Menu
In July 2016, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe filed a lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers, challenging its speedy approval of an easement to cross Sioux Nation Treaty lands and the Missouri River above Standing Rock. It became apparent that the federal government, as always it seems, would fight us in court tooth and nail on behalf of the oil industry.
Our leaders did what our ancestors did before battle-we prayed. We asked Wakan Tanka for wisdom and guidance to protect the next seven generations. And then we made the call for Indian Country to support us in prayer and engage in peaceful civil disobedience to stop the construction of this massive oil pipeline on our door step. Tens of thousands of [I]ndigenous relatives from all over the world came to Standing Rock and stood with us against the Dakota Access Pipeline, referred to in our prophecy as the black snake, that has come to harm our land, our water, and our people.
The people of Standing Rock were heartened when many non-Indigenous allies came to join us in opposing DAPL. Many different community and environmental justice organizations from throughout the United States joined in our good faith effort to protect our water, and our Unci Maka (Grandmother Earth). This included members of Greenpeace.
Energy Transfer’s defamation lawsuit against Greenpeace claims that DAPL does not cross Standing Rock land, that there was no violence against peaceful protesters and that no cultural sites were destroyed during construction. Nothing could be further from the truth: DAPL does cross Sioux Nation treaty and aboriginal land for hundreds of miles; there was violence by law enforcement and Energy Transfer security guards and Tribal burials were destroyed.
The overwhelming majority of the protests were peaceful, prayerful and non-violent.
There were a small number of extremists, as well as documented infiltration by private, security forces. Overall, the stand against DAPL in 2017 at Cannon Ball community was called by our Tribe, organized by our leaders and engaged in by our Tribal members, including many Lakota and Dakota veterans of the U.S. armed forces.
DAPL crosses through Sioux Nation Treaty lands from the Heart River to the east bank of the sacred Mni Sose (Missouri River). The pipeline crosses our aboriginal land for hundreds of miles. It is a few hundred feet from Cannon Ball community on the Standing Rock Reservation – the kids attending Cannon Ball community school can see it when they get off the bus each morning.
On September 3, 2016, untrained, unlicensed DAPL security sentinels used guard dogs to harass Standing Rock Tribal members and our allies engaged in nonviolent protests. DAPL’s tactics were reminiscent of the extreme violence against civil rights protesters in the deep south, during the civil rights protests of the 1960’s – but in this day and age, against Standing Rock.
During construction, Dakota burial sites were destroyed at Cannon Ball Ranch in North Dakota and [was] desecrated at the Big Sioux Wildlife Refuge in Iowa. Technical reports show that during the HD D drill process in February 2017, 1.4 million gallons of drill mud, possibly containing unidentified lubricants, was illegally released into the environment. They polluted our water before DAPL even went online. Upon going online in July 2017, it was reported that at least 356 gallons of oil were released into the environment. So, it is important to question DAPL propaganda about how safe the pipeline is.
Our Tribe has requested from Energy Transfer and the Corps of Engineers basic documents about pipeline safety, such as the emergency response plan, spill model, HDD drilling logs, test results on shutdown time, etc. Energy Transfer ignored our requests. The Corps of Engineers provided highly redacted, illegible information. If DAPL is so safe, why the secrecy?
We have good reason to be concerned. On August 5, 2022, Energy Transfer LP and Sunoco Pipeline LP pled no contest to 23 criminal charges in Pennsylvania. The charges stemmed from the use of unapproved drilling fluid additives, the repeated failure to report spills, and widespread water pollution. As a result, Energy Transfer and its affiliates have been debarred from receiving government contracts or assistance, such as an easement for DAPL. Bloomberg News recently identified Energy Transfer-owned companies as having the worst safety record of any pipeline operator in the United States. We know this information is unlikely to surface in Energy Transfer’s case against Greenpeace.
From the beginning, Energy Transfer has engaged in a security battle, secrecy battle, and propaganda battle against our Tribe. It promotes lies and propaganda to discredit our Tribe and our good faith concerns with DAPL’s impacts on our Reservation environment and the global climate. Part of the attack on our Tribe is to attack our allies.
Today, Energy Transfer is taking Greenpeace to court, frivolously alleging defamation and seeking money damages, designed to shut down all voice supporting Standing Rock.
The case is an attempt to silence our Tribe about the truth of what happened at Standing Rock, and the threat posed by DAPL to our land, our water and our people. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe will not be silenced.