Dakota Access Pipeline

Proposal  

Since before the first colony, the Native American people and the United States have fought over land and items to sustain life, one of those is water. Water has been a vital resource and without it we would all die. The same goes for the native people who live on reservations. For many years different tribes all over the united states have foretold of a “black snake” that would cross the Lakota lands and bring with it natural disaster. The white settlers came from different lands searching for a better way of life, All while making a harder life for the people whose ancestors called this great land home. We have pushed them to live on reservations. This is land the United States did not want or could not do anything with.  

   We have especially seen for ourselves in the last few years how natural resources and land come into play between the Native Americans and the United States. I have seen what it has done to my family who live close to the pipeline on reservations, I have seen what it has done to our earth and to the Land we all live on. The United States has yet again taken land from the Native American people, illegally. And even threw some in jail just because they are standing up for themselves and their families. The water is a vital resource for many reasons not just drinking. They use it for ceremonies and other things like bathing so it has to be pure and clean of any chemicals and other harmful hazards.

The Dakota access pipeline will run through ancient sites and burial grounds, essentially desecrating and destroying them. The United States should not be allowed to take Native American reservation land and put a pipeline through it without talking with the tribes or going about it legally.  Thousands of Native Americans and their allies gathered on previous Sioux land delimited by the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie (Charles J. Kappler, INDIAN AFFAIRS: LAWS AND TREATIES)   to try and stop the pipeline from being built that could contaminate the Standing Rock Reservation’s only water supply. The Dakota access pipeline was moved from its original route north of Bismarck after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rejected it saying it was a major threat to drinking water in that mostly-white municipality. Yet the U.S. Army Corps failed its federal mandate for meaningful communications with the Standing Rock Tribe before signing off on the route that moved the Dakota access pipeline to about half a mile from the Native American reservation.

That isn’t to say that the people of Bismarck and Mandan should be put at risk of an oil spill. The problem is the Dakota access pipeline project exists to begin with. Some people say it’s a good alternative solution to dangerous oil-by-rail shipments of crude oil. The United States does not need more fossil fuels making it to the market to be burned and burn the planet up in turn. We as human beings all need clean water to survive. As the Sioux say, mni wiconi  ”water is life”.

Statistics have shown how dangerous oil pipeline’s and oil being brought by trains can be, looking at other oil spills that have happened across the united states, The question we as people need to start asking is, Why has nobody wanted to find other means to replace oil? We know that the Dakota access pipeline might make money for the United States. Pipeline supporters also say the project would enhance America’s energy security by reducing our dependence on Middle Eastern oil. But it will cost more than money in the long run. It will cost much more than anyone is willing to pay, our planet.

 The Dakota access pipeline’s developer, Energy Transfer Partners, says the pipeline will create up to 12,000 jobs during its construction. But only 40 to 50 of the jobs created would be permanent, Bill Mckibben says whatever the job gains; they are not worth the environmental impact. The standing rock Sioux maintain that if the pipeline were to leak or rupture it would contaminate the Missouri river, the tribe’s only water source and Oil contamination of drinking water has been connected to high cancer risks and other health hazards.

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