While some communities in northern Alberta try to work with companies like Shell and Syncrude to recieve some benefit from the Athabasca Oil Sands development, others are fighting the largest mining operation on earth as it destroys their traditional lands. Here is a brief summary of communities currently engaged in tar sands opposition:
Chief among these are the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and the Mikisew Cree First Nation who have concerns over the surrounding environmental destruction, pollution, and the high rate of cancer in their communities. Read more about their actions at Indigenous Environmental Network's Tar Sands Campaign.
The Lubicon Lake Nation and the Woodland Cree First Nation have been struggling for years with oil and gas development in their backyards (literally) that has seen the loss of their hunting and trapping economy in just the past few decades. More at Lubicon.org.
The Beaver Lake Cree Nation are currently suing the federal and provincial governments to uphold their treaty rights, by protecting the land from the tar sands which are obliterating their traditional hunting and fishing grounds. Raventrust.com has details.
Beyond Alberta's borders, Dene communities in the N.W.T. have rquested a moratorium on oil sands development, due to concerns over water pollution. In British Columbia, the Nadleh Whut’en First Nation and the Haida Nation are opposing plans to build a pipeline through their territiories, linking the oil sands to the west coast. In Minnesota, members of both the Fond du Lac and Leech Lake bands of Ojibwe are protesting an Alberta pipeline being built across their reservations.
photo of Syncrude's operation courtesy of Wikimedia commons.
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