ever used any of the roads on the Pine Ridge or Rosebud? Or any SD res? They are uniformly poorly constructed, with a thin layer of bituminous, or whatever, that breaks down quickly.
In addition, counties set weight restrictions on their roads, as does SD DOT. Why wouldn’t a res be able to create restrictions on their roads?
Again, it’s not as if this company gave notice, asked permission, or anything evenly minimally respectful. They just drove out there and Told the residents, Too Bad!
DE is right, this wasn’t an authorized trip. He is also correct about the roads on the rez. Terrible. They were clearly trying to circumvent the law when it comes to the weight of their loads.
It’s just another example of corporate welfare and corporations socializing their costs to the poorest, disadvantaged citizens while the corporations privatize their profits. Nothing more.
Those truckers should be relieved it wasn’t the hay days of the AIM revolt. There would have been much more then a blockade waiting for them.
Saw another video in which one of the truckers was asked by the Tribal Police if they had a permit. The trucker said “We’ve got a state permoit”. The Tribal cop asked “So, is this a state road?” The trucker said “No.” That’s all you need to know.
We should just start calling ourselves Trans Dakota.