This event has been canceled because of a medical emergency. It may be rescheduled for a later date.

Oglala Vice President Tom Poor Bear will speak at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 11, in Room S401 of the Pappajohn Business Building, to share why the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is a threat to the Oglala Lakota Nation and other native peoples and native lands.

Poor Bear is the vice president of the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Nation and a longtime American Indian activist. He is a leader in the Native American opposition to the pipeline, which would carry tar-sands crude oil mined in Alberta, Canada, 1,700 miles across the Great Plains to Gulf Coast refineries.

The Oglala Lakota Nation argues the pipeline not only violates territorial rights granted to them in an 1868 treaty, but also puts their water resources at great risk. The proposed pipeline would cross several important rivers and streams, as well as a system that pumps water from them to the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservations.

Poor Bear's lecture is part of a tour in Iowa Oct. 10-11 to show the impact of the pipeline on Native American lands and educate Iowans about energy alternates.

Sponsors of this tour include Iowa Interfaith Power & Light, Sierra Club, Central Iowa Sierra Group, Prairiewoods, the Iowa Wildlife Federation, the Iowa State University National Affairs Lecture Series, the University of Iowa Office of Sustainability, and the Drake Environmental Science and Policy Program.