Standing Their Ground

Thousands of Native Americans had been gathered on the North Dakota prairie for months to protest a new oil pipeline when violence erupted last month: Some protesters broke down a wire fence and surged into the construction site, which they say runs through sacred Indian grounds. Security guards responded by using dogs and pepper spray to disperse them.

At issue is what’s known as the Dakota Access pipeline, which, when complete, would carry nearly half a million barrels of oil a day from North Dakota’s oil fields to Illinois (see map). From there, other pipelines would transport the oil to markets around the United States.

The company that owns the new pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, says the $3.7 billion project will pump money into local economies, create jobs, and help make the U.S. less dependent on oil from other countries. The pipeline, which runs mostly on private land, is already half complete.

But many American Indians see the project as a major threat to both their environment and culture. Part of the pipeline’s 1,170-mile route travels under the Missouri River, not far from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s reservation, which straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border. The reservation’s 8,000 residents depend on the river for water. Tribal leaders fear that if the pipeline leaks or breaks, their water supply could be polluted. They say that building the pipeline would also damage sacred sites—such as ancient burial grounds—that lie outside the reservation. Thousands of Native Americans from tribes all over the country have joined protests during the past few months just outside Cannon Ball, a town in south central North Dakota. 

“This pipeline is going through huge swaths of ancestral land,” Dean DePountis, the tribe’s lawyer, told The Washington Post. “It would be like constructing a pipeline through Arlington Cemetery or under St. Patrick’s Cathedral.”

The Standing Rock Sioux say they weren’t properly consulted before work on the pipeline began. In July, they sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers—the federal agency in charge of public building projects—saying it failed to do sufficient environmental and cultural impact studies before approving the pipeline. The Army Corps says it met with Indian officials and tried to involve them more, but that they were uncooperative.

For its part, Energy Transfer Partners says the pipeline has safety features that can stop the flow of oil within minutes if a leak is detected, and that it poses no threat to the water supply. And the company says reviews of the pipeline’s route found no sacred items.

Many Native Americans say the issue is bigger than what’s happening in North Dakota. They say the current standoff is symbolic of the way Indians have been mistreated since the founding of the United States (see key dates). 

“For far too long, our lands and resources were seen as disposable,” says Brian Cladoosby, president of the National Congress of American Indians, a nonprofit group that represents the interests of more than 500 tribes. “All tribes have faced this in one form or another, and Standing Rock has become the symbol for many.”

The Standing Rock Sioux’s case against the Army Corps could take a year to be resolved. So in August, the tribe asked a court to temporarily halt construction at the area near their reservation. In September, a federal judge denied the tribe’s request. The judge ruled that the tribe had been given time to express its views and hadn’t shown that the project would harm them. 

After the ruling, however, the federal government stepped in and ordered that construction of the pipeline be paused in the area under dispute while the Army Corps reviews its previous decisions. 

In a joint statement, the Corps and other federal agencies called for “serious discussion on whether there should be nationwide reform with respect to considering tribes’ views on these types of infrastructure projects.” 

In the meantime, construction on the Dakota Access pipeline continues elsewhere along the route. Energy Transfer Partners says it remains committed to completing the project in 2016.

Protesters aren’t backing down either. They say they won’t rest until the pipeline is canceled, and they’re prepared to stay at the protest camp as long as necessary. “They’ll be here for years,” says Jana Gipp, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux. “They won’t give this up.”