Native Nations March on DC: ‘This is a Standing Rock Moment’

On December 4, 2016, thousands of protesters gathered on Standing Rock Sioux territory in North Dakota cheered when news broke the Army Corps of Engineers would halt construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe led the march, joined by other tribes and advocacy groups who have long wrangled with authorities over the controversial pipeline in North Dakota and other indigenous issues.

A few camp structures remain on private land on the reservation, while people who intend to remain actively opposed to Dakota Access and the KeystoneXL pipelines have been invited to a camp at Eagle Butte, S.D., on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation.

Teepees were erected on the National Mall near the White House as tribes from around the US gather for four days of protests against the Trump administration and its advancement of the Dakota Access pipeline.

That move cancelled an environmental study ordered under the administration of former president Barack Obama. The company expects to wrap up the work and have oil flowing this month. “We have awakened so many folks to water rights issues, to indigenous land rights issues, to the issues that face women of color and marginalized communities”.

The Dakota Access pipeline was proposed to carry up to 570,000 barrels a day of Bakken crude to IL.

In the month of April in the year 2016, an archeologist from the Army Corp had reported 30 similar sites that were of great cultural value and were located near the route of Dakota Access Pipelines. Goudy pointed out that the United States government invoked this doctrine as late as the 1950s in a Supreme Court case involving a dispute with Native Americans. On its website, Energy Transfer Partners notes that Lake Oahe already contains eight other pipelines. “We’re going to do whatever we can to make sure that the oil doesn’t continue to flow if it starts to flow”.

After taking office in January, Trump signed two executive orders that paved the way for completion of both pipelines – part of his agenda to revitalize the domestic energy industry.

“The line will be considered fully operational once the crude reaches Patoka”, she said.

The march concluded at Lafayette Square across from the White House.

“The people from Standing Rock.it’s like family”, Banerjee said.

While that initial Standing Rock effort failed, the Corps put a voluntary hold on construction while it reviewed the project anew.