Tag: standing rock sioux tribe
Judge Denies Tribes’ Request To Block Final Link In Dakota Pipeline

Judge Denies Tribes’ Request To Block Final Link In Dakota Pipeline

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. federal judge on Monday denied a request by Native American tribes seeking to halt construction of the final link in the Dakota Access Pipeline, the controversial project that has sparked months of protests by activists aimed at stopping the 1,170-mile line.

At a hearing, Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., rejected the request from the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes, who argued that the project would prevent them from practicing religious ceremonies at a lake they contend is surrounded by sacred ground.

With this decision, legal options for the tribes continue to narrow, as construction on the final uncompleted stretch is currently proceeding.

Last week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted a final easement to Energy Transfer Partners LP, which is building the $3.8 billion pipeline (DAPL), after President Donald Trump issued an order to advance the project days after he took office in January.

Another hearing is scheduled for Feb. 27, as the tribes seek an injunction ordering the Army Corps to withdraw the easement.

Lawyers for the Cheyenne River Sioux and the Standing Rock Sioux wanted Judge Boasberg to block construction with a temporary restraining order on the grounds that the pipeline would obstruct the free exercise of their religious practices.

“We’re disappointed with today’s ruling denying a temporary restraining order against the Dakota Access Pipeline, but we are not surprised,” Chase Iron Eyes, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, said in a statement.

The company needs to build a 1,100-foot (335 meter) connection in North Dakota under Lake Oahe, part of the Missouri River system, to complete the pipeline.

The line would run from oilfields in the Northern Plains of North Dakota to the Midwest, and then to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico, and could be operating by early May.

Judge Boasberg ordered Energy Transfer Partners to update the court on Monday and every week thereafter on when oil is expected to flow beneath Lake Oahe.

The company did not respond to requests for comment.

Iron Eyes said during an earlier conference call that the pipeline would also cause economic harm to Native Americans.

In his statement, he said the tribe was still seeking an injunction against the pipeline, which would also be heard in Boasberg’s court. They also are continuing to push for a full environmental impact statement that was ordered in the last days of the Obama Administration.

“We continue to believe that both the tribes and the public should have meaningful input and participation in that process,” he said.

Thousands of tribe members, environmentalists, and others set up camps last year on Army Corps land in the North Dakota plains as protests intensified. In December, the Obama Administration denied the last permit needed by Energy Transfer Partners, but with Trump’s stated support of the pipeline that victory was short-lived for the tribes.

The Army Corps has said it would close remaining camps on federal lands along the Cannonball River in North Dakota after Feb. 22.

Tom Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, one of the primary groups protesting the pipeline, said people would continue to leave the main camp. He said he expected more demonstrations around the country.

Only a few hundred protesters remained, and crews have been removing tipis and yurts. The Standing Rock tribe has asked protesters to leave.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Additional reporting by Terray Sylvester in Cannon Ball, North Dakota; Editing by Nick Zieminski, Toni Reinhold)

IMAGE: Crews remove waste from the opposition camp. REUTERS/Terray Sylvester

Standing Rock Protests: Dogs, Mace Used On Peaceful Protestors

Standing Rock Protests: Dogs, Mace Used On Peaceful Protestors

The Standing Rock protests, which have now continued for months as the Standing Rock Sioux tribe fights against the Dakota Access oil pipeline and its potential to pollute their water supply, have reached a new level of violence, as private security guards working for the primary construction company associated with the project attacked the Native American protesters with dogs and pepper spray Saturday.

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! has been onsite covering the protests, and the network posted photos and video from the attack over this weekend. The protesters have been waiting for a ruling from a federal judge regarding whether the construction may be subject an injunction, but found a tribal burial site bulldozed over the weekend and have now asked for a temporary restraining order as well.

Goodman spoke to Jan Hasselman, a staff attorney with Earthjustice representing the tribe in the suit, and Dave Archambault, the chair of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

Archambault condemned the actions of the private security firm hired by the construction company for the Pipeline, saying officials’ reports about an “angry mob” and “riot scene” were false:

But it—that was not what was taking place. We had protectors who were concerned about the land. And it just goes to show what kind of a company Energy [Transfer] Partners is. They have—they have zero policies on community relations, zero policy on human rights, zero policies on Indian rights, indigenous rights. So, when a company is like that, they have no social responsibility, and they don’t care about anything. And they hire security companies with untrained handlers. And these handlers—the dogs were attacking the handlers. That’s why they released dogs into the crowd. And then they go and try to recover them. It just doesn’t make sense, and it’s not right, what this company, Energy [Transfer] Partners, is doing. They say they have every right to be there, but so do we.

A spokesperson from Dakota Access issued a statement indicating that security personal and several of their dogs were attacked. According to Archambault, the attack by the security company was completely unprovoked. Archambault also said that law enforcement began releasing statements to the public from the company without also releasing witness statements and protester statements about the incident.

According to tribe spokesman Steve Sitting Bear, at least six people were bitten by dogs including one child.

In late August, Greg Wilz, director of North Dakota Homeland Security, ordered the water supply for the protesters to be removed, citing alleged disorderly conduct.

Photo: NEW YORK, August 7 – Sioux youth from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota rallied with supporters in Union Square after running 2,000 miles across the United States to protest the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline. Flickr/Joe Catron

Standing Rock Protest Continues After Months As Tribe Fights For Ancestral Sites And Against Pipeline

Standing Rock Protest Continues After Months As Tribe Fights For Ancestral Sites And Against Pipeline

The Standing Rock Sioux tribe, together with more than a thousand indigenous activists from multiple other tribes, today continued their months-long protest of the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline, a $3.8 billion project that would transport oil across the state.

The protests began on April 1, and have shown no signs of slowing since then. The proposed pipeline would be 1,172 miles long and would run through South Dakota and Iowa, as well, to connect with an existing pipeline in Illinois. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe has sued federal regulators for approving the pipeline in the first place, challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s decision to grant over 200 permits for water crossings. The tribe argues the pipeline could harm drinking water for the more than 8,000 tribe members who live less than a mile downstream. The tribe also says the pipeline could impact the drinking water of millions more who live further way.

The suit also invokes the National Historic Preservation Act, as the tribe argues the pipeline could disturb ancient sites outside the reservation.

The protests are located in Sacred Stone Spirit camp, and have said their protest is intended to remain peaceful.

Work on the pipeline was paused recently after Energy Transfer Partners LP claimed its workers were under threat. The construction crews are now being guarded by police and independent security contractors and have won restraining orders against the protesters. Over 20 arrests have also been made.

Dave Archambault, chair of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe told Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman that the pipeline was a threat to the health of members of his tribe.

“And we never had an opportunity to express our concerns,” Archambault continued.

“This is a corporation that is coming forward and just bulldozing through without any concern for tribes. And the things that have happened to tribal nations across this nation have been unjust and unfair, and this has come to a point where we can no longer pay the costs for this nation’s well-being. We pay for economic development, we pay for national security, and we pay for energy independence. It is at our expense that this nation reaps those benefits. And all too often we share similar concerns, similar wrongdoings to us, so we are uniting, and we’re standing up, and we’re saying, ‘No more.'”

The Standing Rock protest has recently been gaining ground and publicity: actors Susan Sarandon, Riley Keough and Shailene Woodley joined the protest, through a demonstration outside a courthouse in Washington D.C. After the restraining orders were granted to the construction company, the tribe sought a preliminary injunction to stop construction. No decision has been made yet, but one is expected by District Court Judge James Boasberg by September 9.

“I’m here as a mother and a grandmother to thank the people of the Standing Rock community for bringing our attention to this horrible thing that is happening to their land, which in turn will endanger all of us … because all of our waters are connected,” said Sarandon, according to Reuters.

The Standing Rock protest is not the first of its kind, by a long shot. Opposition to the proposed Keystone pipeline, for example, went on for years.

Protesters include young tribe members, but also those who have a history of protesting government oppression of indigenous rights, including some protesters who participated in the 1973 Wounded Knee standoff to demand treaty rights.

The protest has been compared by some to Cliven Bundy and his son Ammon’s battle with the U.S. government for years over unpaid grazing fees and control of land. Ammon Bundy, with the help of his brother Ryan, undertook occupation of a wildlife refuge in Oregon earlier this year. According to Indian Country Today Media Network, the refuge the Bundy boys were occupying was formerly the Malheur Indian Reservation.

Photo: Dakota Access Pipeline protest at the Sacred Stone Camp near Cannon Ball, North Dakota. Flickr/Tony Webster