The protest at the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota is quickly mounting into one of the most historic and important political events of our time. The ordeal surrounds the construction of an oil pipeline being built by Energy Transfer Partners and a group of protesters mostly of Native American descent that have named themselves Water Protectors. They claim that the underground pipeline, which is slated to transport 570,000 barrels of crude oil each day from North Dakota to Illinois, violates federal treaties that guarantee the protection of sacred Native American grounds and that it threatens the drinking water of millions as it passes under the Missouri River. What started as a local protest in 2014 has quickly snowballed into a massive political movement being watched around the world. Here’s why it matters.
Native Americans have been fighting to keep their land since the 1700’s.
The arrival of colonialism to North America brought war and genocide to Native Americans, and the few tribes that remained were eventually rounded up and confined to small reservations in the Northwest. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe was granted a portion of North Dakota land in the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868 in which they were supposed to act as a sovereign people within the country. However, in 1879 the government attacked the tribe in the Great Sioux War and after its victory seized the land and attempted to sell it back to individual families in an attempt to “civilize” the Native Americans and break loyalties to the tribe. When that failed, the government sectioned off the land and sold it to white settlers searching for gold in the mountains.
A Supreme Court decision in 1980 ruled this unlawful and offered compensation to the Standing Rock Sioux, but they refused in an attempt to regain ownership of the land they once held. In 1992 a set of rights for Native Americans was passed, including the right to be consulted. It states that the federal government must discuss any construction projects with Native American groups and if they oppose the project, it must be terminated, no matter how close it is to reservation land. The Standing Rock Sioux were notified of the plans to build the pipeline, but they were not consulted. When they expressed opposition to the project, they were ignored. Now, camping out on the construction site and peacefully protesting, they are being met with attack dogs, rubber bullets, water cannons, concussion grenades, and arrests. Their right to the consultation was guaranteed by the federal government but not recognized in the building of the DAPL, which indicates illegal action on the part of the government.
Pipelines are dangerous.
Extraction and use of fossil fuels are the leading cause of climate change and other environmental issues that severely threaten our future. The oil industry is the most powerful in the world and it senses that public pressure is demanding clean energy. It’s fighting back by building infrastructure to extend its stronghold in a country that needs to shift away from oil use. Building the DAPL is just a step in the wrong direction. Oil pipelines are also incredibly prone to leaks and explosions.
Since 2010 there have been over 3,300 accidents surrounding pipelines in the US, resulting in multiple deaths, injuries, and poisoned drinking water and farmlands. Just this past December, a pipeline only 150 miles away from the Standing Rock reservation ruptured and leaked 176,000 gallons of oil into a creek. The Standing Rock Sioux are very justified in their fears that the construction of the pipeline upstream from their reservation may poison their lands and drinking water irreparably.
It’s about religious freedom.
One of the main reasons the Standing Rock Sioux have been protesting the pipeline is because its route goes directly through sacred burial grounds of the tribe and because it threatens their river, which is central to their culture and religion. On September 3, 2016, construction went through despite protesters being on location and "sacred places containing ancient burial sites, places of prayer and other significant cultural artifacts of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe were destroyed" by Energy Transfer Partners as protesters watched in horror and heartbreak, Tribal Chairman David Archambault II stated in a press release. They have been arrested and attacked with militarized forces during peaceful prayer circles as well as watching sacred sites bulldozed in front of their eyes.
What is happening at Standing Rock is equivalent to a company bulldozing over a cemetery and arresting Christians praying inside their church. It is ironic that a government that prides itself so much on protection of religious freedom has remained silent and assisted corporate forces that have discriminated and attacked indigenous peoples practicing their religion. The events surrounding Standing Rock indicate that religions other than Christianity are not considered legitimate or protected by the government, and that is a monumental problem.
It’s not just about Native Americans.
The scope of the Standing Rock protest goes far beyond what it appears. It is not just about Native American rights but Civil Rights and a greater trend of social injustice towards minorities and poor communities at the hands of large corporations. Countless other groups and movements have joined in and shown their support, including Black Lives Matter supporters and United States veterans who have “self-deployed” to protect protesters. Citizens of the United States are guaranteed the right to protest under the Constitution under the First Amendment so long as they cause no harm, and yet protesters at Standing Rock have been arrested, forcibly removed, and attacked with unnecessary violence.
Their right to protest is being illegally denied by the government. It is also very important to note that the pipeline was originally supposed to run through nearby Bismarck, a predominantly white area. When residents complained, the pipeline was rerouted to just upstream of the Standing Rock land. When those residents opposed, they were told they had no choice. Why does a white community have the power to deny a dangerous construction property on their land with little effort but not a group of indigenous peoples after a massive international movement?
Though the Army Corps of Engineers sites a longer pipeline route and potentially more impact in the case of a spill as the reason for rejecting the first proposed route, it is difficult to believe that the long history of subjugation of indigenous peoples and white supremacy did not play a role. The Standing Rock protest highlights the large social injustice and marginalization of minorities still present in the United States today and has been called "the ripest case of environmental racism I've seen in a long time" by activist Rev. Jesse Jackson.
The world is watching.
President Trump and his administration have given the green light to the DAPL and ended the Army Corps of Engineers' attempts to find an alternate route within three weeks of taking power. He signed an executive order on January 24, 2017 allowing construction to continue, only four days after taking office and feeling discussion with Congress unnecessary to make this decision. The problem is, Trump has strong ties to Energy Transfer Partners, having owned between $600,000 and $1.4 million in stock in their company over the years and received over $100,000 directly from its CEO for his campaign. The president directly profits from the situation and for obvious reasons cannot make an impartial decision taking all the facts into account, and this conflict of interest alone is unconstitutional and is grounds for impeachment of the president. Numerous banks around the world have also pulled their funding from the DAPL project after following the events of the protest, Seattle's Affordable Housing, Neighborhoods and Finance Committeerecently withdrew funding from Wells Fargo for its investment in the pipeline, and the United Nations and Amnesty International have launched an investigation to determine if the United States government is violating international protections for indigenous peoples. An international outcry is rising, and Standing Rock has reached a level of global interest.
The Standing Rock protest is an incredibly important event that is still unfolding today. It has grown into a movement of international proportions with support from people of all different backgrounds and locations. What is happening in North Dakota is just another chapter in the fight of poor peoples against the exploitation of the rich, a battle that has been going on for centuries. It is about social justice, equal rights, civil liberties, police brutality, and environmental protection.
It draws an eerie similarity to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s and a time when black citizens were denied even basic human rights. Hope to end the construction is waning as the Trump administration pushes the project forward, but this issue is far from over and the wave the Water Protectors have made will be passed along around the world for generations.
