Supporters of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in South Dakota were granted a temporary victory Sunday when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it would deny a permit for the construction of a critical section of the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline. The $3.5 billion dollar pipeline would move 450,000 barrels of crude oil per day under the Missouri River just north of the Sioux reservation. Opponents say a rupture could pollute the tribe's drinking water and threaten sacred burial sites. Dr. Dan Wildcat, of Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, supports the protest but he says the battle is not over.
A spokesman for President-elect Trump says Trump supports the completion of the pipeline but declined to say whether or not he would reverse Sunday’s decision. Native American students from Haskell Indian Nations University have traveled to the Standing Rock Reservation to support the effort to stop the pipeline. Pipeline proponents say the project is important for the nation's energy security and say the pipeline is safer than using trains and trucks to transport oil.
