AMANDA DEDIE
News Editor
As Native American History Month draws to a close, the Native American Student Union (NASU) has invited Winona LaDuke — an internationally acclaimed activist, author and orator — to speak in Rosch Recital Hall at 6 p.m. on Dec. 2 about “Love Water Not Oil: Native American Perspectives on the Keystone Pipeline” for the closing ceremony.
The purpose of the talk is to discuss the effect of the Keystone Pipeline on Native Americans. The Keystone Pipeline is an oil pipeline that runs from the city of Hardisty in Alberta, Canada, to Pakota, Illinois. It runs through over 1,000 miles of the United States and has caused much controversy over the political, environmental and economic ramifications.
However, few seem to take into account the effect it has on other parties, and that’s why LaDuke is coming to speak at Fredonia.
“[LaDuke] has been actively fighting to protect the land and to keep the water clean for a number of years,” said Jennifer Hildebrand, associate professor of history and coordinator of ethnic studies. “There are many Native American groups that oppose any sort of drilling and any sort of fracking … because of the effect it has on our land and on our drinking water.”
Hildebrand continued, “There are also some Native Americans that support [drilling and fracking]. They have a number of reasons. In some cases, those reasons are financial … There are opportunities to make money and opportunities to profit. When so many other doors are closed to them, there are compromises to make.”
Fredonia itself is less than an hour away from the Cattaraugus Reservation, home to the Seneca Nation of Indians. About 74 percent of its population is Native Americans.
Originally, New York wanted to buy the land, but the Seneca Nation Indians (SNI) refused to let them. Then, SNI wanted to ban New York State (NYS) citizens from driving through their reservation. This argument went back and forth for awhile until NYS told the SNI that if they did not let people drive through the reservation, it would label the SNI “terrorists” and declare war on them. The SNI relented, and this is the only reason that people can drive through the reservation these days.
NASU works to raise awareness of Native American culture, give credit where credit is due and to not discount their existence and traditions.
“The goal is to bring a bit more attention to Native American history, to make sure that we don’t continue to overlook their many contributions. We’re basically living on their land right now,” said Hildebrand. “We’re trying to do our best to respect their culture. I know it’s important to NASU, especially since we [went] home to celebrate Thanksgiving. We should really consider what Thanksgiving symbolizes historically, not just for the romanticized notion of that holiday.”
She added, “We asked Winona to come in and talk to us about that … We want to make sure that everyone understands that there are some real economic challenges [Native Americans] are facing, or that sometimes they’re often in a position where they’re caught between a rock and a hard place. They are very unique and diverse people who don’t always see things in the same way.”
NASU is hoping that holding this event will help raise awareness of Native American culture, and of the struggles that Native Americans face.
“Basically it’s us trying to show the student population and surrounding area the cool things about the Native American culture that a lot of people don’t know, either with fun activities or movies to show the history of what has happened to prevent the erasure of Native American culture,” said Olivia Melinski, a senior computer information systems major and vice president of NASU.
The club hopes that with this event, students will become not only more educated on the topic of the Keystone Pipeline itself, but of the effect it has on Native Americans and their land. Kaitlin Cox, a junior history major and secretary of NASU, describes that effect.
“It affects their land, and we’ve been talking mostly about how the colonial powers have been taking over land and how it doesn’t just affect Native Americans, it affects farmers, and anyone who lives in the area where the pipeline would be laid,” said Cox.
She continued, “From the Native American perspective, it’s just another way for bigger powers to take more from them and leaving them with even less than what they had to begin with. I hope they can be educated on the Keystone Pipeline but also on these issues as well.”