Native American nations unite to protest proposed North Dakota pipeline

Between 200 and 400 Native Americans have continued to protest the Dakota Access pipeline, a $3.78 billion project that aims to see a pipeline constructed across four states in the central United States.

Members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have had restraining orders filed against them and some were even arrested, including tribe chief, David Archambault II.  “We don't want this black snake within our Treaty boundaries," he reportedly told Indian Country Today.

Members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe believe that the proposed 1,100 mile long pipeline would endanger the environment, including the lakes and rivers it would pass under.

“They’re going under the river 500 yards from my son’s grave, my father’s grave, my aunt who I buried last week,” said Ladonna Allard, a member of the Standing Rock nation and the closest landowner to the proposed pipeline. “I really love my land, and if that pipeline breaks everything is gone.”

The pipeline is designed to carry 570,000 barrels of crude oil per day from the Bakken/Three Forks formations in North Dakota to a terminus near Patoka, Illinois, crossing the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.

The protest comes months after the Keystone XL pipeline, a similar pipeline in length, was shut down by public pressure. in November of 2015.