The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe currently fights to save its only water source from natural gas and oil contamination. This troubling current event has a somewhat forgotten historical analogue where very similar themes presented themselves. The Kinzua Dam Controversy, which took place in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, resulted in the displacement of over 600 Seneca Indian families and the acquisition of a large tract of traditional Seneca Land for dam building. Additionally, the acquisition of Seneca land represented a breach of “The Treaty with the Six Nations of 1794,” which explicated prevented such action by the US Government. The dam and its construction, which primarily benefitted Pittsburg, inspired a heated discourse concerning the ethics of native relocation.
One such ethical concern, at the time, was that of proper and just compensation for the Seneca Nation. For many Native American peoples, the loss of land can be a significant cultural and psychological detriment. Following the Kinzua Dam Controversy, the United States government should have more appropriately compensated the Seneca Nation for its loss of land, during the Kinzua Dam Controversy, which held immense cultural, natural, and even recreational value. Moreover, the United States Government’s exploitation of Native Americans, during the Kinzua Dam Controversy and the current Standing Rock Controversy, reflects a lack of respect for Native American sovereignty and cultural connection to nature, which
In this article, the Terry Wade and Ernest Scheyder discuss the protesters citing a treaty in order to occupy the land. Protestors are advocating for the rerouting of the pipeline on the grounds that further construction carries potential spills into drinking water and damage historical tribal sacred lands. The article cites the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, in which the protestors cited, and further discusses how treaty has not been taken seriously in the court of law. The article suggests that at one point the Energy Transfer Company planned to run the pipeline near Bismarck and far from the reservation, but instead decided to choose Standing Rock Sioux Land. This article is useful to point out a solution to the problem as well as the impact of protestors have on this
American Indians are being treated in atrocious, illegal, and terrifying mater, while peacefully trying to protect water for all of us. On the Other side of this battle, sits Energy Transfer Partners who fund the Dakota Access Pipeline, the real outlaws. This is part of a bigger picture, Native American lands are under threat, and being stolen.. Now is the time that we must fight this if we don't our future is threatened. This is more than about water, but the bigger threat of climate change. This is a story of courage, culture, environmental protection, climate change, and the real world danger facing all of us.
Recently Dakota Access pipeline is running the headlines. Native American tribes and their partners, drove by the Standing Rock Sioux, have been challenging the Dakota Access pipeline, a venture that would transport oil from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota and Montana over the Plains to Illinois. The nonconformists, numbering in the thousands and including individuals from several distinct tribes, contend that finishing the pipeline would profane hereditary grounds, undermine the water supply, and unjustifiably trouble the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which is probably not going to profit by any financial advancement that goes with the venture. Energy Transfer Partners, the enterprise behind the pipeline, recommends the venture will prompt to more noteworthy monetary advancement and expanded security and productivity contrasted with the trains that presently convey Bakken unrefined petroleum (Harris and Gonchar, 2016).
While the mainstream media has its attention focused on North Dakota’s Standing Rock Sioux tribe in their fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, there are many other tribes also struggling to protect their native ancestral sites and cultural resources throughout the United States that are going unnoticed. One such tribe is the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. This tribe is attempting to stop Aquila Resources’ Back Forty Project which would create a mine alongside and under the treasured Menominee River. This open pit gold, zinc, and copper mine would destroy burial grounds, former raised garden beds, ancient village sites, dance rings, and more. Thus, it is clear that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is not the only tribe fighting to protect its culture and environment. In fact, the only unique thing about the Dakota Access Pipeline is the national coverage it has received (Thompson). Therefore, in this paper, I aim to do justice to the Menominee Tribe who has not been so fortunate to find its plights in the public’s view. The Menominee Tribe’s concerns have not been fully taken into account and valued in the mining permit approval process and news coverage of their fight has been severely lacking. This paper will support this claim by utilizing data and information from numerous sources to include data from Aquila Resources about the Project, testimony and stories from the Menominee Tribe, and
Over the past few months’ highlights of the Sioux Native American protest in North Dakota have been prevalent in the news. Though many pieces have touched upon the reasons why the Standing Rock Sioux have been protesting such as the Dakota Access Pipeline, many articles have been opinion based and failed to relay the facts surrounding the issue of it’s construction. In an attempt to understand the situation and gain factual information surrounding the pipeline and the Standing Rock Sioux, I interviewed Professor Ron Ferguson who has followed the situation from it’s beginning.
As many may know there is a huge news story brewing in North Dakota. Out on Standing Rock reservation there is a a protest going on about an oil pipeline line that is trying to be placed on the property. The native people of the land are against and have strong arguments against. They hope there arguments will open the eyes of the big wigs of the oil company. They plan to prove exactly what is going to happen to there land by placing this pipe line directly underneath the Missouri River.
Normally, the Standing Rock Sioux would have the liberty to protect and try to block the pipeline project, but because of their actions that caused numerous public safety issues, it is possible they are infringing on the freedom of Energy Transfer Partners and the well-being of its employees and police officers. Yet, the Energy Transfer Partners are also exercising their Constitutional rights of legal action by countersuing seven individuals over the protests (Healy
In this article, the plan of a pipeline that is attempting construction is being rejected by those of Native American descent who live on the affected land. Their claim is that, since the pipeline is intended to cross the Missouri River near the Standing Rock reservation, the drinking water has an extremely high risk of becoming contaminated. Since the people living there depend on the river for a majority of their basic needs―such as drinking, fishing, and irrigation―it is an argument that a vast number of lives could be greatly affected. In order to prove a crucial point, thousands have moved indefinitely to a main protest camp called Oceti Sakowin. A community has been established here, where common societal things such a school and security system have been founded.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee opens up factual accounts of the United States’ inhumanity and the contradiction of their proclamation of Natural Rights towards the Natives of North America. As government officials in Washington received reports of conflict from the “Chiricahua reservation, they saw this as an excellent excuse to move the Chiricahuas to San Carlos, … a gravelly flat [where] rain was so infrequent that it took on the semblance of a phenomenon when it came at all”(393). The continuous movement of Indian tribes from reservation to reservation by the American government without the consent of Native groups “confiscated” their rights to own property. By taking advantage of the American Indians’ lack of understanding of their political standpoint and Natural Rights, Native Americans were repeatedly forced off their land. The eviction of American Indian tribes often occurred when abundant resources were found on a reservation, as Americans scrambled to grab what they could, in the meantime pushing the Natives into intolerable living conditions without a second thought.
One of the most controversial topics of this year is the Dakota pipeline protest, creating conflict between the Sioux tribe and the oil industry. The pipeline is to “be built by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners and is designed to transport as many as 570,000 barrels of crude oil daily from North Dakota to Illinois.” as stated by Time magazine, Justin Worland. The pipeline would bridge oil wells in the state’s Bakken Shale, where the development has opened billions of gallons of new oil to recovery, to other valuable consumer markets. However , the issue with this project is that the pipeline would travel underneath the Missouri River, in which is the primary drinking water source for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe . For this reason the Sioux tribe and other environmental activists are upset and for good reason ; no one has the right to step into their territory because it isn’t our land. By the Treaty of Fort Laramie, by the unnecessary harsh act law enforce underwent, and for the fact that they rejected the
Native Americans are being disrespected, harmed, and their homeland is being taken from them. Am I talking about events taken place centuries ago? No, because these unfortunate circumstances yet again are occurring right here, now, in the present. This horrid affair has a name: The Dakota Access Pipeline. This Pipeline is an oil transporting pipeline, which is funded by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers, who have devised a plan for the pipeline to run through the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois. However, unfortunately, this pipeline will run straight through the reservation of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe, expressing their distress for the pipeline have said, that the pipeline will be “Destroying our burial sites, prayer sites, and culturally significant artifacts,” Arguments for the pipeline however have tried to counter this claim, trying to emphasize that “The pipeline wouldn 't just be an economic boon, it would also significantly decrease U.S. reliance on foreign oil”, and that the pipeline is estimated to produce “374.3 million gallons of gasoline per day.”, which could help the sinking oil economy. (Yan, 2016) However, despite the economical growth it could achieve, the Dakota Access Pipeline could have damaging environmental effects on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the areas surrounding.
Who really are the Cheyenne Indians? According to historians, they were Indian people who became nomadic and moved to the Great Plains in the 18th century (Berkin 366). Another tribe, the Souix, developed the name of "people of a different language" for the Cheyenne. Some people said that the Cheyenne did not exist until the mid-1600s or at least this is when the earliest known records were found. They are one of the most famous and prominent Plains tribes, too.
"My People the Sioux" is a good literary work written in 1928. This book leaves an everlasting impression with some because it definitely intensifies the sympathy for the Indians. Luther Standing Bear, also known as Plenty Kill, portrays the dramatic and traumatic changes about the Sioux throughout their traditional way of life. As a young boy growing up, he experienced many of these hardships first hand between his people and the whites. This autobiography is quite valuable as it helps allow us to envision what really happened in the battling times of the Indians. Luther stated this quote, which to me, is unforgettable and very well said. It reads:
By 1876, gold had been discovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The gold was found on Sioux land, and this region was considered sacred to the Lakota Sioux Indians. The he land was to be protected and respected by the United States Army, because of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 18681, but the Army could not keep miners off the Sioux ground, which led to the increase of Sioux grievances towards the Americans; some grievances that are still taken offense to today. These battles and negotiations soon were known at the Great Sioux War of 1876.
The Sioux Indians came to America over thirty-thousand years ago. They were known for being nomadic-not staying in one place for very long. They lived in teepees that were shaped like an upside down cones; teepees could be set up and taken down fairly quickly which allowed their nomadic lifestyle. They followed the path of the buffalo, ensuring there would always be an ample supply of food and clothing materials. Hunters would work out ways in which they could merge into the herd, sometimes over a period of several days, weeding-out a small portion to begin hunting. Around the 1860’s the fight for land between the Sioux and white man became quite intense, and eventually the United States government signed a treaty that allowed the Sioux Indians