(RNS) President Trump’s executive orders advancing the construction of pipelines are drawing condemnation from the Native American and religious groups that have opposed them.
The Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency responsible for investigating, developing and maintaining water and related environmental resources, recently announced that they would not allow the Dakota Access pipeline to be constructed under the Missouri River and through Lakota territory.
STANDING ROCK SIOUX RESERVATION, N.D. (RNS) In the Sioux creation narrative, water was one of the first beings the Creator made, and it became a major part of the people’s religious ceremonies.
DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE WILL DESECRATE MANY NATIVE AMERICAN SACRED RELIGIOUS SITES.
Native American religion is intrinsically based on nature. Religious places are not man-made structures like churches or mosques, but open landscapes where their nature-gods live. No wonder then, when the Dakota Access Pipeline project came up, Native Americans were outraged at officials not considering the damage it will be causing to the environment and many of their religious sites.
While Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Harold Frazier sat down with President Barack Obama at a private roundtable in Los Angeles on Tuesday, October 25, Morton County, N.D. Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier was calling in police reinforcements from six states to enforce Energy Transfer Partners’ demands that “trespassers” be removed from the path of the pipeline.
When opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline galvanized the support of hundreds of U.S. tribes, it became an unprecedented show of Indian country unity and resolve.
Now, it’s a global indigenous movement.
TRAHANT REPORTS—Ten months ago the United States told the world it was ready to do something about climate change. Enough talk. Time to act. And because of the nature of the crisis, the world’s governments are moving quickly. Well, at least as measured by governments. On Wednesday President Barack Obama said the global agreement will begin implementation on November 4 after being ratified by European nations.
A federal judge has denied a Native American tribe's request for an injunction that would have temporarily halted construction on the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, set to carry crude oil across four states.
The 1996 discovery of Kennewick Man, one of the oldest North American human skeletons ever found, erupted in an unprecedented fight between scientists and Native American beliefs.
"Native spirituality is taking deeper roots within the hearts of Christian people,” says Sister Kateri Mitchell, a member of Mohawk Nation and the Sisters of St. Anne who directs the annual National Tekakwitha Conference for Native American Catholics. More →