Oceti Sakowin Tribes Hold Meetings, Provide Testimony on Dakota Access Pipeline in D.C.

WASHINGTON— The surreal meeting on Friday, December 9, 2016 in Washington, D.C. was a direct result of frontline water protectors, tribal leaders, spiritual leaders and elders, the camps at Standing Rock, and allies all across the world praying and participating in non-violent direct actions for the successful denial of the Dakota Access Pipeline easement and the repeated tribal requests for an Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”).

At a meeting coordinated by the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Association, tribal representatives from the leadership of the Cheyenne River, Oglala, Standing Rock, and Yankton Sioux Tribes met at the Department of the Interior with the Department of Justice, the U.S. Army Corps, and the Department of Interior to discuss next steps for agency review of the Dakota Access easement request. Lowry Crook, Deputy Assistant of the Army for Civil Works, explained to the group that a scoping meeting for the EIS would be held with interested tribes shortly and that a notice for the EIS would appear in the Federal Register, mandating its completion. Crook told the tribal representatives that the Army is working “expeditiously” on the next steps in the process under the National Environmental Policy Act, “which will include opportunities for tribal input.” The tribes present strongly asserted the need for the EIS to assess the entire pipeline, rather than just a small portion of the route.

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