On Sunday, September 4, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) to “prevent further destruction of the Tribe’s sacred sites” by Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).
Thousands of people from more than 200 Native Tribes have joined the Standing Rock Sioux’s efforts to protect their lands, waters and sacred sites from harm during construction of the 1,200-mile pipeline. The Yurok, Hoopa Valley, Winnemem Wintu and other Tribes from California and the Klamath Tribes of Oregon have passed resolutions in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux while tribal members have traveled to the camp to join the defenders.
On Saturday, private security guards working for DAPL unleashed attack dogs on American Indian water protectors, drawing outrage from people throughout the country and world: www.dailykos.com/…
On the same day, “Dakota Access Pipeline and Energy Transfer Partners brazenly used bulldozers to destroy our burial sites, prayer sites and culturally significant artifacts,” Tribal Chairman David Archambault II said in a press release. “They did this on a holiday weekend, one day after we filed court papers identifying these sacred sites. The desecration of these ancient places has already caused the Standing Rock Sioux irreparable harm. We’re asking the court to halt this path of destruction.”
After the initial destruction Saturday, Dakota Access Pipeline returned to the area and dug up additional grounds in the pre-dawn hours Sunday, Archambault said.
“The motion seeks to prevent additional construction work on an area two miles west of North Dakota Highway 1806, and within 20 miles of Lake Oahe until a judge rules on the Tribe’s previous motion to stop construction,” according to Archambault. “That motion is based on the Standing Rock Sioux’s assertion that it was not properly consulted before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers fast-tracked approval of the pipeline project.”
A decision on the case, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is expected by Sept. 9.
“Destroying the Tribe’s sacred places over a holiday weekend, while the judge is considering whether to block the pipeline, shows a flagrant disregard for the legal process,” said Jan Hasselman, attorney for the Standing Rock Sioux. “The Tribe has been seeking to vindicate its rights peacefully through the courts. But Dakota Access Pipeline used evidence submitted to the Court as their roadmap for what to bulldoze. That’s just wrong.”
If built, the 1,200-mile pipeline would carry a half-million barrels of crude oil across the Tribe’s treaty lands each day, according to the Tribe.
In a message on Tuesday, September 6, Chairman Archambault said, "Today, as we remain peaceful and prayerful, I feel we are turning the corner! As the injustices implemented on our indigenous rights and lands start to surface, eventually, this great nation will do the right thing and stop the pipeline from crossing our water!"
As detailed in a report released by Food & Water Watch today, the Standing Rock Sioux are not just up against the oil and gas industry and the federal government. “They are up against the many of the most powerful financial and corporate interests on Wall Street, the profit-driven institutions that are bankrolling this pipeline plan and so many others like it throughout the country,” according to Jo Miles and Hugh MacMillan.
Seventeen financial institutions, including Citibank, Wells Fargo, and BNP Paribas,l have loaned Dakota Access LLC $2.5 billion to construct the pipeline. Banks have also committed substantial resources to the Energy Transfer Family of companies so it can build out more oil and gas infrastructure: