{"id":45770,"date":"2016-08-30T14:29:54","date_gmt":"2016-08-30T18:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/?p=45770"},"modified":"2016-08-30T14:29:54","modified_gmt":"2016-08-30T18:29:54","slug":"native-americans-standing-dakota-access-pipeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/native-americans-standing-dakota-access-pipeline\/","title":{"rendered":"Native Americans Standing Up Against Dakota Access Pipeline"},"content":{"rendered":"
Originally published on EdenKeeper.org<\/strong><\/em><\/a> Joining several hundred members of North Dakota’s Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in D.C., actors Susan Sarandon, Shailene Woodley, and Riley Keough added their voices of support. Everyone was awaiting the judge’s decision to impose a legal injunction halting the pipeline’s construction.<\/p>\n Filed by EarthJustice on behalf of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the legal motion called for a preliminary injunction on the Dakota Access Pipeline because it threatens to desecrate sacred tribal lands and pollute the water. Traveling through the Tribe’s ancestral lands, it will also pass within a half of a mile of the present Sioux reservation. EarthJustice stated, “An oil spill at this site would constitute an existential threat to the Tribe\u2019s culture and way of life.”<\/p>\n Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault II added<\/a>, “The pipeline presents a threat to our lands, our sacred sites and our waters, and the people who will be affected must be heard.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With about 15,000 members across the US, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has around 8,000 members living on tribal lands in North Dakota. Archambault and Tribe officials say that, by crossing Lake Oahe and the Missouri River, the pipeline will disturb sacred sites and burial grounds on ancestral Treaty lands.<\/p>\n Archambault stated, “We have laws that require federal agencies to consider environmental risks and protection of Indian historic and sacred sites<\/a>. But the Army Corps has ignored all those laws and fast-tracked this massive project just to meet the pipeline\u2019s aggressive construction schedule.”<\/p>\n The Tribe fears the pipeline could spill and contaminate the river, which supplies irrigation and drinking water, and holds great spiritual and cultural value for Native Americans.<\/p>\n EarthJustice Attorney Jan Hasselman noted<\/a>, “Pipelines spill and leak\u2014it\u2019s not a matter of if, but when. Construction will destroy sacred and historically significant sites. We need to take a time out and ensure that the Corps follows the law before rushing ahead with permits.”<\/p>\n In January 2015, more than 50,000 gallons of Bakken crude oil spilled into Montana’s Yellowstone River<\/a>. In 2010, the Kalamazoo River in Michigan was the site of an even worse pipeline spill. One million gallons of toxic bitumen crude oil spilled into the river, costing over one billion dollars to clean up. Contamination still remains there, reports<\/a> Earthjustice.<\/p>\n
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\nHolding down two fronts in the battle against the Dakota Access Pipeline, Native Americans and supporters are swelling in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, and outside a courthouse in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\nThe Standing Rock Sioux Tribe<\/h3>\n