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Standing Rock Sioux: Trump's Order Is Reward to DAPL Friends

  • The Oceti Sakowin camp is seen in a snow storm near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, North Dakota, U.S. Nov. 29, 2016.

    The Oceti Sakowin camp is seen in a snow storm near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, North Dakota, U.S. Nov. 29, 2016. | Photo: Reuters

Published 24 January 2017
Opinion

The head of the Native American tribe said, "Creating a second Flint does not make America great again."

U.S. President Donald Trump's move to revive the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline is meant as a political payback to the billionaires benefiting from the project who supported his bid for the presidency, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe said in its first response to Trump’s executive order.

RELATED:
Women Are 'Backbone' of Native Actions Against Dakota Pipeline

“President Trump is legally required to honor our treaty rights and provide a fair and reasonable pipeline process,” Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said in a statement Tuesday.

“Americans know this pipeline was unfairly rerouted towards our nation and without our consent. The existing pipeline route risks infringing on our treaty rights, contaminating our water and the water of 17 million Americans downstream.”

Jan Hasselman, a lawyer for the Native American tribe, said the action was being done "hastily and irresponsibly" and said that a lawsuit is underway to defend December's decision by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deny Energy Transfer Partners the original route.

The federal decision against the pipeline came after several months of protests, which gained international attention and support in North Dakota by thousands of water protectors and Native Americans.

The action against the US$3.8-billion pipeline has attracted more than 300 Native American tribes from across the United States in a show of unity that is being called historic.

The company would need an easement from the federal agency in order to complete construction on a major water source in the area which is also sacred land for the tribe.

RELATED:
CEO of Dakota Pipeline Supports Trump, Gave Campaign over $100K

Archambault argued that the president’s move was “risking our treaty rights and water supply to benefit his wealthy contributors and friends at DAPL,” he said using the initials for the pipeline.

“We are not opposed to energy independence. We are opposed to reckless and politically motivated development projects, like DAPL, that ignore our treaty rights and risk our water. Creating a second Flint does not make America great again.”

The decision on the Dakota Access pipeline did not come as a surprise for many as Trump had promised during his campaign that he would remove any roadblocks or regulatory restrictions on the fossil fuel industry in the country.

Trump also signed Tuesday another executive order reviving the Keystone pipeline that was blocked by the Obama administration in 2015.

Meanwhile, activists with the Indigenous Environmental Network, 350.org, Sierra Club and other organizations were planning a rally in front of the White House at 5:00 p.m. Monday in order to protest Trump’s orders. Others emergency response protests were planned in New York City and other cities around the country.

“Tonight, we will rally at the White House to make one thing clear — our movement stopped these projects once before, and people power will stop them again,” the organizers wrote on a Facebook page for the event.

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