SIOUX FALLS, SOUTH DAKOTA — -At a forum on South Dakota’s Rosebud Sioux reservation earlier in October, Democratic Senate candidate Rick Weiland listened to Native Americans voice their concerns about the impact the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline would have on their sacred water and future generations. The message resonated with Weiland, who told the crowd, “I’m not Indian, but I have an Indian heart.”
The event was part of Weiland’s tour of all 311 towns across the state in which he has been traveling with his minivan and guitar spreading his anti-big money, take back the government campaign agenda.
Weiland has vocally opposed the pipeline for economic, energy security and environmental reasons — a stance many politicians have been afraid to take, especially in energy-dominated states like South Dakota. In an interview with ThinkProgress, the candidate cited reports saying the pipeline would only create around 30 permanent jobs and 1,800 temporary jobs (“it’s like Macy’s hiring a staff for the holiday season”). When South Dakotans are informed that it’s an export pipeline which would bring “dirty tar sand oil” through the country, they immediately draw back their support, he said.
“It’s just another big lie coming from the proponents of this pipeline who are getting political contributions from Big Oil,” Weiland said. “I’ve called it a con job. That’s all it is — it’s a hoax on the American people and it’s a hoax on my state.”
By following through on his campaign goal to meet people in every town in South Dakota, Weiland has had the opportunity to speak with residents across the state about their views on the pipeline. He said he has even connected with conservative ranchers west of the Missouri River (a crucial dividing line in the ideology of the state) who are concerned with the potential environmental effects of the pipeline.
“They’re more interested in their living than I think they are in their party and they’re concerned about what happens if the pipeline breaks and destroys their land,” Weiland said. “I think being in opposition to Keystone, although it wasn’t the reason I did it, is actually working for me out there.”
Weiland’s resistance toward the pipeline has also helped him connect with South Dakota’s Native American population, who make up nine percent of the state — a crucial voting bloc, especially given retiring Senator Tim Johnson’s 2002 election win which came down to 524 votes in Native communities.
Native Americans staunchly oppose the pipeline for environmental reasons, arguing it would harm their sacred water and destroy their land. The newspaper Indian County Today warned its readers last week: “If Natives don’t vote, the Keystone XL Pipeline could be a thing of the future.”
Weiland has made efforts to reach out to Native Americans — he visited the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Spirit Camp which was organized to unite in opposition to the pipeline — and said his stance on Keystone XL has helped him connect with Natives on the nine reservations across the state.
“Their culture is so connected with the earth,” Weiland said. “I’ve taken such a bold and aggressive position — when they see that on something as controversial as Keystone, they know I’m going to go to bat for them in other areas, concerns and challenges that they’re facing.”
Weiland recognizes that his opposition to the pipeline won’t win over South Dakota’s conservative voters. “If this is going to cost me my election, then so be it,” he said. “At least it won’t cost me a night of sleep.”
Native groups in South Dakota have long been opposed to the construction of the pipeline — Natives at the Pine Ridge Reservation held a blockade in 2012 to stop trucks from bringing parts of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline through the reservation.
Republican candidate Mike Rounds has said he supports building the pipeline. Independent candidate Larry Pressler supports the pipeline, just not through South Dakota or the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the biggest underground freshwater sources in the world. A pipeline spill could threaten the Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies water to South Dakota and much of the central United States. Weiland maintains that the candidates who support the pipeline have been bought off by Big Oil.
On October 17, Weiland and Tea Party candidate Gordon Howie attended the Rosebud Sioux event at a school on the reservation in South Dakota. During the forum, tribal member Russell Eagle Bear spoke to the students and parents about the pipeline and then both Weiland and Howie addressed the audience — although Howie decided not to directly address Keystone XL.
“Our goal wasn’t just our people learning about them,” OJ Semans, director of the Native American voting rights group Four Directions, told ThinkProgress. “It was also them learning about us and why we take certain stances.”
At the forum, the Natives discussed the pipeline’s effect on the reservation’s sacred water and the tribes’ future generations. “Even though [Howie] wouldn’t talk about the XL pipeline, he knew why we were opposing it. Ours wasn’t the jobs, ours wasn’t the oil. Ours was the sacred water. And he’s never heard that before in all of the white debates he went to, but when he came to Indian country, he got an earful.”
Rosebud Community Liason Skeeter Leader Charge also joined Weiland in a performance of two of his now-viral campaign songs to the tune of Bob Dylan’s “Wagon Wheel” and Johnny Cash’s “I’ve Been Everywhere.”
“We carried Senator Johnson over the hill,” Leader Charge told the crowd. “We need you to do that for Rick Weiland.”
And Weiland told ThinkProgress that if elected, he will follow through with his end of the Keystone promise.
“I said, if we only turn out half of the Indian vote this election on all nine Indian reservations, Mike Rounds is going to win and Keystone will probably be built,” Weiland said. “But if you get out in record numbers, I’m going to win and I’ll do everything in my power to make sure Keystone never gets built.”