Dakota Access pipeline to continue despite concerns for sacred sites, water

President Trump issued memoranda advancing the construction of “high priority infrastructure projects,” including one specifically about the Dakota Access pipeline, despite opposition from the indigenous people who have documented the construction’s threat to sacred sites, burial plots, and water supply. At the same time, the Standing Rock Sioux,  for safety reasons, sought to evacuate camps of those who have been blocking pipeline construction.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe issued a statement saying the president’s memorandum January 24 telling the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to “review and approve in an expedited manner” the Dakota Access pipeline, planned to extend from the oil fields of North Dakota to Illinois, violated both U.S. law and tribal treaties. On February 7, the Army Corps gave "notice of an intent" to grant the easement for construction to continue.

“We are not opposed to energy independence,” said David Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, in a statement. “We are opposed to reckless and politically motivated development projects, like DAPL, that ignore our treaty rights and risk our water.”