Chairman Dave Archambault II of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe at the Native Nations Rise rally in Washington, D.C., on March 10, 2017. Photo by Indianz.Com / More on Flickr
Archambault asks banks and investors in pipeline to divest
Frazier says legal fight very much alive
By Talli Nauman
Native Sun News Today
Health & Environment Editor
nativesunnews.today FT. YATES, N.D –– As petroleum industry investors announced the long-anticipated introduction of crude oil into the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) on March 27, resistance to the project and others like it continued to break out like a rash all across Indian country. The backlash coincided with worldwide dissent over U.S. President Donald Trump’s most recent steps to support the fossil fuel industry, after reopening the DAPL and Keystone XL Pipeline permit processes stalled in his predecessor’s Administration. “Today, we received word that oil is now present in the newly completed Dakota Access Pipeline. Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chair David Archambault II stated, expressing disappointment. The tribe is in its second year of a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Dakota Access Pipeline companies for alleged failure to conduct adequate consultation on sacred water and sites in building the oil conduit across the Missouri River one-half mile upstream from the Standing Rock Reservations main drinking water intake in the Oahe Reservoir. "While we are disappointed that our pleas to the court and current administration have thus far fallen on deaf ears, we remain committed to fighting the transmission of dirty fossil fuels through our territory and putting a stop to the flow of oil in this pipeline," Archambault said in a written statement.
"The Tribe will continue to pursue divestment, shareholder advocacy and other tactics to show that Energy Transfer...
Posted by Standing Rock Sioux Tribe on Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe on Facebook: Dakota Access Pipeline Divestment #DefundDAPL
The federal court in the District of Columbia has denied all motions for an injunction to halt construction and oil flow until the case can be adjudicated. Both the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Yankton Sioux Tribe, downstream from the pipeline river crossing, also are suing over the route, “because it endangers waters the tribes rely on for their very existence,” they say. The tribes’ legal arguments include violation of the 1851 Ft. Laramie Treaty rights and violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. “My people are here today because we have survived in the face of the worst kind of challenges,” Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chair Harold Frazier responded to the oil release. “The fact that oil is flowing under our life-giving waters is a blow, but it hasn’t broken us. Our legal fight is very much alive and we believe that ultimately we will prevail,” he said in a March 27 written statement. If the tribes are successful on motions pending, then they will ask the court to exercise its power to vacate the permits granted to the oil companies and stop the flow of oil under Lake Oahe, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe said.
Read the rest of the story on the Native Sun News Today website: Archambault asks banks and investors in pipeline to divest (Contact Talli Nauman at talli.nauman@gmail.com) Copyright permission Native Sun News
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