Energy Transfer Partners began construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in May 2016, but the company's plans have hit a snag.
In late July, the Army Corps of Engineers granted permits for the pipeline to cross beneath the Missouri and Cannon Ball Rivers without approval from the Standing Rock Sioux.
By late August 2016, more than 1500 people, mostly Native Americans, had responded to the tribe's call to action and converged at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to protect against construction of "the black snake." In an historic show of solidarity, 188 First Nations and American Indian tribes have united in opposition.
Also in August, Youth from Standing Rock completed a 2000-mile relay run to Washington, D.C., to bring the message of their #RezpectOurWater campaign to the White House, in their own show of opposition.
The Dakota Access pipeline would run through the Dakotas and Iowa to Illinois, where oil would be sent to East Coast markets by train or to the Gulf Coast via another Energy Transfer Partners pipeline being converted to carry oil.
Overall, the “Bakken Crude Pipeline” — to extend over 1,800 miles from near the Canadian border to the Gulf Coast of Texas — is costing about $4.8 billion, and is being sold as a key element of Energy Transfer Partners plans to "capitalize on U.S. energy exports," thanks to fracking.
This graph, made by Food & Water Watch for the Standing Rock Sioux and for the Bakken Pipeline Resistance Coalition, first revealed the banks banking against the Standing Rock Sioux and against all those responding to the tribe's call to action. (Food & Water Watch has since produced a second data visualization.)