AAA Stands with Tribal Nations Opposing Dakota Access Pipeline

The American Anthropological Association (AAA) stands in solidarity with the sovereign Oceti Sakowin Oyate (the Great Sioux Nation), the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the American Indian Studies Association, and the many tribal nations in strongly opposing the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The construction of the oil pipeline, stretching across Standing Rock Sioux lands on its 1,172 mile path from North Dakota to Illinois, would be a violation of the sacred trust between the US Government and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The proposed pipeline route crosses the sacred ancestral lands of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Missouri River – a major source of water for the Tribe. In doing so, it violates the cultural and collective environmental human rights of the Tribe to life, land, cultural preservation, health, clean water, and a clean environment.

The conduct of the US government in its approval of the Pipeline proposal breaches the terms of the 1851 and 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaties between the Oceti Sakowin and the United States. The pipeline further violates the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, as well as the collective human rights of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and its people.

http://www.americananthro.org/ParticipateAndAdvocate/AdvocacyDetail.aspx?ItemNumber=20656