Tribal leader encouraged by Dakota Access delay

The almost 1,200-mile oil pipeline would span from North Dakota to IL. That same day, on a hill overlooking the Missouri, protesters gathered to pray at a sacred burial ground along the pipeline’s path. Dozens were teargassed by police and shot with rubber bullets while construction continued under the protection of sheriff’s deputies. NPR’s Cheryl Corley is with us from Bismarck, N.D. Hi there, Cheryl.

CHERYL CORLEY, BYLINE: Hi. “If it gets to the point law enforcement has to tell us to settle down, we have failed”. “Clearly they’re not going to stop unless we make them”. 92 feet does not provide a great enough distance to keep the crude oil away from the clean water that the river maintains. We welcome all messages from concerned citizens voicing their opinion about the Dakota Access Pipeline. It would hook up to an existing pipeline in IL.

The company says the pipeline would be a more efficient and safer way to transport oil from the Bakken shale of North Dakota to the Midwest and onto the U.S. Gulf Coast.

“Maybe the Army Corps will look at this, but this city and much of our economy are built on oil and gas”, she said. It was one of hundreds of demonstrations around the country Tuesday in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota. And that’s what this fight has been about. What’s the scene been like there?

“It upsets me that, once again, the Indians are being mistreated”, said Vicki Chamberlin, a 54-year-old retired federal worker from Sugar Creek.

CORLEY: Yes, there have been some arrests. About five horse-mounted police officers arrived, creating a barrier around the arrest scene and ordering some of the more than 250 demonstrators to leave. Not only will the families living on the reservation have to relocate, but the country will also lose an important piece of valuable historic land.

JADE BEGAY: The movement’s growing. And I just don’t see people backing down on this one. NRDC stands in solidarity with our Indigenous sisters and brothers resisting the Dakota Access Pipeline, and we support their right to preserve their heritage, their water, and their sovereignty. Although happy about the news, protesters called for ending the of the use of all pipelines and the fossil fuels they carry. He is, though, an investor in the company building it. What is it they’re asking for? The women, who both have native backgrounds, said they had dropped out of school to protest the pipeline.

“We are outside the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office to urge them, along with the Obama administration, to deny the easement to drill under Lake Oahe”, she said, “to rescind the permits given under Nationwide Permit 12 and demand that a full environmental impact statement be conducted or reject the Dakota Access Pipeline outright”. “They had to bring kids to daycare, they had to go places, and they were scared to leave their home”, says Chris Lemke, Mandan resident.

“This is the right of the people to dissent from policies that are genocidal and eco-cidal”, said Al Gedicks, retired UW-La Crosse sociology professor and executive secretary of the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council. It seems like this dispute might outlast that administration.

And with President-elect Donald Trump poised to take power in January, Renville and others in the tribe worry they won’t have a fighting chance if it’s up to him to decide.