An Open Letter on DAPL

Jon Eagle Sr., the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, details the environmental and cultural harms caused by the Dakota Access Pipeline. He argues that the pipeline's continued operation, despite court rulings that its permits were illegal, constitutes a violation of treaties and a continuation of historical trauma against the Lakota people.

• The Dakota Access Pipeline is viewed as a violation of treaties that guaranteed the "absolute and undisturbed use and occupation" of the land, noting that the pipeline was allowed to proceed through treaty territory without the consent of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
• The author criticizes the National Environment Policy Act (NEPA) and federal environmental reviews for failing to acknowledge the global cumulative effects of extractive industries and for omitting the presence of the Tribe in the pipeline's environmental assessment.
• Despite a court ruling that the pipeline permits were illegal and that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to comply with NEPA, the pipeline continues to operate, which the author describes as part of a pattern of changing rules to benefit non-Indians at the expense of Tribal members.
• The author reports significant environmental decline in the region, including the loss of birds, the presence of wasting disease in deer and elk, and polluted rivers that make fish unsafe for children and elders.

APA

Sr., J. E. (2020). An Open Letter on DAPL. Earthjustice. https://earthjustice.org/article/an-open-letter-on-dapl

Chicago

Sr., Jon Eagle. An Open Letter on DAPL. Earthjustice, 2020. https://earthjustice.org/article/an-open-letter-on-dapl.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Sr. |first1=Jon Eagle |title=An Open Letter on DAPL |publisher=Earthjustice |date=30 November 2020 |url=https://earthjustice.org/article/an-open-letter-on-dapl |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{sr2020open, author = {Sr., Jon Eagle}, title = {{An Open Letter on DAPL}}, publisher = {Earthjustice}, year = {2020}, month = nov, url = {https://earthjustice.org/article/an-open-letter-on-dapl}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }