Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, also known as the Bakken Pipeline, began in May in North and South Dakota and in Illinois.  Permits have not been issued yet for the sections of the pipeline that are slated to cross the Missouri River and the Mississippi.  The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is still holding strong in protest at their Sacred Stone Camp since April 1st, though pipeline construction is now visible just across the Missouri river from their homelands.

In Iowa, preparation for construction began without final federal approval, with the chopping of swaths of trees in wooded areas and land stripping.  The company that is building the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), has also been stockpiling miles of pipe along the proposed route in preparation for digging.  One of the areas in Iowa that has not been approved is on the Big Sioux Wildlife Management area in the northwestern part of the state. There is an ancestral burial ground for the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires of the Great Sioux Nation) on this land.  On Friday, June 3rd, The Upper Sioux Community Tribal Historic Preservation Office (THPO) went to the ancestral burial site, accompanied by John F. Doershuk- Iowa state archaeologist, Jon Eagle of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Chief Arvol Looking Horse- 19th generation pipe carrier, and other tribal elders and council members.  Carolyn Raffensperger, executive director of the Science and Environmental Health Network, attended as well to document environmental damage. Read more