The Standing Rock Sioux tribe has taken its case to the United Nations, addressing the human rights commission in Geneva on Tuesday.
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To show solidarity, more than a dozen local tribe members are packing up and driving down there.
“I am here because oil companies are causing the deliberate destruction of our sacred places and burials”, said Archambault.
“The Dakota Access pipeline presents a threat to the water that the tribe depends on”, organizer Heidi Brugger of Cortez said in a news release.
The oil pipeline is a $3.8 billion project meant to carry oil from North Dakota to IL, where it will connect with other pipelines.
The controversial pipeline, the letter said, was approved without a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), and also without any consultation with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other tribes in the region who would be directly affected by the infrastructure.
Activists argue pipeline leaks could damage sacred Sioux sites and would contribute to global warming through increased oil production. Energy Transfer Partners confirmed the purchase Friday but declined to provide further details.
Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II referenced the September 3 incident multiple times Tuesday as he took the pipeline fight to Geneva, Switzerland, asking the United Nations Human Rights Council to condemn “the deliberate destruction of our sacred places”.
Cody Hall, a spokesman for the Red Warrior Camp, which is demonstrating against the pipeline, said the self-described “water protectors” were there to support Olowan Martinez, 42, of South Dakota, who is being held at the Morton County Jail. Filed on behalf of the tribe by environmental group Earthjustice, the suit says the project violates several federal laws, including the National Historic Preservation Act, and will disturb sacred sites outside of the 2.3-million acre reservation. “We stand in peace but have been met with violence”.
Native American tribes took their fight to Washington on Thursday, Sept. 22, to stop development of a $3.7 billion oil pipeline, as Democrats in the U.S. Congress urged the federal government to scrap construction permits and reconsider the project.
The Cavalier Daily reached out to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Energy Transfer Partners for comment Wednesday evening and will update the article upon receiving any responses.
They say it is not just a Standing Rock Sioux issue; it is a human issue.
More than 1,200 archaeologists, anthropologists, curators, museum officials and academics have signed a letter in support of the protests against the Dakota Access pipeline and calling on the USA government and its agencies to further its halt on the construction of the oil facility.
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Archambault told NBC News that the trip to Geneva was facilitated by the Indian Law Resource Center, a US -based non-governmental organization that has consultative status at the Council.
