Standing Rock Sioux Chairman DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II sits in his chair during a Tribal Council meeting at the Tribal Administration building in Fort Yates, North Dakota, January 2017. Photo: Joel Angel Juarez/Zuma Press/PA Images
This article is part of our series on the 2017 International Civil Society Week, where CIVICUS and the Pacific Islands Association of non-Governmental Organisations (PIANGO) brought civil society members and activists from around the world together to discuss some of the key challenges our planet is facing. You can see more of what came out of the event here.
It’s not a question of if, but when. Dave Archambault II, the former tribal chief of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota, USA, is reluctantly confident the Dakota Access Pipeline will eventually leak. The pipeline traverses land owned by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, and passes several important water sources in the area. As such, any failing in the pipeline infrastructure risks contaminating water sources used by as many as 17 million people downstream, as well as having wider impacts on fishing, hunting and crop cultivation in the area.
