The planned pipeline is expected to run from North Dakota to southern IL. “Hundreds of indigenous activists have been peacefully protesting the construction of this crude oil pipeline on ancestral lands for months, and thousands have joined the movement nationally to keep fossil fuels in the ground and stop pipelines from North Dakota to North Carolina”. “Hopefully now that President Obama is reacting to our cries, he can really make a positive impact for our future and prevent this from happening”, said protestor Megan Weeks.
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Archambault told the commission the 1,172-mile, $3.8 billion pipeline that would move 450,000 barrels of crude daily from the Bakken oil fields to a hub in IL “threatens our communities, the river and the earth”.
Energy Transfer Partners, headquartered in Dallas, Texas has spearheaded the four-state, 1886-km Dakota Access project, already constructing more than half the pipeline, which, when completed, would stretch from Stanley, North Dakota, near the Canadian border, to Patoka, in southern IL. The pipeline is being built by Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, which says it intends to finish the project despite numerous legal delays.
“We are standing here today, and we stand with Standing Rock”, Said Deni. “Against us now for what we all been doing/On the sacred land there’s a battle brewing”.
“There was a great vibe and sense of community there”.
Editor’s note: The writer is chairman of the Shinnecock Indian Nation. “With the recent revelations that easements were not property obtained by the corps of engineers, it is important to continue to monitor and support their efforts”.
The decision by the Army Corps to route the pipeline less than a mile upstream of the Standing Rock Reservation is a defilement of treaty law, specifically the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty.
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The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe experienced a victory last Friday when the Department of Justice blocked construction on part of the pipeline.
