BOX 14.1 Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and the Dakota Access Pipeline

BOX 14.1 Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and the Dakota Access Pipeline In late 2016, social media made the world aware environmental activists opposed to the pipeline of a controversial project called the Dakota Access route. Through social media, protests at Standing Pipeline (DAPL). The 1,172-mile pipe system was Rock camps were shared internationally. Video designed to move crude oil from the Bakken Oil footage recorded the violent tactics of the secu- Fields in North Dakota through three states to an rity forces paid by Dakota Access to protect the oil tank farm in Illinois. While the pipeline was construction sites: protesters beaten by soldiers originally planned to cross under the Missouri in riot gear, bitten by attack dogs, struck with River north of Bismarck, North Dakota, the risk to water cannons resulting in broken bones and the capital city’s water supply was considered to hypothermia, and locked in small cages. be too great by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Environmental advocates and public figures Therefore, the pipeline’s route was moved away condemned the refusal of the US Army Corps from the capital and closer to tribal lands. Along of Engineers to halt construction on the proj- its route, the pipeline comes within 150 meters of ect before additional environmental impact the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. assessments could be done. The American The line passes under several central water Anthropological Association published a state- resources to the regions, including the Missouri ment declaring their solidarity with Oceti River and Lake Oahe. The pipeline not only poses a Sakowin Oyate (the Great Sioux Nation) as the risk of leaks into the water supply, but also passes pipeline “violates the cultural and collective envi- directly through treaty lands owned by the reser- ronmental human rights of the Tribe to life, land, vation. Oil leaks are standard occurrences for cultural preservation, health, clean water, and a pipelines, with approximately 700 oil leaks in North clean environment” (americananthro.org 2016). Dakota from May 2016 to May 2017 reported by In September 2016, 82 sacred sites and 27 the North Dakota Department of Health (2018). graves were scheduled to be destroyed in the In an effort to protect sacred sites, includ- Cannonball River section alone. Archaeologists ing burial grounds, and the reservation’s water and historical preservation specialists testified supply, the Standing Rock Sioux of North Dakota, along with tribal elders in an effort to preserve Meskwaki of Iowa, Oglala Sioux and Cheyenne this section of land. The area was bulldozed River Sioux of South Dakota, and other tribal shortly after. Political figure and social justice nations showed early opposition to the route of advocate Reverend Jesse Jackson called the the pipeline. In 2014, the Standing Rock Sioux disregard for tribal sovereignty an act of “envi- Tribal Council attended a series of meetings ronmental racism” (Thorbecke 2016). with Dakota Access, the subsidiary company of With the turnover of the new administra- Energy Transfer Partners, which was to construct tion in Washington, DC, in early January 2017, the pipeline. Although tribal and other landown- the pipeline was immediately approved and all ers’ opposition was vocal, the plans proceeded halts on construction were lifted. The last of nonetheless. the protesters were removed from the camps In April 2016, a Standing Rock tribal elder estab- around Standing Rock by February 2017. The lished a sacred camp at the site of construction. Dakota Access Pipeline began transporting about By the end of the year, several camps had grown 500,000 gallons of oil daily in the summer of to 1,000 people, both Indigenous people and 2017. © University of Toronto Press 2019 CHAPTER 14: ANTHROPOLOGY AND SUSTAINABILITY 339 UTP Muckle TTLA-F.indd 339 2018-09-21 12:48 PM.

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