Out of spotlight, tribes keep fighting Dakota pipeline

Photo: DAPL pipeline protesters 9/25/2016 (Morton Co. Sheriff)

(Reuters) – Native American tribes that tried to block the Dakota Access oil pipeline during a months-long standoff with authorities in North Dakota more than a year ago are carrying on their fight in federal court, in what they contend is a symbol of their ongoing struggle for tribal sovereignty.

“People think Standing Rock has come and gone,” said Danielle Ta’Sheena Finn, a spokeswoman for the Standing Rock Sioux, referring to the sight of the protests. “But we will continue this fight until we are heard and the world knows what happened to us.”

The pipeline, owned by Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP), has been operational since June 2017, after President Donald Trump granted its permit over the objections of tribes and environmentalists fearful that it would pollute a waterway sacred to the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux. The pipeline approval, part of Trump’s desire to increase domestic energy production, distressed Native people in the United States and Canada who were concerned that it discounted indigenous rights.

The Standing Rock and Cheyenne Sioux sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers soon after Trump ordered it to approve the pipeline, arguing that […]

Full article: Native American tribes to oppose temporary Dakota Access oil line stay order, lawyers say

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