USA: Stage victory for the Standing Rock Sioux: Dakota Access Pipeline project suspended

From the viewpoint of the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), the fact that the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) project in North Dakota has been suspended is an important stage victory for the Standing Rock Sioux. The US Army Corps of Engineers had decided not to grant the final approval for the crossing of Lake Oahe and the Missouri – at least for the time being. First, an environmental study is to be carried out, and possible alternative pipeline courses need to be examined.

“We would like to congratulate the Standing Rock Sioux and the several thousands of Water Protectors on this great success,” said STP-expert Yvonne Bangert, welcoming the important winter break for the activists. “However, it is much too early to say what will become of the plans in the end. First, it will be necessary to wait for further decisions – and to see whether Donald Trump will intervene after taking office on January 20, 2017.” Trump, who is a proponent of the oil industry, has announced plans to revise the energy policy of Obama’s administration. He also has financial interests in the pipeline project.

“Surely, the conflict about the pipeline is not over yet. However, the time gained can now be used for test that had still been pending – and, of course, for negotiations with the Standing Rock Sioux, as it is their traditional land that is affected by the planned pipeline. We will watch the situation closely,” Bangert announced. The companies Energy Transfer and Sunoco have already criticized the decision as purely “politically motivated”, emphasizing that the formal approval procedure had been complied with. The Republican governor of North Dakota, Jack Dalrymple, described the decision as a serious mistake.

The protests – which had started off with a fairly small group of protesters in April 2016 – were joined by several thousand water protectors who tried to put an end to the project before the pipeline could be laid underneath the riverbed. There are also financial institutions from Germany involved in the project. The Deutsche Bank and Bayern LB are part of an international banking group that invested in the pipeline project and the exporting company Energy Transfer & Partners. The STP has asked the two banks to quit the project, following the example of the Norwegian bank DNB.

“The pipeline project is to be seen as a violation of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, signed by the US in 2010. The Standing Rock Sioux had no say in the planning phase,” said Yvonne Bangert, the STP’s expert on indigenous peoples. “The right to freedom of religion has been violated as well: the construction work has already destroyed several holy sites and graves of the Sioux.”

Header Photo: Aman Dhaliwal/Oceti Sakowin Camp via flickr