The Dakota Access Pipeline has been denied access through Native Sioux lands this week.
After over eight months of protesting which brought together more than 500 different tribes, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers deemed the project potentially too hazardous for the environment.
The pipeline, which runs from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota to an oil tank farm in Patoka, Illionois, was nearly 95% completed by the time it was halted.
Dr. Ralph Young, who is a Dissent and Social History Specialist for Temple’s Department of History said that “In the grand scope of history this particular event is not a huge success, but it is an incremental thing that will perhaps inspire them to do other things.”
He expresses later on in the interview how far and few between victories like this have been for Native Americans, and that this will hopefully be grounds for more victories down the road.
Native Philadelphian Christopher Lee was present in North Dakota, traveling thousands of miles to protest the DAPL which he described as a “breathtaking, and historic event”.
Lee also said that the individuals who gave themselves to a cause bigger than themselves, was the whole reason that the victory at Standing Rock was possible.
The pipeline’s construction is halted for now, which throws the completion deadline of January 1, 2017, into doubt.
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