Representatives from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, today to inform the Council about the human rights issues associated with the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Tribe’s reservation.
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When construction began, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe started protesting near a North Dakota town called Cannon Ball. The tribe claims it wasn’t properly consulted about the pipeline and that the proposed lake crossing less than a mile north of its reservation threatens its water supply and sacred sites. “This is just one more way that people here can show their support for the Standing Rock Sioux – and for clean water everywhere”, Brugger said.
Nearly 1,300 archeologists, museum directors and historians have signed a letter to the Obama administration protesting the destruction of Native American burial grounds by the builders of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline (DAP). Shortly after, the U.S. Department of Justice intervened and requested that the Army Corp of Engineers to temporarily stop authorization for construction of the pipeline while previous decisions regarding the reservoir are reviewed.
The 1,172-mileDakota Access pipeline is to begin in the western oil patch in North Dakota and run through South Dakota and Iowa before ending in IL. The Canadian Energy Pipeline Association, whose members include the targeted companies as well as many others, issued their own statement, saying they would listen to what the aboriginal tribes had to say.
The DAPL was originally meant to cross the Missouri river north of Bismarck but was redesigned due to concerns regarding the local residents’ water supply in the case of a leakage.
The Associated Press contributed to this article. The protest has also garnered the support of a wide variety of activist groups, including environmentalists, the Black Lives Matter movement and even a group of 50 museum directors.
There are several pipeline proposals that affect the Capital Region, Perrin said, so raising awareness about the dangers pipelines pose is important. The company also says the pipeline will employ advanced technology to ensure safety and reliability. The only thing that will change is the public and national media’s attention to the Native Americans and their protest against the pipeline.
North Dakota Republican Party Chairman Kelly Armstrong, a state senator from Dickinson, said he’s comfortable that Dakota Access chose the route and “went through the proper process”. In the week following, freelance mercenaries hired by the pipeline company released German shepherds onto protesters.
As reported by Hyperallergic, bulldozers for the pipeline construction plowed through burial grounds and sacred sites in South Dakota earlier this month, leading to a confrontation between demonstrators and security.
Commenting on the archaeologists’ petition later that day, Archambault spoke of the federal government’s failure to uphold its trust responsibilities to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and what it had cost his people.
Grijalva said the pipeline threatened the tribe’s natural resources and said the project was part of a “long history of pushing the impacts of pollution onto the most economically and politically disadvantaged people and communities across this country”.
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The Obama administration said Friday that it has invited leaders from 567 federally recognized tribes to participate in a series of consultations aimed at getting input on infrastructure projects.
