Religion And Sacred Sites Of The Sioux Tribe

The Lakota tribes environmental wisdom and spirituality grew to stabilize among years of conservation and concern for the earth. All animals were respected like humans and the rivers and trees were cared for because the nature was well alive like the humans that existed in it. The Lakota tribe lives on the Northern Plains of North America and are often referred to as Sioux. The Lakota tribe of the Great Plains is very much rooted to the earth and place a huge emphasis on it being their home. In their culture the world was not savage, nor were the animals wild because on earth all spirits resided in nature. They defined their culture and continue to strengthen their values like kinship, courage, and wisdom in their community through rites of renewal/passage, dance, and their style of clothes.

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

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

Statement of Question: I will argue if the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have a legitimate argument against the Dakota Access Pipeline citing the Energy Transfer Partners for being in violation of the Fort Laramie Treaty and the other statues such as the National Historic Protection Act, and National Environmental Policy Act. I will also analyze the involvement of protestors and the role of the U.S. Army Corps.

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.

Over the past few months’ highlights of the Sioux Native American protest in North Dakota have been prevalent in the news. Though many pieces have touched upon the reasons why the Standing Rock Sioux have been protesting such as the Dakota Access Pipeline, many articles have been opinion based and failed to relay the facts surrounding the issue of it’s construction. In an attempt to understand the situation and gain factual information surrounding the pipeline and the Standing Rock Sioux, I interviewed Professor Ron Ferguson who has followed the situation from it’s beginning.

The area known as the Standing Rock Indian Reservation located in North Dakota and along the Missouri River, has been targeted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and other governmental entities, to construct a 1,172-mile-long pipe, right through the area’s clean water and ancient burial grounds. The United States Government is in favor of the project for its economic benefit, while the Indian American tribes of Standing Rock are against the project due to the harmful implications that this pipe brings to their wellbeing and their heritage. With the news that this pipe was originally headed towards Bismarck North Dakota, (90% white population) and then re-routed towards Native lands, the question can be brought up: why was the pipe rerouted?

Dallas Based Energy Transfer Partners, the company responsible for the construction of the pipeline, claims they have met with tribal leaders “many” times over the past two years, but, “the Standing Rock Sioux claims that meaningful consultations with their leaders were never held and that their concerns have been ignored” (Dakota Access Pipeline 12). This is blatant discrimination of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and disregards any concerns they may have. Cooperation with the tribal leaders would allow the tribe to communicate any further concerns with construction. Instead they have ignored the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and decided to do what they think is best for themselves. An ideology that has always haunted the Native American people. The discrimination continues with the Pipeline being built on Sioux territory and further violates treaties. Sincere Kirabo, coordinator at the American Humanist Association, states, “[the pipeline] does cross through territory that belongs to the Sioux, which directly violates the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie that states the land is reserved for ‘undisturbed use and occupation’ of Native inhabitants” (26). The treaties once created by the government to create peace, is now being disregarded and not being upheld. This is denying their freedom of being equal before the law and further shows discrimination against the

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 currently fights to save its only water source from natural gas and oil contamination. This troubling current event has a somewhat forgotten historical analogue where very similar themes presented themselves. The Kinzua Dam Controversy, which took place in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, resulted in the displacement of over 600 Seneca Indian families and the acquisition of a large tract of traditional Seneca Land for dam building. Additionally, the acquisition of Seneca land represented a breach of “The Treaty with the Six Nations of 1794,” which explicated prevented such action by the US Government. The dam and its construction, which primarily benefitted Pittsburg, inspired a heated discourse concerning the ethics of native relocation.

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.

Standing rock is an American Reservation in North Dakota. The native people are fight to keep there water supply safe and drinkable not only that but also their sacred ritual and burial grounds. As native people and protesters gather from around the world to fight against police brutailty and support human rights

The problem is the native Americans need help to stop the pipeline. There is about 200 native Americans camping at the site where the North Dakota access pipeline would cross the Missouri river. The native that are camping there are getting attacked with pepper spray and guard dogs. So the native are are trying to protect their lands from the pipeline. My opinion is the native culture needs help.

If the pipeline is constructed, it would damage the historical past of the Sioux Tribe. The Sioux Tribe came from Asia about 30,000 years ago. They had to go through a lot to keep their land and to stay where they are. According to CREDO action they stated that “The tribe, other landowners, and farmers have been fighting to stop the pipeline from being built for more than two years”. The Sioux Tribe is one of the largest Native tribes to exist. On their tribal grounds, they held burials,

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