Media Advisory - First Nation Chiefs to travel to South Dakota to forge cross-border alliance with tribes opposing Keystone XL

TURTLE ISLAND, June 30, 2017 /CNW/ - A large delegation of Chiefs of First Nations from across Canada that are among the over 120 First Nations and Tribes who have signed the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion will be travelling to the sacred Black Hills of the Great Sioux Nation in South Dakota at the invitation of US Tribal leaders for a historic ceremony on July 4^th in opposition to TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline and the other three planned oil sands expansion pipelines (Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain Expansion, Enbridge's Line 3 and TransCanada's Energy East).

Just as Indigenous People have been engaging in acts of resistance in connection with the July 1^st Canada 150 celebrations, including through a ceremony to reoccupy unceded Algonuin lands in front of Parliament led by women, youth and elder water protectors, the delegation of Chiefs will be supporting the efforts of Tribes in the US to reclaim the upcoming July 4 US "Independence Day" as a day to mark their own independence as sovereign nations.

The gathering of Tribes of the Great Sioux Nation and Ponca Nation will feature the signing of treaties with the visiting First Nations which will squarely take aim at the policies of the Trump presidency. Leaders will sign: the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion, the KXL Declaration first signed on May 17, 2017 in Calgary as part of the "Remaking the Sacred Hoop" between the Blackfoot Confederacy and the Great Sioux Nation, and The Grizzly: A Treaty of Cooperation, Cultural Revitalization and Restoration. 

What: Ceremonial signing of the Indigenous Treaties - open to media
When: Tuesday, July 4, 2017, 11am local time (Mountain Time Zone)
Where: Black Hills room at the Holiday Inn Rushmore Plaza, Rapid City, South Dakota

The historic occasion will also be marked afterwards by ceremonies at the nearby sacred Bear Butte - open to media

SOURCE Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion

For more information, and for interviews ahead of the trip, please contact: Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion, [email protected], Cell: 514-445-4414; Grand Chief Serge 'Otsi' Simon, Mohawk Council of Kanesatake, Cell: 514-269-9152; Kevin Hart, AFN Regional Chief for Manitoba, Cell: 613-290-6283