The Dakota Access Pipeline

[Premi]

Recorded a 'Witness' documentary on Al Jazeera news channel we get here in the UK, not watched it yet, but it's about this

https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/plains-treaties/dapl

TREATIES STILL MATTER

The Dakota Access Pipeline

 

The controversial construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) gained national and international attention when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers accepted an application filed by Energy Transfer Partners, a Texas-based developer behind the project.

The position of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is that the Dakota Access Pipeline violates Article II of the Fort Laramie Treaty, which guarantees the "undisturbed use and occupation" of reservation lands surrounding the proposed location of the pipeline. In 2015 the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, operating as a sovereign nation , passed a resolution regarding the pipeline stating that "the Dakota Access Pipeline poses a serious risk to the very survival of our Tribe and ... would destroy valuable cultural resources."

To generate momentum for their cause and demonstrate their opposition to the pipeline, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe organized runs, horseback rides, and marches. Many Native Nations, along with non-Native allies, celebrities, and several politicians supported the movement and travelled to join DAPL protesters at the Sacred Stone Camp on the Standing Rock Reservation. Conditions at the camp became intense. North Dakota law enforcement officials and private guards hired by Energy Transfer Partners clashed with protestors, sometimes violently, and made hundreds of arrests.

 

OPPOSING PERSPECTIVES

The New Yorker reported that the pipeline was originally supposed to cross the Missouri River near Bismarck, but it was moved over concerns that an oil spill at that location would have wrecked the state capital's drinking water. The Standing Rock Sioux oppose the construction of the pipeline on the grounds that an oil spill would threaten their water supply and cultural resources.

Bill McKibben, "A Pipeline Fight and America's Dark Past," The New Yorker, September 6, 2016; Ryan W. Miller, "How the Dakota Access Pipeline Battle Unfolded," USA Today, December 2, 2016

"The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is the safest and most environmentally sensitive way to transport crude oil ... to American consumers. It will be among the safest, most technologically advanced pipelines in the world." The pipeline will be 95 to 115 feet below Lake Oahe and far below the eight other pipelines that are uneventfully operating in the same area.

"The Dakota Access Pipeline is the Best Way to Move Bakken Crude Oil to Market," Dakota Access Pipeline Facts, 2016-2017, retrieved from https://daplpipelinefacts.com/