Tribal citizens take part in a commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 at Fort Laramie in Wyoming in April 2018. Photo by Richie Richards / Native Sun News Today

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Hard work 'in the trash': Standing Rock Sioux Tribe slams Trump on Dakota Access

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

To the surprise of almost no one in Indian Country, the Trump administration has affirmed its hasty approval of the Dakota Access Pipeline with a decision that few have actually seen.

Though the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers submitted a "memorandum for record" in federal court on Friday, the actual approval document is still being kept under wraps. The 100-page analysis is "undergoing a confidentiality review" before it can be released, government attorneys wrote in a separate filing.

The lack of information is being called "outrageous" by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, whose leaders and citizens began the fight against the pipeline more than two years ago. The #NoDAPL movement became a worldwide phenomenon, drawing support from all corners of the globe, except where it matters the most -- among the powers that be in Washington, D.C.

"The tribe has worked in good faith every step of the way to develop technical and cultural information to help the Corps fully understand the consequences of permitting this pipeline," Chairman Mike Faith said in a statement on Friday evening, after the Trump administration just hours before beat its August 31 deadline to come up with a revised decision.

"They took our hard work and threw it in the trash," Faith asserted.

BREAKING: Standing Rock Chairman Mike Faith’s official statement regarding today’s decision.
Posted by Standing Rock Sioux Tribe on Friday, August 31, 2018

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe on Facebook: Statement on Dakota Access Pipeline

That hard work included a lengthy analysis of the impacts of an oil spill at Standing Rock. The final portion of the $3.8 billion pipeline lies just a half-mile north of the reservation border in North Dakota, running through land promised to the Sioux Nation by treaty.

But the effort did not convince Washington. What little came from the Army Corps on Friday shows that concerns about treaty rights were deemed insufficient to stop oil from flowing through the 1,100-mile pipeline.

"The Corps' review on remand of the potential impacts of an oil spill to hunting and fishing resources did not reveal any significant impacts because the risk of an incident is low and any impacts to hunting and fishing resource will be of limited scope and duration," Colonel John L. Hudson of the Army Corps wrote in the two-page public document.

The Army Corps also didn't bother looking deeper into the environmental justice impacts of the pipeline, according to Hudson. In the memo, he wrote that there was no need for additional "analysis or any new mitigation" beyond what was provided in February 2017, just weeks after President Donald Trump took office with the promise of approving large infrastructure projects like Dakota Access.

Hudson also said the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Yankton Sioux Tribe did not present enough information to make the Army Corps change course with the way it evaluated the final portion of the pipeline, which crosses federally-managed land along the Missouri River.

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Indianz.Com on Flickr: Native Nations Rise in Washington, D.C.

“The tribe will be reviewing this decision closely, and determine how best to proceed in close consultation with our membership, staff, and advisors," Standing Rock Chairman Faith said in response. "In the meantime, we will continue to extend an open hand to the Army Corps to continue an honest dialogue about the impacts of this pipeline to the Standing Rock.”

The Army Corps was ordered to take another look at the controversy after a federal judge said the Trump administration's approval process was flawed. The review had to account for "the impacts of an oil spill on fishing rights, hunting rights, or environmental justice, or the degree to which the pipeline's effects are likely to be highly controversial," the judge's June 2017 decision stated.

Four days after taking office, President Trump ordered the Army Corps to "expedite" consideration of the final portion of the pipeline. He did so without consulting any of the affected tribes.

Two weeks later, the Army Corps approved the last segment while the then-Standing Rock Sioux chairman was in an airplane on his way to the White House. Cheyenne River leaders were told after the fact in a phone call.

The swift action -- which Trump hinted at during his campaign -- enabled the wealthy backers of the pipeline to complete the infrastructure project despite opposition from Indian Country. Oil began flowing on June 1.

"Nobody thought any politician would have the guts to approve that final leg and I just closed my eyes and said 'Do it,'" Trump boasted at an appearance on the road, just days after the pipeline became operational.

Barely two weeks later, Judge James Boasberg ruled that the Army Corps did not address all of the tribal concerns. But he has repeatedly refused tribal requests to halt operations of the pipeline.

The last segment of the pipeline crosses over the Missouri River at Lake Oahe. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which marked its 150th anniversary this year, reserved water, hunting and other rights for the tribes at Lake Oahe.