Spills in other states have been devastating, and our first responders, many of whom are volunteers in remote areas, worry not only about what chemicals might be added to the crude oil to ease its flow through the pipeline, but also about their ability to handle accidents.

TransCanada made the mistake of bullying our fiercely independent farmers and ranchers. Landowners say the company threatened to take their land if they didn’t cooperate and warned them that later offers of money would be much smaller if they delayed. TransCanada also insisted, landowners say, that they sign papers agreeing not to talk to the press or anyone about their agreements.

Many of our citizens had seen their parents or grandparents struggle to hold on to family land, and they weren’t about to give up their rights without a fight. Our government wasn’t helping, so they realized they needed to save themselves. Our citizen engagement arose from feelings of powerlessness. TransCanada had access to our legislators and the governor, but ordinary citizens, doing what we had been taught to do in our civics books, like writing or talking to our legislators, had virtually no impact. We had to create new ways to influence our politicians.

Today, we still don’t know what will happen with this pipeline. But we do know what has happened to us. Our coalition allowed us to transform our feelings of sorrow, fear, anger and helplessness into something stronger and more durable. We became agents of our fates and joined together in what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called a “beloved community.” We became a state of ordinary heroes who decided that money couldn’t buy everything and that some things were sacred.

The great global skirmishes of this century will be fought over food, energy, water and dirt. Our remote, conservative, flyover state seems like an odd place to make a stand for clean water and fertile land, but we will be at the heart of those battles. We are fighting not only for ourselves but for people all over the world. And we know that everywhere, in their particular places, people are fighting for us. The campaign to stop the Keystone XL is not over. It won’t be over until we give up, and we aren’t giving up.