Tribal Activists Defy Lawsuit, Vow Continued Resistance Against Dakota Pipeline

An epic battle over land rights is being waged in the Dakotas, as a local Indigenous community, facing arrests and litigation, is standing firm in its resistance to a massive Bakken crude pipeline project.

Developers of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access (also known as the Bakken) Pipeline filed suit in federal court on Monday against members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, whose days-long civil disobedience campaign last week stalled construction of the 1,200-mile pipeline.

Dakota Access LLC is “seeking restraining orders and unspecified monetary damages,” the Associated Press reports. In court papers, the companies argues that the tribal activists “have created and will continue to create a risk of bodily injury and harm to Dakota Access employees and contractors, as well as to law enforcement personnel and other individuals at the construction site.”

“I’ve been told and taught that it is our responsibility to stand for our relatives, the ones that crawl, the ones that fly, the ones that burrow, the ones that swim, the ones that flower. Relatives that cannot speak for themselves. Who will speak for them? We have to speak for those who are not here—our ancestors, for those children who are not yet born.”
—Dave Archambault II, Standing Rock Sioux

But the tribal members contend that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers quietly approved the project last month without proper consultation or consent, despite the fact that it runs within a half-mile of the Standing Rock reservation.

“We don’t want this black snake within our Treaty boundaries,” said Standing Rock Sioux tribal chairman Dave Archambault II, who was named in the suit. “We need to stop this pipeline that threatens our water. We have said repeatedly we don’t want it here. We want the Army Corps to honor the same rights and protections that were afforded to others, rights we were never afforded when it comes to our territories. We demand the pipeline be stopped and kept off our Treaty boundaries.”

At least a dozen protesters were arrested last week. However, the demonstrations have continued.

Construction on the pipeline—which will carry up to 570,000 barrels of fracked Bakken oil across four states to a market hub in Illinois—resumed Monday under protection of “armed private security guards…several sheriff’s deputies and about 30 North Dakota Highway Patrol troopers,” according to AP.

Despite this, tribal women reportedly stormed the site and halted construction.

Updates are being shared on social media with the hashtags #DakotaAccessPipeline, #RezpectOurWater, and #NoDAPL.

Supporters have launched a White House petition and legal defense fund to help the resistance effort. Meanwhile, Archambault has specifically called on allies across the country to “call or write your Senators and Representative to stop this blindness and this greed. And, if nothing else… offer a prayer for sensibility and common sense on behalf of all the two-legged that walk as this is not just a Lakota/Dakota issue, this is a human issue.”

The full statement, issued Monday, is below.