Karly Trimble Save the Land “In the end, there is no absence of irony: the integrity of what is sacred to the Native Americans will be determined by the government that has been responsible for doing everything in their power to destroy Native American cultures”-Winona LaDuke. Native American beliefs are deeply rooted in their culture. To diminish and violate rights of Native Americans is immoral. Violating Native American rights threatens their public health and welfare, water supply, and sacred land. Therefore, the government should not install the Dakota Access Pipeline. First of all, the Dakota Access Pipeline can threaten Native American health and welfare, especially if it is forced into their environment. According to the New Yorker, …show more content…
Justin Worland reports in TIME, since 2010, 3,300 incidents of leaks and ruptures have been reported on oil pipelines and even the smallest spill could damage the tribes water supply. This can be very controversial, but with over 10,000 Native Americans living on the Standing Rock Reservation, many lives may be affected. In fact, the pipeline would travel directly under the Missouri River which is the tribes primary drinking water source. Also, Native Americans received specific rights they have obtained since 1898. The Lakota tribe signed the Fort Laramie Treaty in 1898 that protects hunting, fishing and water rights in the surrounding area(Ward). As a result of signing this treaty, officials cannot threaten their water by installing a pipeline. Furthermore, the 1972 Clean Water Act declares it is unlawful to discharge any pollutant from an identifiable source into bodies of water without a permit(Brodwin). The problem found within the pipeline is that is causes potential harm to drinking water. Therefore, the significance of Native Americans relying on this drinking water overpowers the installation of the Dakota Access …show more content…
For many Native Americans like Chief Laduke say, “This is a place the creator gave us. This is the only place in the word that is ours.” Native Americans are the true lovers of nature and have an indefinite love for their land. Native Americans have announced that the Dakota Access Pipeline disrespects their culture and their lost loved ones. “The tribe has even sued Army Corps of Engineers for permitting a project that violated the National Historic Preservation Act(NHPA) and the National Environmental Preservation Act(NEPA)” says TIME. This event proves that the pipeline is unjustified and is legally against Native American rights when destroying sacred land. The “National Geographic Channel” also states, “Many tribes members are concerned about burial grounds being disturbed during construction because bulldozers have already removed topsoil on ground that members consider sacred.” The importance of sacred land to Native Americans is significant. Moreso, there is already damage being done before the actual construction. Therefore, it cannot be determined the damage that will be done during the installment of the pipeline. “Those echoes from the land have a power that draws people, allowing them to connect with their roots.” (CNN.com) The importance of land goes in hand with the importance to tradition. Areas that were once having tribal ceremonies in 1713 such as the sundance are currently still used
The Dakota Access Pipeline is a problem for the natives, but obviously not for us Americans. Energy transfer quote that “Some protesters stayed overnight what looked like dog kennels and were let out in the morning”. This is why we need to stop the construction of this pipeline because it could leak and contaminate the water, the pipeline would be going through sacred grounds, and we need to stop the violence against the native protesters.
In the article, “A high-plains showdown over the Dakota Access Pipeline”, Justin Worland addresses the current situation the North Dakota Access Pipeline has brought upon America and its Native American tribes. In particular, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe has a conflict between the Energy Transfer Partners company. Energy Transfer Partners wants to build an oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Reservation. The Sioux tribe is against the project because the oil pipeline will destroy their historical ground and their water source of Lake Oahe.
The Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota has made headlines throughout the US because of their reaction to what they feel is a threat to not only their sacred lands but also the water source of the whole tribe, along with many others. The construction of an oil pipeline going through North and South Dakota while going under the Missouri River has caused this major controversy. This pipeline that is soon being built has been a project that was halted before by the past president Obama in late 2016. The project called Bakken or better known as the Dakota Access Pipeline, is being built by Energy Transfer Partners. This is a 3.8 billion dollar oil pipeline that would stretch over 1,100 miles long through North
Thesis: The U.S. should stop the production of the North Dakota Access Pipeline because it would break the contract made over a hundred years with the Native Americans, it violates the ninth amendment, and it is not environmentally safe.
Oil is one resource America relies heavily on. Oil has a negative impact on the environment and has long lasting affects. The Dakota Access Pipeline is a major controversial topic in the news. The Dakota Access Pipeline is being used to transport oil from North Dakota to Illinois. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is located where the pipeline will be passing through. The pipeline disrupts the lives of the Native Americans who live there. I believe that the Dakota Access Pipeline should not be built because of the affects on the environment and goes against the rights of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Greider and Garkovich’s Landscapes: The Social Construction of Nature and the Environment discusses how the environment we live in is apart of our landscape. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe sees their landscape as sacred and a place they need to protect.
The native americans and other DAPL (Dakota Access Pipeline) opposers are filled with determination, distress, passion, and such resentment towards the pipeline project because it would run under and through ground that their ancestors knew as sacred and those beliefs are still very alive to this day. The pipeline is a 1,172 mile underground oil pipeline that will aid transporting oil through all 50 states in the USA; it was projected to go through sacred lands, reservations, and rivers. There are multifarious issues and concerns pertaining to project but some of the preeminent concerns are; historic preservation and sacred grounds becoming significantly damaged and irreparable, climate change and how it would just increase the production of CO2, and potential pipeline fractures and spills that would mutilate the crucial nearby farms and threaten contaminate for the water supply of thousands of people who depend on it.
For the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, water is sacred, and if an oil pipeline is built it will damage sites that have great historical, religious, and cultural significance to the tribe. Aside from the desecration of sacred sites, the environmental hazards caused by the pipelines and the possibility of a spill will be catastrophic. The US does not need another oil pipeline robbing innocent people of their culture, and threatening a source that keeps us alive.
The Energy Transfer Partners wants to install the Dakota Pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, but the Sioux tribe is fighting to stop the installation of the pipeline to preserve their culture and assert their right to the property. The Dakota Pipeline is an oil pipeline that would transport oil from North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa into Illinois. The Dakota Pipeline should not be installed because it disrespects the Native Americans’ culture and discriminates against The Sioux, a minority within the United States. The unjust treatment of Native Americans is due to the government’s disregard for Native American property rights and the government’s belief that they can simply take Native American property away because they are
Americans have demanded rights from the government for 200 years and also demanded that they are not infringed upon. This is a reasonable claim, but when it comes to Native Americans, they are not given their due. The biggest insult to their rights is that of the environmentally dangerous, falsely advertised, and political money making Keystone XL Pipeline. This political pipeline project should be abandoned due to the obvious environmental hazards, its political motivation, and the infringement of the Native American rights.
Ultimately, the Dakota Access Pipeline will only harm the people and environment. It will be seen as disrespect to Native Americans, release excessive amount of carbon into the atmosphere, and cause even more violent protests. This can all be resolved be rerouting the pipeline to go around the sacred burial site. Our Native Americans are a part of our country too, we wouldn’t want our peace with them to be disrupted for a simple
The native Americans of north America have long suffered from structural violence ever since the arrival of the European immigrants and suffer today in the situation of the North Dakota pipeline. The current situation regarding the Access pipeline is that it is running through properties belonging to the native American people without their consent. The problems that are pipeline could create are very similar to those that affect Lubicon people in Canada today. But the more important issue here is not the pipeline itself but the historical structural violence against natives that created this issue.
Native Americans are being disrespected, harmed, and their homeland is being taken from them. Am I talking about events taken place centuries ago? No, because these unfortunate circumstances yet again are occurring right here, now, in the present. This horrid affair has a name: The Dakota Access Pipeline. This Pipeline is an oil transporting pipeline, which is funded by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers, who have devised a plan for the pipeline to run through the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois. However, unfortunately, this pipeline will run straight through the reservation of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe, expressing their distress for the pipeline have said, that the pipeline will be “Destroying our burial sites, prayer sites, and culturally significant artifacts,” Arguments for the pipeline however have tried to counter this claim, trying to emphasize that “The pipeline wouldn 't just be an economic boon, it would also significantly decrease U.S. reliance on foreign oil”, and that the pipeline is estimated to produce “374.3 million gallons of gasoline per day.”, which could help the sinking oil economy. (Yan, 2016) However, despite the economical growth it could achieve, the Dakota Access Pipeline could have damaging environmental effects on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the areas surrounding.
The Dakota Access Pipeline was proposed in 2014 as a method of transportation for domestically produced crude oil. It is planned to run from North Dakota, through South Dakota and Iowa, arriving in Illinois. The pipeline is an efficient means of transportation of this oil, but the negatives outweigh the positives. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe says the pipeline is passing through some of their lands. The tribe also claims the construction will disturb sacred land, and affect the reservation’s drinking water. The archeological firms hired by the DAP have argued that they were not aware that it was a part of the tribe’s land. The
Not just for Native Americans but for blacks, Muslims, Jews, and others, but even now we are dealing with Native American invasion and taking their land again, this time known as the Dakota Pipeline which is currently going on in North Dakota. The Dakota Pipeline is a large oil transmitting pipe that supplies oil across the United States but will be built on protected Native American land. The contractors have taken a look and have said that the pipeline would be a significant amount away from their land, but would be built under their water supply from Lake Oahe and would be at the closest 95 feet under the lake. But the Standing Rock Sioux haven't given up hope they have burought up that there have been over 3,300 incidents in which pipes have had leaks that have affected the environment drinking water and much more. The contractors have said that they have taken extreme precautions and have safety tested everything the Sioux aren't going to take any chances. Even as the Sioux and over 50 other tribes have protested there have been no clear winner of the battle on the Dakota Pipeline. The tribes have been protesting for months and though few have gotten violent many Natives and others with them have been arrested and thrown in jail, which is just another way people can attack the Native People to this
The Standing Rock Reservation was given to the Native Americans to because of the significance and weight that the land held for the Standing Rock Tribe. For instance, the High Arctic Relocation, which was the forced relocation of 19 Inuit families from Quebec to the Arctic Region in the 1950s. Apihtawikosisân, a Métis woman from the Plains Cree speaking community of Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta, says that the relocations of indigenous people occurred as a way to reinforce sovereignty of a race or a group of people. In doing so, the effects of these relocations reverberated for generations, such as the weakening of cultural bonds, loss of economic sufficiency, decline in standards of health, changes in social and political structures, was a damaging experience for many indigenous people. While the company nor the government is telling or forcing the Standing Rock Tribe to move, the Pipeline does endanger the Native American’s way of life. The North Dakota Pipeline is essentially forcing the Standing Rock Tribe to conform so that the structure can be built under the Missouri River and near the Tribe’s Reservation and sacred areas. More instances of denying human rights or forcing indigenous people to submit, would include the human rights abuses against indigenous people in Southeast Asia. Between the Cham, the Montagnard, and the Jumma, there were rights issues regarding way of life, religious beliefs, assimilating into another culture, imprisonment, and land dispossession (Scholten). These sorts of issues are not directly tied to the Dakota Pipeline, but are related in a way that guaranteed rights were taken away or ignored when a certain group of people began to deny the human needs of the indigenous. Establishing a Pipeline under sacred grounds and near Indian Reservations can be