By Amy Rudolph
Elm Staff Writer
Former Presidential Candidate and Senator Bernie Sanders took to his Facebook page to raise awareness of the latest injustice that Native Americans are facing, specifically the Standing Rock Sioux tribe of North Dakota. The issue centers on a project known as the Dakota Access Pipeline that will pump crude oil from North Dakota to Southern Illinois.
Upon completion, the pipeline will pass through miles upon miles of Native American lands. Not many people had heard of the pipeline until Green Party candidate Jill Stein spray-painted one of the project’s bulldozers in protest. A warrant has since been put out for her arrest in response to her vandalism.
The Sioux people of the Standing Rock Reservation near Cannon Ball, N.D. have taken the issue to court and are once again fighting to protect their lands from greedy Americans. If you haven’t heard about the Dakota Access Pipeline and the trouble that it has caused for the Standing Rock Sioux people, there’s a reason for that.
Before the plan could be approved, it had to pass through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers review board. As required by the National Historic Preservation Act, the review board had to consult with tribes about the potential impact of the project, by reaching out to the tribes affected with their findings and requesting a response. The Tribal Historic Preservation Office in charge of ensuring that lands are protected also highlighted that the plan raised concerns for “significant and unevaluated [by the USACE] properties” and what would happen to them if the pipeline were to be constructed.
Though the USACE made contact with the tribes, according to the THPO, the office’s letters to the review board were never answered and they were simply told that the project was moving forward. Many other tribes are affected by this plan, or plot, as well and have said that they have “not been consulted in an appropriate manner about the presence of traditional cultural properties, sites, or landscapes vital to our identity and spiritual well-being.”
The Standing Rock Sioux filed an injunction to halt construction. Energy Transfer Partners, the organization in charge of construction, retaliated by filing lawsuits against the Sioux for blocking the work. Labor Day Weekend 2016 was not a joyous three-day celebration for the Standing Rock Sioux, as construction crews snuck in the night and destroyed the tribe’s burial ground by bulldozing a two-mile long, 150 yard wide path through the sacred space. The Standing Rock Sioux’s burial ground was always in the direct path of the pipeline. The USACE knew about this and did nothing to prevent its destruction.
This seemed like a fight to be had in court, but tensions escalated quickly and the battle turned physically violent as Energy Transfer Partners had private security dogs attack Native American protesters at the sites. Over 30 people were assaulted with pepper spray and six people were mauled, including a child. A federal judge ultimately rejected the tribe’s request to halt construction but thankfully the Obama administration intervened and stopped construction on federal land and has since asked Energy Transfer partners to stop construction within 20 miles of federal land, according to NPR.
These acts of violence are not the first that Native Americans have had to suffer through while trying to protect their land. From the first white settlers in America, to Andrew Jackson’s infamous Trail of Tears, to the forced assimilation and extinction of some Native tribes in America, the list of what Native Americans have had to overcome grows without any signs of stopping.
The Dakota Access Pipeline companies are making such a big deal about this because with every day that they go without building is a day that they lose money and time.
The Sioux lose much more every day. They lose their rights to the land that was stolen from them ages ago and then reclaimed. They lose their voice as they are silenced by attacks and indirectly through the barely-there media coverage of the tragedy that is going on.
If the rest of the U.S. knew that these tribal lands were being robbed for oil that we do not need right now, it would be up in arms. Because it isn’t presented to them, they don’t see it. Other facts about America’s current treatment of Native Americans are also hidden in the headlines. During the research done for this article, I learned that Native Americans are killed by police at a higher rate than African-Americans. We all know how appalling the statistics about racial violence in the United States are but we rarely hear about the violence directed at Native Americans and the murders that still go on.
Early settlers killed the native people for their land and the same thing is happening now. Whether they are getting killed by the police, attack dogs at protests or by the pipeline cutting off access to their drinking water, Native Americans are dying and will continue to if the pipeline construction resumes.
Writer Mike Ginn said pointedly, “The U.S. is having so many disasters and tragedies you’d almost think it was built on thousands of ancient Indian burial grounds.” This statement is meant to be humorous but plainly states the fact that the U.S. built, and still builds, its empire on the backs of dead Native Americans. Until the companies stops taking what is rightfully owned by the Native Americans, more “disasters and tragedies” will occur on both sides of the line.