Chairman Dave Archambault II of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, right, with Tim Coulter (Citizen Band Potawatomi), the executive director of the Indian Law Resource Center, at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, on September 20, 2016. Photo by Indian Law Resource Center
Pres. Archambault Jr. Takes Fight To UN
By Brandon Ecoffey
Lakota Country Times Editor
lakotacountrytimes.com PINE RIDGE -- After calls for lawmakers in the United States to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, the President of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe took his position to the United Nations last week. On Sept. 16, a federal appeals court ruled to officially halt the construction on Dakota Access Pipeline 20 miles on each side of the Missouri River in order to determine what significant cultural sites may be harmed by its completion. On Tuesday, September 20, Dave Archambault Jr., addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland in the hopes of stopping the Dakota Access Pipeline for good. "I am here because oil companies are causing the deliberate destruction of our sacred places and burials," said Archambault. "Dakota Access Pipeline wants to build an oil pipeline under the river that is the source of our nation's drinking water," said Archambault to the council.
Indian Law Resource Center on YouTube: Standing Rock Sioux Chairman takes #NODAPL to the United Nations
The UN did pass a resolution recognizing the Rights of Indigenous People but the United States Government refused to sign on. The pipeline if completed would haul 470,000 barrels of oil a day across four states from the oil fields in Stanley, North Dakota, near the Canadian border, to Patoka in southern Illinois. The pipeline however was slated to cross under the Missouri River that sits on land protected by international treaties signed between tribal-nations in the area and he federal government. Opposition to the pipeline has united Indian Country as thousands have gathered near Cannon Ball, Nd., to oppose its construction.
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Archambault would go on to say that the U.S. Has failed to respect the sovereignty of tribal-nations. While in Geneva, Archambault would invite Victoria Tauli Corpuz, Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, to visit Standing Rock. (Contact Brandon Ecoffey at editor@lakotacountrytimes.com) Find the award-winning Lakota Country Times on the Internet, Facebook and Twitter and download the new Lakota Country Times app today.
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