By WINONA LADUKE

This Earth Day, let's quit being extremists.

That's what the U.S. economy relies on right now, and that's how the huge mineral and fossil fuel companies are making their money: extremism.

When they peel off layers of the Earth for oil and make poisonous tar sands, they are acting like extremists.
And when they crack and contaminate aquifers for natural gas, a process known as fracking, they are acting like extremists.

And when they blow off the top of a mountain for coal, or maybe just put an oil well in a pristine ecosystem and drill 20,000 feet down into the depths of our ocean, they are acting like extremists.

It is arrogant, and it is wrong.

And often, American Indians pay the price. Read more...

Please distribute these resources and links widely. These links are all focused on the many concerns, actions, and impacts Native and First Nations have been raising in the push against tar sands and the Keystone XL pipeline.

Talking Points:

*The Keystone XL tarsands oil pipeline will cross the drinking water pipeline of the Lakota Nation. The Lakota Nation tribe passed legislation opposing KXL and called upon every Lakota people to defend the water. In the words of one member of the Lakota Nation: "We will defend the water. The federal government, Transcanada or whoever will defend the Keystone is going to have to put us in jail, or kill us."
*The Oglala Sioux have passed a resolution through their tribal government to stop Keystone XL from entering their Treaty Territory Read more...