Native Tribes Unite To Protest North Dakota Oil Pipeline

Native American tribes from all over the Northwest United States came together in the effort to stop the construction of an oil pipeline on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s sacred land in Cannon Ball, North Dakota.

More than 1,500 people from at least 150 tribes across the country gathered in nonviolent protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline, reports the Seattle Times.

“We, along with people of all walks of life, are observing a peaceful and prayerful gathering to move an entire country,” Yakama Nation chairman JoDe Goudy said during an August 30 welcome ceremony. “… One voice, one heart, and one spirit to speak for those things that cannot speak for themselves.”

The Standing Rock Sioux filed a lawsuit against those who approved the pipeline, which will move crude oil from North Dakota fields to Illinois, crossing the Missouri River near the reservation, which the tribe says will pollute their water, sicken the thousands of reservation residents and tarnish their sacred lands.

“We have seen the success our friends from Washington state have had in their battles to protect treaty rights against the transport of fossil fuels,” Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman David Archambault II said in a prepared statement. “Their support is crucial in the protection of land, water and cultural resources as well as all of our sovereign rights … words can’t express how thankful we are.”

The pipeline’s construction company has temporarily halted construction, as the Sioux seeks a federal injunction to scrap the project.

“We are a place-based society,” Swinomish Tribe Chairman and National Congress of American Indians President Brian Cladoosby said in a statement. “We live where our ancestors are buried. Our culture, laws and values are tied to all that surrounds us, the place where our children’s future will be for years to come. We cannot ruin where our ancestors are buried, and where our children will call home.”

A district court judge is expected to issue a ruling on the pipeline by September 9, notes the High Country News.

Sources: Seattle Times, High Country News / Photo Credit: Martie Simmons/Twitter