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The Dakota Pipeline would carry crude oil from fields in North Dakota to an oil tank farm in Illinois. It would add 1,000+ miles of pipeline. It would be able to carry 570k barrels of crude oil a day which is and upgrade to other pipelines. It would be at least 4 feet underground and 90% of it was complete and the last part would run under a lake which is close to the Standing Rock Sioux reservation which threatens the rights of the inhabitants of the tribe. The pipeline is seen as the more efficient option for transporting crude oil.

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Good Question: What Exactly Is The Dakota Access Pipeline?

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This cartoon shows how the Native Americans and others who support them stand together in defense of having the pipeline run through their land. The pipeline in this drawing cuts off at a certain point to signify that it has not been completed but it leaks black liquid which signifies "dirty and filth" going into their land/water. The Sioux are obviously standing against it but there is yet so much that they can do to try to combat it. The land of the Sioux is sacred and someone holds a sign saying "Dont Violate Our Sacred Sites" meaning that it should be preserved by the US government and has a right to remain untouched because it is considered a part of US history.

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A US District court ruled the Dakota Access Pipeline must shut down within 30 days which ended up being a win for the Sioux Native American tribe who believe the pipeline put their water supply at risk. It was also proven that the US Army core of engineers violated a national environmental policy act when they allowed (ET) Energy Transfer to operate a segment of the line. The core failed to conduct a accurate environmental study and must be shut down and emptied and undergo a process which takes around 13 months. The pipeline has became a symbol of a movement by Native American and Climate groups in the past years.

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U.S. court orders shutdown of Dakota Access pipeline

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This is an example of results of the North Dakota Access Pipeline leakage into water. In consideration for the Sioux, if this was in  their water they would not be able to eat or use the water because there may be toxins or harmful matter that will get the people sick.  Also this is a major river, the Mississippi river so this is not only messing up water for the people of the Sioux, but also messing up water access for those in proximity of them.

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The North Dakota Access Pipeline has proven to be extremely dangerous with a lot of leaks and problems."Four months later, the new pipeline leaked more than 33,000 gallons of oil through a hole next to a weld. It took crews 12 days to find the leak." Not only do the leaks happen a lot and leak a big amount, since the pipeline is so long the leaks take a while to find and in that time the damage is already finished. The company constructing the pipeline has also documented 349 accidents in the past eight years which proves that it is a risk to wherever a pipeline is placed.

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Federal pipeline inspectors didn't like what they found when they looked at construction of the Permian Express pipeline.

Unqualified welders were fusing the pipe together in central Texas, using unapproved methods. Regulators with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) were alarmed enough in May 2016 to seek a $1.3 million fine against the builder, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners LP.

Company attorneys, though, said the pipe was sound and the problems flagged by PHMSA were "insignificant deviations."

Four months later, the new pipeline leaked more than 33,000 gallons of oil through a hole next to a weld. It took crews 12 days to find the leak.

It was one of 349 leaks, spills and other accidents since 2012 on pipelines operated by Energy Transfer and its subsidiaries.

That record could signal trouble ahead for Energy Transfer's most famous project, the Dakota Access pipeline. The company's accident history has taken on renewed importance after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in March ordered a broad review of the pipeline giant's performance on safety and the environment.

His order was part of long-running litigation with tribes who oppose Dakota Access. Boasberg might even shut down the line while the review is done. His decision on whether he'll let it keep operating should come sometime after June 8, when briefs are due before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Energywire, March 26).

Energy Transfer's Sunoco subsidiary ranks eighth-worst for volume spilled per mile for the last three years on pipelines carrying hazardous liquids such as crude oil, according to PHMSA performance data. It's had more accidents harming people or the environment than any other operator in the last five years - 38 - but it has one of the largest pipeline systems.

"They're never the worst one," said Carl Weimer, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, which worked with PHMSA and industry groups to develop performance rankings. "But they're always in the top 10."

Sunoco, acquired by Energy Transfer in 2012 and now a wholly owned subsidiary, is listed as the operator of the Dakota Access line and the developer of the Permian Express 2 (PEX2) line.

But the company's accident record has been improving, said Energy Transfer spokeswoman Lisa Coleman. Incidents declined 50% from 2017 to 2019 amid an initiative to integrate Sunoco and Energy Transfer operations. For 2019, she said, the company's accident rate was below the industry average.

"It is our priority to maintain and operate our assets to the highest safety standards, not just because it makes good business sense, but because it is the right thing to do," Coleman said.

Water concerns are paramount for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which has led opposition to Dakota Access. The tribe says a pipeline spill fouling its water supply would be an existential threat. The company says chances of a catastrophic spill are "infinitesimal."

Energy Transfer and its subsidiaries, though, have reported causing water contamination. Of 313 spills reported since 2012 on liquid lines, 35 caused water contamination and one was linked to tainted drinking water in a private well.

On top of that, Dallas-based Energy Transfer and its subsidiaries are linked to 19 groundwater contamination sites in the most recent monitoring report from the Texas Groundwater Protection Committee. Some of the facilities belonged to other companies before Energy Transfer acquired them.

Energy Transfer is one of the country's biggest pipeline companies, a sprawling empire of 86,000 miles of pipe and petroleum facilities. CEO Kelcy Warren co-founded the company in 1996 and built it up from a regional pipeline network in Texas. Much of the growth has come from acquisitions, and the company's official subsidiary list has more than 350 names.

The 1,172-mile Dakota Access pipeline, sometimes referred to as DAPL, was built to move crude oil from North Dakota's Bakken Shale oil field to refineries in the Midwest and the Gulf of Mexico.

The bitter protests that erupted during construction in 2016 thrust Energy Transfer and Warren into the national debate about tribal treaty rights and the costs of the United States' newfound abundance of oil.

Thousands of demonstrators camped out to protest the pipeline as construction moved closer to Lake Oahe, a dammed section of the Missouri River in North Dakota a half-mile from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation that supplies water to the Standing Rock Sioux.

In December 2016, with protests in the headlines, the Obama administration declined to grant a final permit for the pipeline to cross under the lake.

President Trump, who has business and political ties to Warren, reversed course (Greenwire, Jan. 24, 2017). Four days after his inauguration, to which Warren had contributed $250,000, Trump issued an executive order accelerating Dakota Access (Energywire, Jan. 27, 2017).

Less than five months after Trump took office, the company was pumping oil through the line. It now carries nearly 5% of the oil produced every day in the United States.

Now that flow is at risk of being turned off.

Boasberg found the Trump administration's analysis of the environmental effects of the pipeline to be insufficient. He said the analysis, done by the Army Corps of Engineers, glossed over warnings from experts about "leak-detection systems, operator safety records, adverse conditions, and worst-case discharge."

He ordered the agency to take a more expansive look and prepare a more comprehensive report, called an environmental impact statement, or EIS.

Boasberg, a judge in Washington, has said he may order the pipeline temporarily shut down while the new analysis is being done.

If the EIS shows Energy Transfer to have a bad accident record, it would not spell doom for the $3.8 billion pipeline. The tribes' lawsuit isn't about whether Energy Transfer and Sunoco are good or bad at operating pipelines. And it's not about whether the pipeline should be shut down.

Legally, it's about whether the Army Corps followed the National Environmental Policy Act in granting the permit for the pipeline. Boasberg found the agency didn't.

Above and beyond

But in the larger public debate about the pipeline, said Jan Hasselman, the Earthjustice attorney representing the Standing Rock Sioux, the company's record should matter.

"When you are determining risk, operator history and culture matters," Hasselman said. "If someone has 12 DUIs, their risk is different from the accountant mom with a perfect record."

A bad track record could push the government to demand stricter environmental and safety measures, said energy analyst Christi Tezak.

"If the [spill] response time is considered long - say, relative to industry average - perhaps additional requirements or other risk mitigation for the project should be required for such an operator," said Tezak, managing director of research at ClearView Energy Partners.

Energy Transfer says it went above and beyond federal standards during construction to make Dakota Access extra safe. Among other measures, Coleman said, the company used thicker-walled pipe in sensitive areas, buried the pipe deeper to prevent accidental strikes, added extra valves to restrict flow in the event of a leak and did far more testing than required before beginning operations.

"All of these things support the position that DAPL should continue to operate during the EIS to be conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers," Coleman said.

The fate of the pipeline will be in the hands of whoever gets elected president in November. The EIS is not expected to be completed until after the winner - likely either Trump or presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden - is sworn in next January.

As it fights to keep the pipeline open, Energy Transfer is also seeking permission from states to nearly double the capacity of the pipeline. That has drawn objections from environmentalists who say it only intensifies their concern about a disastrous spill (Energywire, Nov. 14, 2019).

Explosions, negligence, prosecutions

Energy Transfer's spill and safety problems reach beyond Dakota Access and the Permian Express. The company's 349 accidents in the past eight years include a maintenance operation in March on a Panhandle Eastern pipeline in Kansas that killed a worker. Other accidents suggest problems with construction or negligent operation.

In Oklahoma, state regulators issued a record $1 million fine against Sunoco for a 2018 crude oil spill that sprayed a mist of oil over a neighborhood in the Oklahoma City suburbs. The company is negotiating to reduce the penalty. A state inspection report indicates a contractor had alerted the company in 2017 to a problem with the system that is supposed to prevent corrosion but the company didn't fix it.

In Pennsylvania, a newly built Energy Transfer pipeline called Revolution exploded near a subdivision in 2018 after a landslide. A bad weld may have contributed to the blast, which destroyed a home as its owners fled (Energywire, March 19). The incident led to a yearlong permit halt across Pennsylvania, a record $31 million fine from the state and a federal grand jury investigation.

The permit construction halt on Energy Transfer projects in Pennsylvania included Sunoco's Mariner East natural gas liquids pipeline system, which is also linked to several criminal inquiries and prosecutions (Energywire, Jan. 30).

Construction on Mariner and the company's Rover gas pipeline in Ohio angered people living near them with sinkholes, spills and polluted groundwater. At one point in 2017, state and federal authorities had blocked construction of the pipelines in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia (Energywire, May 15, 2018).

'Sound and fit for service'

PHMSA formally scolded the company for the welding problems on the PEX2 project in May 2016. By then, oil had been pumping through the 340-mile pipeline in Texas for half a year.

Construction on the Dakota Access line was set to begin that summer, 1,000 miles to the north.

PHMSA had inspected company facilities around Texas in 2014 and 2015, finding a series of problems. Inspectors connected some of the problems to specific incidents, such as leaks caused by corrosion in pipes.

On PEX2, they had homed in on a 70-mile segment of the project called "spread 24-3" near Eastland, Texas.

The inspectors found welders using what they regarded as "unqualified procedures," intended for a different type of pipe. Pressed, company managers produced two other versions of the procedures to inspector David Eng, causing confusion over which was actually used. PHMSA deemed the problems "egregious."

Some of the welders themselves were also unqualified, PHMSA said. Those welders had passed a test, but it was the wrong test. PHMSA said Sunoco then tried to "back-qualify" 45 welders with an after-the-fact test. But seven still failed.

About 3,000 welds had been made on the pipeline when inspectors discovered the problem. Sunoco made a "limited attempt" to test the welds holding the line together before the enforcement action was issued, PHMSA said, including cutting 14 welds out of the line. It's not clear how many, but some failed.

"All of the welds on spread 24-3 of the Permian Express II project are suspect," wrote Rod Seeley, director of PHMSA's Houston-based Southwest Region.

PHMSA directed the company to test more welds on that 70-mile segment and review the records of all the welders who worked on the project. But Sunoco and Energy Transfer officials challenged PHMSA's demands and almost every aspect of the agency's enforcement action.

They said that the problems with the welder qualifications were paperwork mistakes and that construction practices had not violated regulations. Officials also hired an industry consultant and did other tests that they said showed the 24-inch-wide pipe was safe.

"Production welds on PEX II were sound and fit for service," David Chalson, Sunoco's senior vice president for operations, wrote in May 2016 in response to Seeley.

At least one spot on the line, though, wasn't "sound and fit" by late August 2016.

The leak appears to have started Aug. 29, 2016. That's when company officials started trying to figure out an "imbalance" in the Permian line. Twelve days later, they found the source of the leak about 200 miles west of Dallas, between the town of Sweetwater, Texas, and a nearby reservoir called Lake Sweetwater.

The time it took to find and fix the problem could raise questions about Energy Transfer's assurances on how potential Dakota Access leaks would be quickly detected and stopped.

Energy Transfer says its control room for Dakota Access can shut down valves remotely and employs a computational pipeline monitoring system (CPM), which analyzes deviations in the flow of liquids and can detect leaks as small as 1% of flow.

But in the 12 days it took to find the spill near Lake Sweetwater, company officials said the imbalance was never so large that it "exceeded established, normal operating tolerances."

Sunoco started pumping oil through PEX2 again 13 days after finding the spill, operating at a reduced pressure under PHMSA orders.

It took more than three years, but the top career pipeline safety official at PHMSA, Alan Mayberry, largely upheld the original welding violations last fall, although he dismissed some as redundant. He reduced the fine from $1.3 million to $882,000.

As for ensuring the safety of the potentially "suspect" welds, his decision upheld the requirement for the company to review the qualifications of its welders and retest the welds.

The company said it had already done so, according to Mayberry's decision document. But agency officials said they still hadn't received written proof.

The Permian Express case remains open as PHMSA awaits testing results and Boasberg, the judge, weighs the future of Dakota Access, 1,000 miles away.

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PIPELINES: Trail of spills haunts Dakota Access developer

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Federal pipeline inspectors didn't like what they found when they looked at construction of the Permian Express pipeline. Unqualified welders were fusing the pipe together in central Texas, using unapproved methods. Regulators with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) were alarmed enough in May 2016 to seek a $1.3 million fine against the builder, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners LP.

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This image represents the large amounts of people that show up to protests in defense of seizing construction of the pipeline. The attendees were not only members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. Many supporters were other native nations, non-native allies, celebrities, and politicians who recognized the struggle the tribe was going through. Everyone had one mindset and as the banner in the photo says, it is to "Defend the Sacred" meaning to defend the sacred land that the tribe lived on. Support was vital to the problem because were backed by popular figures and those who knew the laws of the land.

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The pipeline which is know to have many negative effects, was contested by the Standing Rock Sioux after construction was completed. Operations of the pipeline was suspended as a result of an environmental concern and review. "Just north of the Standing Rock reservation, it crosses beneath the Missouri River. The tribe draws its water from the river and fears pollution." (AP) The Sioux water source would be cut off due to the water not being able to be used for nutritional or hygienic purposes such as drinking, eating, and showering. Being their only option for water, they would be left with no water dehydrating them and disabling them to complete daily needs.

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A federal judge has sided with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and ordered the Dakota Access pipeline to be shut down until a more extensive environmental review is carried out.

US district judge James Boasberg had previously said the pipeline, which has been in operation three years, remained "highly controversial" under federal environmental law, and a more extensive review was necessary after an environmental assessment by the US army corps of engineers.
Dakota access pipeline: court strikes down permits in victory for Standing Rock Sioux
In a 24-page order on Monday, Boasberg wrote that he was "mindful of the disruption such a shutdown will cause" but said he had concluded that the pipeline must be shut downfor an environmental impact statement (EIS).

"Clear precedent favoring vacatur [an order setting aside a previous judgment] during such a remand coupled with the seriousness of the Corps' deficiencies outweighs the negative effects of halting the oil flow for the 13 months that the Corps believes the creation of an EIS will take," Boasberg wrote.

Boasberg had ordered both parties to submit briefs on whether the pipeline should continue operating during the new environmental review.

The $3.8bn (£3bn) pipeline was the subject of months of protests, sometimes violent, during its construction near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, which straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border.

The 1,172-mile (1,886km) underground pipeline carries oil from North Dakota across South Dakota and Iowa and to a terminal in Illinois. Just north of the Standing Rock reservation, it crosses beneath the Missouri River. The tribe draws its water from the river and fears pollution. The Texas-based Energy Transfer insists the pipeline is safe.

In December 2016, the Obama administration denied permits for the pipeline to cross the Missouri River and ordered a full environmental review to analyze alternative routes and the impact on the tribe's treaty rights.

In his first week in office, Donald Trump signed an executive order to expedite construction. Construction was completed in June 2017.

The tribe challenged the permits - and won. As a result, the corps was ordered to redo its environmental analysis, which it did without taking into consideration tribal concerns or expert views.

The court ordered Energy Transfer to shut and empty the 570,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) line within 30 days, closing off the biggest artery transporting crude oil out of North Dakota's Bakken shale basin to midwest and Gulf coast regions.

Energy Transfer said it was looking at legal and administrative measures to avoid a shutdown and was considering an appeal if those efforts failed.

In a filing seeking a temporary stay to the order, the company argued that time-consuming and expensive steps were required to shut the pipeline down safely and empty it of oil, which would take much more than 30 days.

If the motion for stay pending an appeal was denied by the district court, the company said, it intended to file one in the Washington DC circuit court.
Topics

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Judge suspends Dakota Access pipeline over environmental concerns

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A federal judge has sided with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and ordered the Dakota Access pipeline to be shut down until a more extensive environmental review is carried out.

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Social Media has served as a platform for those ho live in Standing Rock to have a national and international voice for themselves and also to display the issues that they go through on a daily basis. The video voices how they were removed from their land by police and told not to return as a result of land that was reserved for the pipelines construction. Separated by a lake, many officers in riot gear stand there and even given permission to arrest or pepper spray those who "trespass" past the lake. This is extremely unfair treatment to those who once and should still live on that land.

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Dakota Access Pipeline Protesters: 'The World Needed To See What Was Going On' | NBC News

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Below is a cartoon that signifies the power of companies supported by the government and people of power who always get their way. With the backing of the police, who are dressed in riot gear and feared by the Sioux, the cartoon refers to the companies as having a "sacred tradition" of always getting their way. The believe that they can belittle the tribe and depict them in the cartoon as smaller than them. Although the Sioux in the cartoon hold up signs of things they want and stand for, even though they may out number the police and companies, do not hold enough power to overrule them.

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The Sioux tribe and thousands of Native Americans opposed the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline under their river. The Dakota Access Pipeline is an oil project that has the ability to contaminate their water supply. The Native people have used methods of protests such as setting up camps and prayer circles. There has also been various standoffs with the police and young advocates in the area. Federal governments have came up with solutions that the pipeline can be rerouted so that works in the favor of the Sioux. Another argument is that the Sioux rights are violated against the declaration of rights of indigenous people.

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The Native American protests against the Dakota Access pipeline have become an international rallying cry for indigenous rights and climate change activism, drawing thousands to the rural area of Cannon Ball, North Dakota.

As the controversial oil pipeline approaches the river that the Standing Rock Sioux tribe fears it will contaminate - and as a militarized police force continues to engage in tense standoffs with demonstrators - here is what we know so far.

What is the Dakota Access pipeline?

The Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) is a $3.7bn project that would transport crude oil from the Bakken oil field in North Dakota to a refinery to Patoka, Illinois, near Chicago.

The 1,172-mile pipeline, roughly 30 inches in diameter, would carry 470,000 barrels per day and is a project of company Energy Transfer Partners.

Who is opposing the project and why?

The local Standing Rock Sioux tribe and thousands of Native American supporters from across North America have set up camps in Cannon Ball to try and block the oil project. Opponents of DAPL say the project threatens sacred native lands and could contaminate their water supply from the Missouri river, which is the longest river in North America.

Activists call themselves " water protectors" and argue that the pipeline poses similar threats to the now defeated Keystone XL, but lament that DAPL has failed to garner the same amount of national attention. Tribal leaders also say that the US army corps of engineers' initial decision to allow the pipeline to run within a half-mile of the local reservation was done without consulting tribal governments and without a thorough study of impacts.

This means, the tribe says, that the project violates federal law and native treaties with the US government.

Where are the protests taking place?

The first protest camp emerged in April when members of the Standing Rock Lakota and other Native American nations rode on horseback and established a spiritual camp called Sacred Stone.

Several other large camps, featuring a diverse mix of tribes and non-native supporters, have since emerged nearby. The main camp where more than 1,000 are gathered is called Oceti Sakowin. The Standing Rock camps are all located about an hour south of Bismarck, North Dakota, though police have established strict roadblocks along 1806, the main local highway, meaning visitors have to head west and enter from the south to get to the demonstration.

Some of the camps are on lands controlled by the US army corps of engineers and other sites are on private land owned by Ladonna Allard, a member of the Dakota Sioux.

How far along is the project?

In North Dakota, the pipeline construction has rapidly advanced toward the protest camps and the Missouri river. As of the start of November, tribal leaders said it appeared as if the construction project was nearing completion - within a few miles of the water, maybe less. The tribe said the digging has already disrupted sacred burial grounds and that if the project goes under the river and gets any closer to the reservation, there could be irreversible damage to their land and cultural heritage.

Energy Transfer Partners recently said it is on track to have the entire pipeline "ready for service" by the end of 2016.

What tactics have protesters used to fight construction?

The protest camps have repeatedly emphasized that they intend to remain unarmed and peaceful. As the pipeline has gotten closer to the Missouri river, activists have attempted to set up camps and prayer circles on the property where construction is planned.

Youth leaders have often been on the frontlines of standoffs with police, at times facing Mace, rubber bullets and other threats from law enforcement. Elderly leaders have also led demonstrations.

How has the federal government responded?

The US army corps of engineers, along with a number of federal agencies, announced in September that it was reviewing its approvals and temporarily halting permits for construction on federal land near or under the Missouri river.

In his first remarks since protests escalated, Barack Obama said the army corps was studying whether the pipeline could be rerouted around sacred native lands. His comments, published on 1 November, did not include specific proposals or commitments and said the government was "going to let it play out for several more weeks and determine whether or not this can be resolved in a way that I think is properly attentive to the traditions of the first Americans".

How have police responded to demonstrations?

The Morton County sheriff's office, along with Cass County law enforcement and supporting police agencies from across the state, have formed a highly militarized police force that has aggressively targeted protesters attempting to block construction.

As of November, police have made more than 400 arrests, many of which occurred during two separate protest clashes within one week.

Police, who are often armed with large tanks and riot gear, have used pepper spray, teargas, rubber bullets, Tasers and other "less-than-lethal" tools to respond. Jack Dalrymple, North Dakota's governor, also called in the national guard.

Law enforcement leaders have charged Native Americans, journalists and film-makers, with rioting, criminal trespass, resisting arrest and a range of more serious felonies. Police have also been accused of human rights violations in their treatment of jailed protesters, and a United Nations group opened an investigation into local law enforcement.

Police officials claim that they have been forced to arrest protesters when they enter the property where construction is planned. Local officials have also slammed Obama, saying he has not done enough to help law enforcement and stop protesters.

What is the status of the tribe's court fight against the project?

The Standing Rock tribe is also fighting the project in court, arguing that the approvals of the project were improper and that the government has failed to do a study that would assess the large-scale impact of the pipeline.

But in September, federal judge James Boasberg ruled that the US army corps of engineers " likely complied " with the National Historic Preservation Act.

The tribe has also argued that the pipeline violates the United Nations' declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples.

What has Energy Transfer Partners said about the protests?

Energy Transfer Partners said in court filings in September that the Dakota Access pipeline is 45% complete and that a temporary injunction to stop it would have "devastating short and long-term impacts". The company has also previously denounced "threats and attacks" perpetrated upon its employees.

In response to concerns of contamination and environmental hazards, DAPL has argued that pipelines are the safest, most efficient method of transporting oil. The company also claims that increased production in the Bakken oil field has led to a rise in the shipment of oil by rail and truck, leaving less transportation available for regional agriculture.

What have Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump said about DAPL?

After a group of Standing Rock youth staged a protest at the Brooklyn campaign headquarters of Hillary Clinton in late October, the Democratic presidential nominee released a short statement that did not take a stance on the pipeline or the protests.

She said she believed "all voices should be heard", adding: "It's important that on the ground in North Dakota, everyone respects demonstrators' rights to protest peacefully, and workers' rights to do their jobs safely."

Republican nominee Donald Trump has not publicly commented on the protests, but it was revealed in October that he has close financial ties to Energy Transfer Partners.

Who else is supporting the protesters?

The anti-pipeline movement has attracted support on the ground from actor Shailene Woodley, who was arrested while protesting, and Mark Ruffalo, who visited in October. Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson also made an appearance at the site.

US senator Bernie Sanders, who lost to Clinton in the Democratic primary, has also issued numerous statements in support of the protest.

Green party candidate Jill Stein faced charges for graffiti at the pipeline protest.

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Dakota Access pipeline: the who, what and why of the Standing Rock protests

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Everything you need to know about the controversial pipeline that has become an international rallying cry for indigenous rights and climate change activism

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Biden had a positive impact on the whole area of pipelines and environmental issues. On Biden's first day in office he halted operation of the KXL pipeline. Many Indigenous and environment leaders believe that he will do the same for other pipelines that have negative impacts on surrounding land and air such as the North Dakota Pipeline. Bidens impact is seen as positive so far and many are putting pressure on him to continue with the trend. “[Today’s] great win comes after a decade of organizing – and since the scientific and human rights principles are exactly the same for DAPL and Line 3, we assume we’ll hear similar good news on them soon.” This has been a long fought battle and the future is looking extremely bright.

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ndigenous leaders and environmentalists are urging Joe Biden to shutdown some of America's most controversial fossil fuel pipelines, after welcoming his executive order cancelling the Keystone XL (KXL) project.

Activists praised the president's decision to stop construction of the transnational KXL oil pipeline on his first day in the White House, but they stressed that he must cancel similar polluting fossil fuel projects, including the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL), to stand any chance of meeting his bold climate action goals.

The KXL order was issued on Wednesday as part of the first wave of Biden's promised environmental justice and climate action policies, which include rejoining the Paris agreement and halting construction of the southern border wall.

Rescinding the Canadian-owned KXL pipeline permit, issued by Donald Trump, fulfills a campaign promise Biden made in May 2020 and comes after more than a decade of organizing and resistance by indigenous activists, landowners and environmental groups.

"The victory ending the KXL pipeline is an act of courage and restorative justice by the Biden administration. It gives tribes and Mother Earth a serious message of hope for future generations as we face the threat of climate change. It aligns Indigenous environmental knowledge with presidential priorities that benefit everyone," said Faith Spotted Eagle, founder of Brave Heart Society and a member of the Ihanktonwan Dakota nation.

"This is a vindication of 10 years defending our waters and treaty rights from this tar sands carbon bomb. I applaud President Biden for recognizing how dangerous KXL is for our communities and climate and I look forward to similar executive action to stop DAPL and Line 3 based on those very same dangers," said Dallas Goldtooth, a member of the Mdewakanton Dakota and Dine nations and the Keep It In The Ground campaign organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network.

Donald Trump sanctioned the KXL and DAPL pipelines soon after taking office - which paved the way for scores of executive actions and rollbacks favoring fossil fuel allies while violating indigenous rights and environmental standards.

The KXL pipeline was set to go through the heart of the Oceti Sakowin territory. It was the final section of a vast pipeline network transporting tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to ports on the US Gulf Coast. Most of the network was built during the Obama administration and is already operational.

The 2020 elections saw a historic turnout of Native Americans, who helped deliver victory for Biden in key states including Arizona and Wisconsin.

The new president has so far been praised for assembling a top team of climate and environmental justice experts to lead his government's efforts and undo some of the damage inflicted over the past four years - and during previous administrations.

But pressure is already mounting on Biden to take action on similar pipelines that campaigners say were sanctioned without conducting legally required consultations with Native communities, and which threaten to pollute land and water and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions that cause global heating.

Last week, 75 indigenous female leaders from across the country sent a letter to the incoming administration calling on it to immediately halt fossil fuel projects which threaten their land, water, health, culture and security. They wrote: "No more broken promises, no more broken Treaties ... We urge you to fulfill the United States promise of sovereign relations with Tribes, and your commitment to robust climate action."

On Tuesday, tribal leaders wrote to Biden urging him to shut down the DAPL. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe and the legal non-profit Earthjustice released a video message to Biden voiced in the Lakota language called Tȟokáta Hé Miyé /My Name Is Future.

Biden has not spoken publicly about DAPL, but last May Kamala Harris signed an amicus brief and joined tribes in calling on a judge to shut it down while an environmental impact study is conducted.

Shutting down DAPL, which crosses through communities, farms, tribal land, sensitive natural areas and wildlife habitat across North Dakota to Illinois, would be more complicated than canceling KXL as it is already been built and is transporting about 500,000 barrels of crude oil each day.

"It is a more complex legal scenario, but they could do it tomorrow as it's operating without a permit and has been declared illegal by federal courts," said Jan Hasselman, a lawyer at Earthjustice, which represents the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in ongoing legal action. "It's crazy to continue investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure when we need to be abandoning it."

The proposed expansion of another huge Canadian-owned tar sands oil pipeline crossing indigenous lands, Line 3, is also under the microscope. In Minnesota,police have arrested scores of peaceful protesters trying to stop construction.

At the heart of Biden's climate plan is ensuring the US achieves a 100% clean energy economy and reaches net-zero emissions no later than 2050 - which experts say is not possible if investment in oil and gas continues.

"[Today's] great win comes after a decade of organizing - and since the scientific and human rights principles are exactly the same for DAPL and Line 3, we assume we'll hear similar good news on them soon." said Bill McKibben, co-founder of the environmental group 350.org.

Nick Estes, a member of the Lower Brule Sioux nation and assistant professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico, said: "Biden has the right people in his team, but we don't know yet if he's going to break from Obama's policy of domestic energy production. If he's genuine about climate action, it makes no sense not to cancel the Dakota Access and Line 3 pipelines, even if it's harder to do. We need to see bold maneuvers."

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'No more broken treaties': indigenous leaders urge Biden to shut down Dakota Access pipeline

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ndigenous leaders and environmentalists are urging Joe Biden to shutdown some of America's most controversial fossil fuel pipelines, after welcoming his executive order cancelling the Keystone XL (KXL) project.

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This was major victory for the Sioux where the pipeline's construction was rerouted because of the fears of leakage and damaging their land. The pipeline was 95% complete and the company was waiting on the final permit and as a result of court ruling, they are not getting it, landing in favor of the Sioux. Energy partners insisted it was a political move by the Obama administration to please the Sioux but the Trump administration has the ability to overrule and continue construction. This victory could be temporary if Trump overrules but at least they know their voice has been heard.

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Victory for Native Americans in Dakota Access Pipeline

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On October 27th, 2016 a major confrontation took place which the Sioux stood their ground firmly to try to combat removal from their land and were hit with weapons and force by police resulting in 141 people being taken to jail. This all stemmed from the issues that the pipeline is feared to cause. "First, the pipeline would cross right under the Missouri River at Lake Oahe, half a mile north of the reservation. A leak or spill could send oil directly into the tribe’s main source of drinking water." "Second, the tribe argues that the pipeline would run through a stretch of land north of the reservation that contains recently discovered sacred sites and burial places."

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This cartoon is an example of the racism and struggle Native Americans (not only the Sioux) go through in America. They want their way but people of power look at them as less than human and not entitled because they do not carry a certain race. The Sioux are fighting for their basic human rights and to their dismay, they are treated horribly because of the fixed mindset of certain people.

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This cartoon is an example of the racism and struggle Native Americans (not only the Sioux) go through in America. They want their way but people of power look at them as less than human and not entitled because they do not carry a certain race. The Sioux are fighting for their basic human rights and to their dismay, they are treated horribly because of the fixed mindset of certain people.

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From the beginning, Native Americans experienced unfair and unjust treatment. Because of their origins, they have received prejudice resulting in three things “assimilation, relocation, or genocide” (Price, E). "The harsh reality of America’s history is the fact that the treatment of Native Americans is now and always has been grotesque." Native Americans have always been treated as less because of their assumptions that natives were there first and they feel they can overpower them.

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"Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race." -Martin Luther King Jr., Why We Can't Wait

The introduction of a vast new land to the conquistadors and the explorers of the European world marked the end of culture for the indigenous peoples of America. From then on, natives became seen as less than man. Since colonialism, Native Americans have received the worst treatment history has to offer.

While a feast between the colonists and the Indians did occur once in 1621, the diverse and grateful tradition did not truly start the national Thanksgiving holiday, according to The Day, a Connecticut based newspaper. In fact, Thanksgiving has darker origins rooted in the maltreatment of a native tribe. Celebrating the beginning of their yearly corn harvest with their four-day long Green Corn Ceremony, the Pequot Indians were unsuspecting victims of a massacre. Early in the morning, members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony arrived and brutally murdered 700 unarmed tribal members, as stated by Huffington Post. The next day, John Winthrop, the governor of the colony, called for a "day of Thanksgiving" as a result of the colonists' safe return from their massacre of "savage heathens." Though the meaning of Thanksgiving has been completely altered to a day of reflection and family, it is important to understand the dark beginnings and the atrocious crimes on Native Americans. Our history is one of ethnic genocide towards natives, and it has transgressed with the glorification of murder.

The presidency of Andrew Jackson saw hundreds of atrocities by the government of Native Americans. Jackson's Indian Removal Act of 1830 legalized and glorified ethnic cleansing. Tens of thousands of natives were displaced, forced off their own land to make more room for the cotton plantations of the South. It is with legislature passed during Jackson's presidency that doomed natives for the future. In 1831, Chief Justice John Marshall declared that Indian tribes were "domestic dependent nations" in the case of Cherokee Nation v. Georgia. Marshall further made his point by claiming that their "relation to the United States resembles that of a ward to his guardian." The decision behind this case enabled Andrew Jackson to perpetuate a reign of terror on the native peoples. Despite the fact that this decision was overturned in another court case the next year, Jackson continued to impose upon the natives, specifically on the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole peoples, with the inhumane Trail of Tears.

The events that followed contributed to the bleak future of the natives. In 1851, Congress passed the Indian Appropriation Act, the first step in officially confining tribes to small, impoverished reservations. Forced assimilation permitted by the Dawes Act did not bode well for the tribes, either. Many tribes were a part of involuntary assimilation into white cultures: sorted into boarding schools that taught them to be the eurocentric definition of civilized. Native youth were taken from their families to learn "proper" mannerisms, stripped of their culture and everything they knew. Soon enough, many native cultures were lost to the prejudice and egotism of the those of European descent. They saw a loss of their tribal religions, and now Catholicism and Protestantism is prevalent on reservations instead.

Even today, the treatment of Native Americans by Caucasians is abysmal. Reservations, as an effect of many laws enacted by the U.S. government, have been relegated to poverty. According to the Atlantic, Native Americans have a rate of poverty of almost twice the national average, the highest of all racial groups in America. This is a problem that originates with the government, as they make it nearly impossible for those who live on reservations to move upward in society. To simply receive a permit for energy development on reservations, companies must go through at least four federal agencies and 49 steps, according to Forbes. By contrast, off reservation, it takes only four steps. In addition, legally speaking, tribes are not capable of owning or managing their lands. Forbes writes that the government is the legal owner of all land and assets on reservations, and, because of this, they cannot mortgage their assets for loans like other Americans. The government agencies in charge and the laws in place withhold economic growth from occurring on native reservations.

Unfortunately, as a result of the inability for economic growth, health diminishes and crime persists. As reported by a 2001 study by the HHS Office of Minority Health, due to the link between heart disease, diabetes, poverty and quality of nutrition and health care, 36 percent of Natives with heart disease will die before age 65, compared to 15 percent of Caucasians. In addition, infant death rates are 60 percent higher than for Caucasians. Crime rates are also exceeding high on reservation land. According to a 1997 study by the National Center for Epidemiology and Population Health (NCEPH), young Native American peoples show higher rates of drinking and drug use than most other racial or ethnic groups. This has caused a large problem, as alcohol-related death rates among Native Americans youth are over 10 times the national average, according to a study by the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Despite the aforementioned truth that government agencies are responsible for the maintenance of reservations, they fail to do their job. The Justice Department, which is responsible for attending to the most serious crimes on reservations, only files charges in about half of the murder investigations, according to the New York Times. In addition, they turn down nearly two-thirds of sexual assault cases, enabling a high rate of crime to continue. The federal government's treatment towards native reservations is similar to that of an absentee parent: neglecting to attend to their needs yet refusing to give them the freedom and ability to grow on their own.

Throughout history, natives have been given three dismal choices: assimilation, relocation, or genocide. The harsh reality of America's history is the fact that the treatment of Native Americans is now and always has been grotesque.

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The Long History of the Unfair Treatment of Native Americans

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"Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race." -Martin Luther King Jr., Why We Can't Wait The introduction of a vast new land to the conquistadors and the explorers of the European world marked the end of culture for the indigenous...