Army Corps of Engineers Had Actually Recommended Dakota Access Pipeline Route Approval

The Standing Rock tribe says the pipeline threatens its water and cultural sites.

The portion that was to cross Lake Oahe was a half-mile upstream of the northern boundary of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation.

Native American and other activists celebrate after learning an easement had been denied for the Dakota Access Pipeline at Oceti Sakowin Camp on the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation on December 4, 2016 outside Cannon Ball, North Dakota. “Dakota Access knew how to put it in, so it must know how to take it out”, they said in court documents.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe had filed a lawsuit against the Corps of Engineers in July, alleging the federal government ignored their concerns when giving the oil pipeline final permits for construction. Later that day the US government denied the company permission to proceed.

Ward is encouraging campers to come to one of the shelters if they can get through the roads, which are “closing as fast as you open them”.

Richard Monette, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and director of the Great Lakes Indian Law Center said the exposure Koenig and other demonstrators brought to the Dakota Access Pipeline helped sway the Army Corps of Engineers.

LaNada War Jack, a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, said that the federal government announced its decision to not grant the easement on the same day that thousands of us veterans showed up in North Dakota to support the water protectors.

The company added it has no plans to reroute the line.

“I say it’s over”, said Archambault in response. For them, the day is won, the black snake is dead, and it’s time to head home. An undetermined amount of crude oil was spilled, the state said. “I think we need to keep the momentum going”.

Something most experts agree on, is that with an emboldened core of Native American activists advocating for tribal rights, and a growing push for more infrastructure projects in the energy-rich west that’s expected to accelerate under a Trump administration, more conflicts like Standing Rock are likely in the future.

“Although we have had a continuing discussion and exchanges of new information with the Standing Rock Sioux and Dakota Access, it’s clear that there’s more work to do”, said Assistant Secretary for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy in a statement released by the Army.

Tara Houska, an Indigenous lawyer, said, “This has gained the momentum it has because of solidarity from around the world and this very powerful gathering of Indigenous nations”.

Monday was a federal government-set deadline for the people to leave the camp that’s on federal land, though authorities have said they won’t forcibly remove anyone.

To address some of the risk of the heating methods, carbon monoxide detectors are included with the various cold-weather supplies distributed to protestors in the camp. “We’ve been picking up the trash, finding firewood, unloading trucks, whatever it is that needs to be done”, he said.

Archambault said nothing would happen over the winter before Trump takes power on January 20, so protesters should leave.

Archambault is diplomatic on that point. “And we were just there to whatever we can to support them. and if we have to be a human shield for them, that’s what we have to be”, Mike Lewis, Pipeline Protester. We’re not opposed to national security.

Howaste Wakiya, an enrolled member of the coastal band of the Chumash Nation, rejected the idea that Archambault could direct the movement, which has garnered support from hundreds of indigenous tribes, as well as climate change activists, celebrities, and, this week, hundreds of USA veterans.

“He’s welcome”, said Archambault.