Representatives of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe say the Biden administration should take action against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Standing Rock and three other tribes have sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for issuing an illegal permit for the pipeline under the Trump administration. Now, they say the new president should not leave it to the courts to decide whether the pipeline should be shut down.
Brandon Mauai is a councilman with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. He says President Joe Biden should follow through on his promise to become a leader in environmental battles and protect the Missouri River from potential oil spills from the Dakota Access Pipeline.
“So it’s not just rights for Standing Rock to have access to those clean waters or to ensure that those waters are clean, but also for millions of people downstream.”
Mauai says President Biden should do what other administrations have not done: require U.S. government agencies to sit down with tribes in nation-to-nation consultation and take seriously the expertise of tribal leaders.
“If it’s meaningful consultation, not only Standing Rock but in my opinion every tribe here in the U.S. can benefit from that.”
Mauai made his comments at a news conference following an April 9 hearing in a D.C. federal court, where a lawyer for the Corps of Engineers told the judge the agency doesn’t intend to take action on the pipeline for at least a year, after an environmental study has been completed. In the meantime, the pipeline operates without an easement.
Standing Rock’s attorney is Jan Hasselman of Earth Justice. He says in granting permits, the Corps of Engineers has historically treated tribal consultation as a box to be checked.
“They show up, they listen, and then they go away and do what they were going to do anyway.”
Hasselman says the Corps should consult with tribes as an opportunity to learn.
“If they had listened to the tribe from the beginning and reconsidered where the pipeline was sited, this whole thing could have been avoided. But they didn’t.”
Another federal court hearing is set for April 19th. In the meantime, Hasselman and Mauai say Standing Rock will continue to pressure the Biden administration to step in.