Culture

The US Army Have Announced That They’re Leaving Standing Rock The Hell Alone

A victory for protestors and lovers of Facebook check-ins.

by Sinead Stubbins  5 December 2016

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Since August, thousands of people (and many more thousands online) have protested the US government’s plan to build a 1886 kilometre oil pipeline across the Standing Rock reservation in America’s midwest, with environmentalists and Native American tribe members asserting that it would pollute local water supplies and ruin sacred land.

For now, it seems, these protestors have been heard. After a dramatic court case, protests in Washington and check-ins from Facebook accounts across the globe (a viral initiative which aimed to protect protestors from being identified by police), the US Army Corps of Engineers have today announced that plans to build the pipeline near Standing Rock have been halted.

“Today, the US Army Corps of Engineers announced that it will not be granting the easement to cross Lake Oahe for the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline,” Standing Rock Sioux Tribal chairman Dave Archambault II said in a statement. “Instead, the Corps will be undertaking an environmental impact statement to look at possible alternative routes.”

“We wholeheartedly support the decision of the administration and commend with the utmost gratitude the courage it took on the part of President Obama, the Army Corps, the Department of Justice, and the Department of the Interior to take steps to correct the course of history and to do the right thing. It took tremendous courage to take a new approach to our nation-to-nation relationship, and we will be forever grateful.”

People are pretty stoked!

Despite widespread support for the protestors, the last few months of the demonstration have been perilous. Last week there were reports that several stores near Standing Rock were banned from selling supplies to protestors and fines were threatened against those who brought food and water to them. Some criticised people who were turning up to Standing Rock for a “cultural experience” and treating it like Burning Man, instead of bothering to understand what was at stake for Native Americans.

However there have also been some very heartwarming moments over the last few months, including over 2000 veterans volunteering to help protesters. The Veterans Stand for Standing Rock group’s GoFundMe page raised more than one million dollars.

The US government has ordered people to leave the camp by Monday, but for now the battle has been won.

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Image from Twitter.