The company building the hotly contested North Dakota oil pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, went to extraordinary lengths to avoid trampling Native American ritual sites.
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The US Justice Department ordered a halt Friday to construction of an oil pipeline opposed by a native American tribe in North Dakota.
After Judge Boasberg said in his ruling that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decision to fast-track the pipeline project was not illegal, tribal leaders quickly filed a notice of appeal. The Standing Rock Tribe has since been joined by hundreds of other supporters, including other Native American activists and environmental groups.
In their joint statement, the three USA departments said they would schedule meetings with Native American leaders to discuss how the federal government can better consider the tribes’ views and respect their land.
The Dakota Access case highlights “the need for a serious discussion on whether there should be nationwide reform with respect to considering tribes’ views on these types of infrastructure projects”, the Justice Department said, noting a plan to invite tribes to formal consultations this fall.
The departments said they are inviting tribes to Washington to discuss new legislation to “ensure meaningful tribal input into infrastructure-related reviews and decisions and the protection of tribal lands, resources, and treaty rights”.
In the statement, the agencies acknowledged “important issues raised by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other tribal nations”.
U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg wrote in his decision that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe failed to show “it will suffer injury that would be prevented by any injunction the Court could issue”.
“The Corps will continue to assess and possibly revise this position in consideration of public safety concerns”, the agency said in court records.
“Indigenous people-we seem to have a solid sense of what sustainable stewardship looks like”, says Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network, speaking after a rally in Bismarck, N.D.
The President of the North Dakota Petroleum Council has expressed his disappointment with the intervention. The company declined comment Friday.
A banner protesting the Dakota Access oil pipeline is displayed at an encampment near North Dakota’s Standing Rock Sioux reservation on Friday, Sept. 9, 2016. The Corps announced it will not authorize construction on land near Lake Oahe until it determines whether it needs to reconsider any previous decisions for the site.
“We’re want to share this moment of spirit and solidarity with our brothers and sisters out at Standing Rock”. They said some National Guard members will work security at traffic checkpoints and another 100 would be on standby.
Much of the pipeline, according to the judge’s opinion, runs very close to already constructed pipeline.
“Protesters physically assaulted private security officers hired by Dakota Access Pipeline”.
Arrests were made in Iowa at a landowners’ protest last week.
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The company Energy Transfer Partners thought it had all the approval it needed to build the 1,172-mile-long, $3.78 billion pipeline.
