Dakota Access Pipeline protests

Dakota Access Pipeline protests over water protection
Part of Indigenous rights
A Lakota man locks himself to construction equipment in protest
Date	April 2016 – present
Location	United States, especially North Dakota, the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, the Missouri River, the Mississippi River, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois
Causes	Protection of water, land, and religious/spiritual sites sacred to indigenous peoples of the Americas
Casualties
Injuries	300
Arrested	487+

The Dakota Access Pipeline protests, also known by the hashtag #NoDAPL, are grassroots movements that began in early 2016 in reaction to the approved construction of Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access Pipeline in the northern United States. The pipeline was projected to run from the Bakken oil fields in western North Dakota to southern Illinois, crossing beneath the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, as well as under part of Lake Oahe near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. Many in the Standing Rock tribe consider the pipeline and its intended crossing of the Missouri River to constitute a threat to the region's clean water and to ancient burial grounds. In April, Standing Rock Sioux elder LaDonna Brave Bull Allard established a camp as a center for cultural preservation and spiritual resistance to the pipeline; over the summer the camp grew to thousands of people.

According to Energy Transfer Partners, the pipeline would carry up to 570,000 barrels of oil a day while creating 12,000 jobs in the area, $129 million in annual taxes, and reduce the overall dependence the U.S. has on foreign oil. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had conducted a limited review of the route and found no significant impact, but in March and April 2016 the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Interior, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation asked the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a formal Environmental Impact Assessment and issue an Environmental Impact Statement. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe filed suit against the Corps of Engineers in July, but the motion was denied in September 2016.