Editor’s Note: This campaign is by Action Network, check out their work here.
After many years of delays and a fatally flawed Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) written by a member of the American Petroleum Institute — a clear conflict of interest — the Army Corps of Engineers is finally taking public comments on this dangerous violation of the sovereignty of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The pipeline also endangers the Missouri River, which affects the health and wellbeing of 17 million people downstream.
We have another chance to demand that the government shut the pipeline down.
They need to hear from us, our Tribal Nations, Native communities, farmers, ranchers, environmentalists, friends, and all those who fish and hunt, to highlight our concerns. An oil company-tainted DEIS report is what the government has planned. There has been one leak after another. Every day the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) continues to exist risks a major, disastrous toxic oil spill poisoning the Missouri River — our sole water source — and the communities who live downstream.
This is a fight for our water, for all of our unborn generations, and for Mother Earth. To ignore these concerns is to operate outside the law, and outside our spiritual connection to the natural world.
To listen to our concerns is a matter of basic respect for our people and for the land and water itself. And it is a moral, inherent right that is guaranteed by our treaty.
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The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) was already rerouted from its original course north of Bismarck, North Dakota, due to concerns that a leak would poison the city’s water supply. Yet the same risks that were deemed too great for the state capital — and its predominantly white population — were considered tolerable on sacred land guaranteed to the Oceti Sakowin (Sioux Nation) by the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie.
The Standing Rock Sioux should have been part of the decision making. The building of DAPL was an abrogation of our unceded and sovereign rights.
DAPL will worsen climate change by pumping thousands of gallons of oil to market every day it is in operation. A toxic spill would endanger the water supply of the Standing Rock Sioux and millions of people living downstream. Yet construction of the pipeline was exempted from the requirements of the Clean Water Act.
Ignoring pending legal actions, treaty law, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, construction has already destroyed sacred burial places as builders of the pipeline continue without regard.
What is the value of legislation designed to protect precious water sources, when it is ignored and construction is “fast-tracked” in the face of an actual threat?
Thank you for taking action and “Standing with Standing Rock” today.
Janet Alkire
Tribal Chairwoman
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
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