by Mary Adams, AWC The Hague
In May 2026, the FAWCO Environment Team along with the Human Rights Team, hosted a viewing of the film On Sacred Ground, which highlights how reliance on fossil fuels threatens ecosystems and violates the rights of Indigenous communities.
The movie focuses on the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) conflict in 2016 and 2017 between the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Energy Transfer Partners (ETP). The conflict arose when ETP decided to build a crude oil pipeline under the tribe’s primary water source and damage their sacred burial grounds.
The moviemakers told the story through the eyes of a US veteran/journalist suffering from PTSD who is asked by pipeline supporters to write articles focused on the fuel benefits. The veteran’s investigation leads him not only to a true understanding of the human rights violations suffered by the tribe, but experiencing their culture heals his mental health issues.
The film seems to have a happy ending… but it really does not. The pipeline was completed in April 2017. It delivered its first crude oil on May 14, 2017, and despite continuous protests by the tribes, has been commercially operational for the last nine years.
The Back Story
Energy Transfer Partners began planning the pipeline in 2014 when crude oil development was rapidly expanding in northwest North Dakota due to its oil reserves and the emergence of hydraulic fracking technology. ETP’s original proposal had the pipeline crossing the Missouri River approximately 10 miles north of Bismarck, the capital of North Dakota. Bismarck residents opposed the route because of its proximity to the city’s water supply; accordingly the US Army Corps of Engineers rejected the original proposal in 2015.
Despite protests from Standing Rock and the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the Corps continued to move forward with the approval process for the new route through tribal lands. By July 2016, the developer had received most of the permits required to start construction based on the US Army Corps of Engineering’s assessment that DAPL would not cause any significant environmental impacts.
The DAPL standoff started in early 2016 when dozens of members of the Standing Rock, Cheyenne River Lakota, and Rosebud Sioux tribes formed water protector camps near the pipeline construction site at Lake Oahe. Over the following months, the camps slowly swelled to thousands of protestors. Supported by other tribal governments, politicians, environmental advocacy groups, civil rights groups, and celebrities, the DAPL protests became the largest Indigenous demonstration in decades.
The Environment Story
While ETP’s website states that DAPL is “safe, efficient, and environmentally sound,” the pipeline already had a small spill before its official operations even began. The pipeline leaked at least five times in 2017. The biggest was a 168-gallon leak near DAPL’s endpoint in Patoka, Illinois. According to federal regulators, no wildlife was impacted, although soil was contaminated, requiring remediation.
The Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has issued 106 safety violations to ETP since 2002, including failures to conduct corrosion inspections, to maintain pipeline integrity, and to repair unsafe pipelines in a timely manner (within five years).
In 2023, the Army Corps of Engineers stated that removing the pipeline would be more environmentally harmful than allowing the oil to continue pumping under one of Standing Rock’s primary drinking water sources. Although federal agencies like the Army Corps are required by law to consider climate impacts, state laws vary significantly. In the case of the Dakota Access Pipeline, neither state nor federal environmental regulatory processes have ever fully accounted for the climate impacts of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
In December 2025, the federal government released a final environmental impact statement which included Energy Transfer Partners’ plans to increase the amount of oil flowing through the DAPL to more than 1 million gallons of oil per day. Federal officials approved the Dakota Access Pipeline to operate on May 19, 2026.
The Human Rights Story
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is an international document adopted in 2007 that outlines the rights of Indigenous peoples to maintain their cultures, identities, languages and traditional lands. It also affirms their right to self-determination and requires governments to consult and cooperate with Indigenous communities on decisions that affect them.
In an indirect manner, the movie On Sacred Ground depicted human rights violations against the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, directly connected to United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
- The pipeline’s construction without proper consultation violates Article 32, which requires free, prior and informed consent before projects on Indigenous land.
- The threat to the tribe’s water supply conflicts with Article 29, which protects the right to conservation of the environment and resources.
- The destruction of sacred sites violates Articles 11 and 12, which protect cultural traditions and religious practices.
- The use of force against peaceful protesters goes against broader human rights protections, including the rights to peaceful assembly and expression (also reflected in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights).
- Fossil fuel projects bring large numbers of temporary workers into rural and Indigenous communities living in “man camps” along the route. The documented rise in sexual violence, harassment and trafficking associated with man camps raises concerns under the UDHR, particularly the rights to security of person (Article 3) and freedom from degrading treatment (Article 5). Because Indigenous women and girls are disproportionately affected by such violence, these patterns also implicate Article 2, which affirms the right to enjoy all human rights without discrimination.
The Dakota Access Pipeline is a prominent example in global discussions of Indigenous human rights. This controversy and litigation draws international attention to the gaps between UNDRIP’s standards and their implementation in practice, reinforcing calls for stronger protections of Indigenous sovereignty, cultural heritage, and environmental rights. It proves that even UN Declarations stand on shaky ground.
Call to Action
If you want to support the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and related Indigenous rights efforts connected to the Dakota Access Pipeline, you can:
- Learn about the tribe’s positions and current advocacy efforts through the tribe’s official website: Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
- Support Indigenous-led organizations working on treaty rights, environmental justice and legal advocacy, such as the Native American Rights Fund and Honor the Earth.
- Contact elected representatives to express your views on Indigenous consultation, environmental review processes and tribal sovereignty.
- Amplify accurate information from Indigenous-led sources through community education, events and social media.
- Contribute time, skills or donations to organizations and tribal initiatives that the tribe itself endorses.
Sources:
The Dakota Access Pipeline: What You Need to Know | Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Lewis, N. (2026). The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). Technology Assessment Project Case Study Library, University of Michigan.
Standing Rock Tribe Wins in Court After Years of Perseverance | EarthJustice.org
1.4M gallons of fluid leaked from Dakota Access drilling, report says | E&E News
Standing Rock 10 years later: ‘We still have a lot of unknowns’ | ICTNews.org
Five Spills, Six Months in Operation: Dakota Access Track Record Highlights Unavoidable Reality — Pipelines Leak | The Intercept.com
