DAPL

In the film In Light of Reverence it talks about land that is sacred to different native tribes and how it is being developed, destroyed, and used for other purposes by non-native people. This film seemed slightly outdated, so I wanted to look further into what is happening in the recent years. Something I have heard about is the Dakota Access Pipeline or DAPL, but I did not know the significance of the land to the tribe that resides there. The pipeline would start in North Dakota and go all the way down into Illinois, passing through South Dakota and Iowa. In parts of North and South Dakota is where the Sioux reservation, Standing Rock, is found. The path that the Pipeline would be installed does not directly cut through Standing Rock, but it does cut through ancestral lands which their ancestors used to hunt and fish and many of them are buried there. The pipe would damage their sacred lands. Not all land that is sacred to the Sioux or any other tribes are reserved to them. Sometimes their sacred land is public land or land that has already been developed. The DAPL gained huge media attention due to the large number of people who protested. At some protests, there was an estimated ten thousand people who were fighting against the pipeline. Even after all of the effort from native and non-native people, the construction of the pipeline was approved. This shows the relationship between native people and the government. The President still allowed the pipeline to be build even when the majority of people didn’t want it. It shows how little respect the nation has for native tribes and their religions. The battle for rights, largely from the government, is still ongoing for Native Americans, and it doesn’t look like it will get easier any time soon.