The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe took its fight to stop construction of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday in a bid to gather global opposition to the project.
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In a press release, the tribe stated that representatives from the Snoqualmie Tribal Council and more than 20 tribal members and their families are travelling to Cannon Ball, N.D., where they will deliver essential supplies to protesters.
Kirchmeier said the probe is focused not only on protesters but also whether the pipeline’s private security personnel with guard dogs were licensed and whether Dakota Access destroyed sacred sites as Standing Rock Sioux Tribe officials claim.
“The world needs to know what is happening to the indigenous peoples of the United States”, Archambault said in a statement, adding, “I hope the U.N. will use its influence and global platform to protect the rights of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe”.
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, first adopted in 2007 and endorsed by the United States in 2010, is a global statement of the rights of Indian and Alaska Native tribes, including rights of self-determination, self-government and autonomy, rights to lands and resources, the right to be free of violence and discrimination, and many other rights.
Dakota Access LLC, a partner of Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP, received permit approval for construction of the 1,172-mile, 30-inch-diameter Dakota Access Pipeline earlier this year, stretching from North Dakota to IL.
Members of the tribe and their supporters have camped out at the point where the proposed 1,168-mile pipeline would cross part of the Missouri River where the Sioux take water. It would carry oil directly underneath parts of the Missouri River.
The Meyers had paid the federal government for cattle grazing rights on a plot of land now occupied by the Sioux and other pipeline protesters, Forum said.
The narrative of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe has been canonized in storytelling and American history.
House Democrats and tribal leaders are urging federal agencies to pull back permits they have already issued for the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline. It is their hope that more than just a temporary halt on construction will take place, much like what happened when the Obama administration halted the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline a year ago.
Archambault said the pipeline violates the UN’s declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples and called on the United Nations to use its “influence and global platform” to help the tribe.
Smith said that change and the city’s stance on the pipeline fight would show support for groups ” which have historically been disenfranchised”.
In Nebraska, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department is heading up the probe of the September 3 incident on private land, after which private security guards and protesters reported injuries. Energy Transfer Partners’ willingness to proceed with the pipeline has produced a clear message.
The majority of the pipeline’s route travels across privately-held land and neither Lake Oahe or the land abutting it are owned or controlled by a Native American group. 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.
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Drums are pounded and signs are displayed in a peaceful protest opposing the Dakota Pipeline at the corner of Washington Avenue and State Street in Schenectady on Wednesday.
