On the banks of the Missouri, participants in the Sacred Stone Spirit Camp manifest peaceful opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline proposed river crossing, one of more than 200 federal waterway crossings contemplated in the project. Photo Joye Braun
Indian archeological find shuts down pipeline construction
By Talli Nauman
Native Sun News
Health & Environment Editor
www.nsweekly.com CANNON BALL, N.D. –– Officials shut down construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline immediately after objectors at the Sacred Stone Spirit Camp on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation raised a “human shield of prayer” here May 24, to protect against the project. The U.S. Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service revoked the construction permit for the Dakota Access Pipeline through the Big Sioux River Wildlife Management Area in Northeast Iowa on May 25, due to discovery of a significant Native American archaeological site. On May 26, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources issued a “stop-work order” to allow for a survey and consultation with tribes and local agencies. The order also put work on hold indefinitely at pipeline crossings of the Big Sioux River, Des Moines River, and Mississippi River in Lyon, Boone and Lee counties. Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chair Dave Archambault II applauded Iowa’s decision, saying the cause of the stop-work order “is representative of a tribal apprehension regarding the Dakota Access Pipeline: the destruction of important cultural and historic sites. “May this event serve as a reminder, for all concerned parties, to slow down, take proper precautions, and respect our environment,” he said. The tribe credits its allies, the Iowa Bakken Pipeline Resistance Coalition, Dakota Rural Action, Indigenous Environmental Network, and the Science and Environmental Health Network, for helping raise awareness of pipeline threats, he added. Dallas Goldtooth, Keep It In the Ground campaign organizer for The Indigenous Environmental Network, said the Fish & Wildlife Service action “sets a precedent we hope other local and federal agencies, like the Army Corps of Engineers, take notice of and follow.
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