Above All Else-thepeople

David Daniel, a former stunt man and high-wire performer, was surprised to find surveyor stakes on his property in 2008 and began to investigate the tar sands pipeline that would cross his land.

Daniel welcomed Tar Sands Blockade, an activist group, onto his property and together they built a visually stunning "tree village" in the path of the pipeline.

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Daniel's friend and neighbor Eleanor Fairchild (here, with Echo on her family farm in East Texas) also joined the protest against the Keystone XL.

Family farmer Julia Trigg Crawford refused to sign an easement agreement and fought the pipeline company, TransCanada, all the way to the Texas Supreme Court.

With a large tree stand and traverses to travel through the treetops, Daniel prepared for a long stand-off with the pipeline company.

Susan Scott (here, with her great-granddaughter) offered her land for Tar Sands Blockade to host the Texas Keystone Convergence.

Tar Sands Blockade built and occupied "The Wall" across the right-of-way on Daniel's land, daring TransCanada to force its way through.

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commented 2014-04-09 22:01:21 -0500 · Flag

I lived up in Fort Mac for a number of months. The town, not the Sands (I was curious.) This thing is coming no matter and I think in life we make choices and the choice you have made is the most difficult (as, sorry, but you’re going to lose.) They’re going to build this thing no matter. I admire the fight you have picked, I just don’t think this is going to end well for your family; and as the protector of your family, you have to put their safety and interests fist. My opinion is that this is not putting your family’s interest (i.e. safety), first, but the interest of the environmental movement. At the end of the day (this), this pipeline, will be laid (there, somewhere), and the environmental movement will have left you for the next fight. That’s the way it is with fundamentalism, it’s all about the scale… bigger, better, them.

I’ll pray for you. But consider your children and not the movement—JW

The People

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