STANDING ROCK – This past week, Fox News reported that 1,200 licenced archaeologist have joined the chorus of voices speaking out against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
The group is calling for Dakota Access to at least pause its construction of the controversial pipeline and they have weighed in on the matter with President Obama. The letter was CC’ed to the Army Corps of Engineers, and two other federal agencies.
In at least one of these letters Board Chairmen of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Brenda Toineeta Pipestem says they want to see consultation with the Lakota tribe.
“The reason we signed on to this letter was because it’s our understanding that the tribe has not been fully consulted. You know, there was no environmental impact statement done with actual consultation of the tribe on these lands,” Pipestem told Fox News.
But there has been pushback from U.S. Senator John Hoevan who says there has been consultation.
“When the tribe talked to me about the project, earlier, I contacted the Corps and asked the Corps, Col. John Henderson, who’s the district director out of Omaha, to come up and meet with the Corps, the tribe, and consult with them,” says Hoevan.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has every right to protect their land, their water, their cultural resources and their ancestral graves, according to Pipestem.
