Dallas (WBAP/KLIF News) – Native American groups gathered outside the headquarters of Energy Transfer Crude Oil Company in Dallas Friday to protest a pipeline under construction in the Dakotas to Illinois.
The Dakota Access Pipeline will run from the Bakken Shale to Illinois. A Sioux tribe in North Dakota has sued to stop the construction.
“We’re hoping to accomplish more acknowledgement of the seriousness of this issue,” says the American Indian Movement’s Frankie Orona.
Orona says the pipeline would destroy cultural land and could disrupt the water supply in the Upper Midwest.
“This issue doesn’t affect just one people or one demographic, it affects all future generations,” he says.
Other Native American groups have been holding similar protests in other parts of the country. Tribes from Washington State traveled to North Dakota to participate in protests.
Energy Transfer is building part of the pipeline in Illinois. Dakota Access LLC is building the stretch from the Bakken Shale.
Dakota Access LLC has put out a statement saying the 1,172 mile pipeline would generate $40 million in tax revenue for North Dakota and create thousands of jobs. Construction is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.
A judge could rule as soon as next week on the tribe’s request for an injunction to stop construction.
(Copyright 2016 WBAP/KLIF News. All rights reserved)
