Sohn: Standing Rock victory is test for all of us

Navy veteran Rob McHaney, of Reno, Nevada, walks with an American flag at the Oceti Sakowin camp where people have gathered to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline in Cannon Ball, N.D., Sunday. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Navy veteran Rob McHaney, of Reno, Nevada, walks with an American flag at the Oceti Sakowin camp where people have gathered to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline in Cannon Ball, N.D., Sunday. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

It is pleasing to be able to celebrate a victory for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe - and for at least 2,000 U.S. veterans who went last week to protect their protest and hold strong against a planned oil pipeline route through what are now privately owned ranches, the Missouri River and sacred ancestral lands in North Dakota.

On Sunday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced it would not allow the pipeline to be drilled under a dammed section of the river. Instead, an alternative route will be sought in that small section of the 1,172-mile pipeline through four states.

News of the government's denial came after the size of the camp had swollen with Native and non-Native veterans led by Wesley Clark Jr., son of retired general and former presidential candidate Wesley Clark.

As word of the victory spread, people who had camped at Standing Rock for months, sometimes in bitterly cold temperatures, and who had clashed violently with local law enforcement, linked arms, cheered and cried.

The veterans joined the months-long demonstration after the North Dakota governor issued an emergency evacuation order in preparation for a Corps of Engineers deadline to leave the area by Monday.

The veterans described their mission as a kind of "human shield" between peaceful demonstrators and police. They said their effort was prompted by scenes of protesters being tear-gassed and sprayed with freezing water.

"If we don't stand up for the oppressed, that's the snowball that starts that leads to everyone else's oppression," Clark told national reporters. "People are concerned about the way the elders who are praying are being brutalized, and what we are doing to the planet."

The initial protest was not designed to stop the $3.7 billion pipeline, which now is almost complete, but rather to protect the tribal lands and the water there - primarily the Missouri River. But the pipeline builder, Energy Transfer Partners, has said that the company was unwilling to reroute the pipeline, which would transport oil from western North Dakota oil fields to a terminal in Illinois.

President-elect Donald Trump recently owned stock in Energy Transfer Partners, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission, but a Trump spokeswoman said he traded the stock over the summer. (Filings show it had declined in value in the face of protests.) Energy Transfer Partners' chief executive also contributed $103,000 to elect Trump and another $66,800 to the Republican National Committee.

Trump said recently that he supports finishing the pipeline. He added that his support has nothing to do with his investment. It should go without saying that there now are worries the Trump administration ultimately could decide to allow the original, contested route.

It is important not to think of this week's news about Standing Rock - with the veterans' stand and the Corps of Engineers' intervention - as just another cavalry and Indians story, albeit one with an intriguing twist: the military riding to the Native Americans' rescue. Likewise, don't think of it as just another civil rights protest and show of force, or even as yet another saga of common people vs. rich corporations.

Energy, infrastructure and clean water are the far broader issues here. After all, how many months did the people of Flint, Mich., have to use bottled water after a disastrous infrastructure change leached lead from their water pipes? Remember TVA's $1.2 billion cleanup cost for the Kingston ash spill? And don't forget the shortages of gasoline and the spike in gas prices across the southeast after an Alabama pipeline exploded earlier this year, killing one person and injuring six others.

Those are but a few examples. The National Transportation Safety Board has an online listing of 123 pipeline leaks, explosions and incidents just since the 1960s.

With 2.5 million miles of energy pipelines veining the United States, and the few required public details about their construction, maintenance and safety, anyone who today flipped on a light switch, turned on their water faucet or cranked their car engine has a stake in what ultimately will happen at Standing Rock.

Hopefully the Corps of Engineers' permit denial now will lead the company to a swift effort to plan an acceptable alternative route away from this farm-rich reservation area of North Dakota and away from the Missouri River reservoir that provides water there.

From both the environmental and energy supply standpoint, the ball is in the pipeline builder's court now to avoid a drawn-out appeal and another lengthy environmental review that might halt the project's construction for months or years.

In the meantime, some protesters camped near the Standing Rock site are vowing to stay - just to be sure the company follows the Corps ruling.

Who can blame them?

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