Standing Rock and Earthjustice Offer Reactions Following Key Court Hearing on Dakota Access Pipeline by Earthjustice

Brandon Mauai, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Councilmember, and Jan Hasselman, attorney at Earthjustice, explain what transpired at the April 9, 2021, court hearing on the Dakota Access Pipeline and offer their immediate thoughts and reactions.

The controversial Dakota Access Pipeline crosses unceded ancestral lands of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, near reservation territory, and is the subject of a five-year legal challenge brought by the Tribe.

DAPL has been operating without a valid permit since a federal judge struck down the U.S. Army Corps’ approval for the pipeline to cross beneath Lake Oahe, in a ruling issued more than a year ago.

Since President Joe Biden’s inauguration, Tribal leaders and allies have called upon him to shut down DAPL while the Army Corps conducts a court-ordered environmental impact analysis.

(Photo: Indigenous environmental activists demonstrate near Black Lives Matter Plaza on the north side of the White House as part of a protest against oil pipelines, April 1, 2021, in Washington, D.C. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)