Standing their ground: Native Americans are protesting an oil pipeline that they say threatens their water supply--and their culture.

• Author: Frank, Mary Kate
• Position: NATIONAL

Thousands of Native Americans had been gathered on the North Dakota prairie for months to protest a new oil pipeline when violence erupted last month: Some protesters broke down a wire fence and surged into the construction site, which they say runs through sacred Indian grounds. Security guards responded by using dogs and pepper spray to disperse them.

At issue is what's known as the Dakota Access pipeline, which, when complete, would carry nearly half a million barrels of oil a day from North Dakota's oil fields to Illinois (see map). From there, other pipelines would transport the oil to markets around the United States.

The company that owns the new pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, says the $3.7 billion project will pump money into local economies, create jobs, and help make the U.S. less dependent on oil from other countries. The pipeline, which runs mostly on private land, is already half complete.

But many American Indians see the project as a major threat to both their environment and culture. Part of the pipeline's 1,170-mile route travels under the Missouri River, not far from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe's reservation, which straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border. The reservation's 8,000 residents depend on the river for water. THbal leaders fear that if the pipeline leaks or breaks, their water supply could be polluted. They say that building the pipeline would also damage sacred sites--such as ancient burial grounds--that lie outside the reservation. Thousands of Native Americans from tribes all over the country have joined protests during the past few months just outside Cannon Ball, a town in south central North Dakota.

"This pipeline is going through huge swaths of ancestral land," Dean DePountis, the tribe's lawyer, told The Washington Post. "It would be like constructing a pipeline through Arlington Cemetery or under St. Patrick's Cathedral."

A Symbolic Standoff

The Standing Rock Sioux say they weren't properly consulted before work on the pipeline began. In July, they sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers--the federal agency in charge of public building projects--saying it failed to do sufficient environmental and cultural impact studies before approving the pipeline. The Army Corps says it met with Indian officials and tried to involve them more, but that they were uncooperative.

For its part, Energy Transfer Partners says the pipeline has safety features that can stop the flow of oil within minutes if a leak...