Sputnik: As the Biden administration took control, they quickly cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline extension, a contract that your organisation was preparing to invest big money into. What was your reaction?
Travis Meguinis: Our reaction, is we are still, strategically, finding our reply; how we are going to be moving, as far as dealing with Biden.
Obviously, Biden thinks that indigenous people don’t matter, anything that we have done to create I guess generational health and wealth ware for our people – none of this concerned [him].
But that remains to be seen. You know, we, as First Nations people, are the rightful sovereign land keepers here for this territory in North America, which we call Turtle Island.
So, you know, we want to ensure that our messages get heard. And we are going to be meeting next week with all the chiefs. We are coming together, almost all the chiefs. And we have the biggest law firms representing us here in North America.
So, we are not just a bunch of Indians and cheap bees. You know, we are very well-organised and as you see, we did a deal with TCE (TC Energy). And that deal is still on, right, in our eyes, in our partners’ eyes, TCE. We have never really put [the] actual amount up there but, yeah, we have put a multi-billion dollar deal together. And we have been saying in North America [it is] billions [of] dollars but, at the end of the day, it is strategic for us as First Nations – we like to stay low, right. We stay low. We try not to let people know what we are doing until we do it.
You know, we really like a true warrior society out here. Anything that we do, we stay focused. We stay alert on what needs to be done. You know, I am sure when we do go out, because it is our, traditionally as men, our job to be protectors and providers for our nations. It is a universal thing, because there’s over a thousand tribes in North America, easily. In Canada alone, is like 700 First Nations, speaking different languages, in Canada alone. And it is probably the same in the US.
And also, we, as First Nations, we have come to learn this Western society and civilisation, but we have never, ever, forgotten our natural laws. That’s what natural laws means, our natural laws are what [the] Creator has given us.
You know, the historical thought upon this is that we don’t look down on any religion or anybody else that is out there and how they pray and what their faith and belief is. But we are people of faith and belief as well and we have come to learn Western civilisation’s education. But our education is in our ceremonies. It’s in our language. You know, it’s in our sacred gifts, it’s in our songs. And that education from what we are taught was from time immemorial and that is Creator, God-given education.
That’s the difference between us and the newcomers to this territory. It’s that our education is God Creator-given. And that is why it is so important for us to stay true and honest – it’s because we believe that is where our education is coming from.
Sputnik: With the Keystone XL, are you still hoping that this is not the end of the discussion, you are hoping that your voice will be heard?
Travis Meguinis: I don’t know if it’s about hope, right? You know, I believe that we, as First Nations, will be heard. And there will be a time when, you know… we strategically meet early next week, you know. And we always knew that this has been worldwide internationally - not just televised - but broadcast and on the world wide web.
If Putin is willing to sit with the chiefs over here with Natural Law - you know, listen to us. Maybe there’s ways we can always help one another, right? Because we are sovereigns, we have treaties. We were never conquered out this way. We were never conquered. We are the only people ever to take down the US Army, and we did that in 1876. You know, when the Sioux - and that’s our treaty allies that we had treaty with - there was a lot of southern Alberta, Rocky Mountain, prairie work parties that went down to help Sitting Bull take down the US cavalry. And we took them down.
