UN says Sioux tribe should have their say on the Dakota Access pipeline

According to Fox News, STL Today, ynetnews.com and various other news agencies, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues has called the US government to hear the viewpoint of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe regarding the Dakota Access pipeline.

The tribe is reported to believe that a US$3.8 billion oil pipeline could disturb sacred sites and impact drinking water for 8000 tribal members.

In a statement, the chairman of the forum, Alvaro Pop Ac, requested that the US government give the tribe a "fair, independent, impartial, open and transparent process to resolve this serious issue and to avoid escalation into violence and further human rights abuses."

There has been a lack of good faith consultation with the indigenous people who will more than likely be impacted," Dalee Dorough, an Inuit member of the forum, said in telephone interview from Anchorage Alaska. "The UN declaration is fundamental because President Obama pronounced support for it and that they haven't been consulted consistent with the rights of that declaration is highly problematic."

Native Americans from hundreds of miles around have supported growing protests against the Dakota Access pipeline, which will pass through Iowa, Illinois, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Edited from various sources by Anna Nicklin

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/project-news/02092016/un-says-sioux-tribe-should-have-their-say-on-the-dakota-access-pipeline/