OKLAHOMA
CITY
(AP)
—
Tribal
representatives
and
environmentalists
on
Jan.
30
promised
an
encampment
similar
to
the
ongoing
protest
against
the
Dakota
Access
pipeline
in
North
Dakota
to
oppose
the
Diamond
Pipeline
planned
from
Oklahoma,
across
Arkansas,
to
Tennessee.
“There
definitely
will
be
an
encampment
in
Oklahoma
in
the
near
future,”
said
Mekasi
Camp
Horinek
of
the
Ponca
Nation
and
the
Bold
Oklahoma
protest
group,
but
he
declined
to
say
when
or
where
it
would
be
held.
“That
is
an
undisclosed
location
at
this
time,”
Horinek
said.
“You
‘could’
expect
something
from
us
later
today,
you
never
know.”
Critics
of
the
project
say
the
pipeline
could
be
damaged
by
the
numerous
earthquakes
that
have
struck
Oklahoma
in
recent
years,
threatens
the
environment,
rivers
and
Indian
burial
grounds.
“It
also
affects
the
Trail
of
Tears,”
said
Michael
Casteel,
a
director
of
the
American
Indian
Movement,
in
reference
to
the
route
along
which
Indians
were
forcibly
removed
from
their
lands
in
the
southeastern
United
States
in
the
1800s
to
be
settled
in
present-day
Oklahoma.
“There
are
thousands
of
unmarked
graves,”
along
the
route
that
included
parts
of
Tennessee
and
Arkansas,
Casteel
said,
“this
is a
tragedy.”
The
440-mile
pipeline
by
Plains
All
American
Pipeline
and
Valero
Energy
Corp.
would
extend
from
Cushing,
Oklahoma,
across
Arkansas,
capable
of
transporting
200,000
barrels
per
day
of
domestic
crude
oil
to a
Valero
refinery
in
Memphis,
Tennessee.
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