Eryn Wise (Jicarilla Apache / Laguna Pueblo) of the International Indigenous Youth Council addresses the #NoDAPL Day of Action rally outside of the White House in Washington, D.C., on November 15, 2016. Photo by Indianz.Com (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Environment | Law | National | Politics

Native women lead massive march to White House to stop Dakota Access Pipeline

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

With Republican Donald Trump headed to the White House, Native women led a huge demonstration in the nation's capital on Tuesday, calling for an end to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

In his first 100 days in office, Trump has vowed to lift "roadblocks" to large infrastructure projects like Dakota Access. He's even invested his own money in the companies that are financing and operating the controversial pipeline.

But Eryn Wise of the International Indigenous Youth Council bore no ill will toward the incoming president despite his negative history in Indian Country. She came to Washington, D.C., with a simple yet strong message.

"I am here to protect his water as well," Wise said outside of the White House, where Trump will be residing come January 2017.

Wise, who is from the Jicarilla Apache Nation and Laguna Pueblo, was joined by three other Native women leaders -- LaDonna Brave Bull Allard (Standing Rock Sioux Tribe), Deborah Parker (Tulalip Tribes) and Judith LeBlanc (Caddo Nation) -- for the #NoDAPL Day of Action. After staging a sit-in at the headquarters of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, they led the crowd of about 1,000 people down the streets of Washington, even passing by the newly opened Trump Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue NW.

That's where Wise, who has been living at the #NoDAPL encampment since the summer, made good on her promise. She momentarily stopped the march in front of the hotel, which is located on federal property, to offer a prayer.

LaDonna Brave Bull Allard (Standing Rock Sioux) addresses the #NoDAPL sit-in at the headquarters of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Washington, D.C. on November 15, 2016. Pictured on the left is Deborah Parker (Tulalip). To the right is Eryn Wise Jicarilla Apache / Laguna Pueblo). Photo by Indianz.Com (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

The #NoDAPL movement has indeed thrived on prayer, along with the support of hundreds of tribes and countless allies across the nation and around the world. But hopes are quickly fading about the ability of President Barack Obama to stop the pipeline.

A week before the November 8 election, Obama hinted that a decision on a final easement for the $4.8 billion project was going to be delayed. On Monday, the Department of the Army and the Department of the Interior confirmed that a decision will remain on hold pending further consultation with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, whose sacred sites, burial grounds and water resources are threatened by the pipeline.

According to the Army Corps, Dakota Access can't build the pipeline on federal land without the easement. Toward the end of the sit-in, an official from the agency came outside and listened to Allard, whose ancestors and family members are buried in the pipeline corridor, explain her deep connections to the Missouri River.

"As an indigenous person, my footprint is in this earth," said Allard, who established the Sacred Stone Camp on her property in April to resist the pipeline. "We have a right to live on our own land."

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) addresses the #NoDAPL Day of Action rally outside of the White House in Washington, D.C., on November 15, 2016. Photo by Indianz.Com (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

But the wealthy backers of the pipeline are defying the delay. After ignoring the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's lawsuit for several weeks, they returned to court on Tuesday with a slew of filings, arguing that they don't need the written easement to complete the costly project.

The flurry of activity came in the form of three different submissions, one of which accused the Obama administration of engaging in "arbitrary and capricious political interference" by failing to enter certain public documents -- including Monday's announcement, an October 10 statement and a September 9 one -- into the record.

Kelcy Warren, the wealthy CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company of the project, also alleged "political interference" in a press release on Tuesday. But neither he nor his well-connected Washington attorneys disclosed that he was one of the top five individual donors to Trump's presidential campaign, according to the Capital Research Center.

“Dakota Access is so desperate to get this project in the ground that it is now suing the federal government on the novel theory that it doesn’t need an easement to cross federal lands,” Chairman Dave Archambault II of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe said in response to the new filings. “They are wrong and the lawsuit will not succeed. We are looking forward to discussing the easement with the administration and explaining why it must be denied."

Indianz.Com on YouTube: A Message for Donald Trump Photo by Indianz.Com (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Attorneys for Dakota Access have repeatedly told the courts that they need to start transporting oil by January 1, 2017, and one of their submissions called for an "expedited" consideration of its new claims against the Army Corps. But they appear to be conceding that the deadline is arbitrary -- the motion calls for a hearing on January 3, 2017, and it's unlikely the judge hearing the case would issue a decision on that same day.

"The only urgency here was created by their own reckless choice to build the pipeline before it had all the permits to do so," Archambault said.

The late timing of the easement delay, along with the new legal maneuvers by Dakota Access, increasingly point toward Donald Trump and his administration playing a huge role in the dispute. But in addressing the large crowd outside of the Army Corps headquarters, one of the Native women leaders vowed to keep fighting.

"To President Trump, you ain't seen nothing yet," LeBlanc of the Native Organizers Alliance said to applause.