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CANNON BALL, SOUTH DAKOTA – The debate over the Dakota Access Pipeline is taking place on several fronts, including two courtrooms and work sites near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. In Washington D.C. on Tuesday, a federal judge granted only a partial stop on the North Dakota pipeline work. U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg ruled the company must halt construction on a portion of land where he believes the Army Corps of Engineers lacks jurisdiction. The Standing Rock chairman expressed disappointment the scope of the order does not cover the main area requested by the tribe.

The judge’s ruling stems from excavation work the previous weekend in an area tribal officials say is culturally and historically significant. The work prompted confrontations between activists and security guards hired by Dakota Access, LLP, the company building the $3.7 billion pipeline.  The guards used dogs and pepper spray against dozens of people who scaled a fence in an attempt to stop the construction work.

Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault said the partial denial of the restraining order puts the tribe’s sacred places at further risk of ruin and undermines tribal sovereignty.

“We are disappointed that the U.S. District Court’s decision does not prevent (the Dakota Access Pipeline) from destroying our sacred sites as we await a ruling on our original motion to stop construction of the pipeline,” Archambault said in a written release. The judge is expected to rule by Friday on whether federal officials adequately consulted with tribes before issuing permits to build the pipeline.

Meanwhile, support for the protest continues to pour in from other tribes, celebrities and political figures. The Canadian Assembly of First Nations issued a statement condemning what it calls the pipeline company’s “human rights violations.” The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues calls on the U.S. government to provide a “fair, independent, impartial, open and transparent process” to resolve the issue and to avoid escalation into violence and further human rights abuses. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein faces possible charges for spray-painting pipeline construction equipment. Singer-songwriter Jackson Browne promised to donate proceeds from a recent album to the tribes opposing the pipeline.

Meanwhile the company building the pipeline accuses the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of encouraging “illegal conduct” by protesters. In a court filing this week, Dakota Access, LLP said protesters have broken fences, trespassed on private land and issued threats of physical violence against construction workers and other employees.

By Jenni Monet

 

The backers of the Dakota Access oil pipeline lack a key easement to complete construction. The Bismark Tribune reports Army Corps of Engineers officials confirm Energy Transfer Partners does not have a written easement to build on Corps property. A Corps spokesman tells the paper the agency issued permission for the easement to be written, but that is still under review. The Des Moines Register reports the pipeline is nearly a quarter of the way built in that state.

Meanwhile Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is supporting the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the other tribal nations fighting construction of the oil pipeline. The former presidential candidate compared the 3.7-billion dollar pipeline to the failed Keystone XL pipeline proposal, which he also opposed. Sanders says the U.S. needs to find more renewable sources of energy, rather than oil derived from fracking.

Nearly 90 tribal nations have declared their support to those working to halt the pipeline since the Army Corps cleared construction of the 1,100-mile pipeline from North Dakota to Illinois. Hundreds of people from all over the country are gathered just outside the Standing Rock Reservation in opposition to the start of construction there. A federal judge is expected to rule within the next two weeks on Standing Rock’s request for an injunction against the pipeline plan on procedural grounds. The pipeline company, Dakota Access LLC, also won a temporary restraining order against Standing Rock officials and other protesters.