‘No to DAPL, yes to sovereignty!’

Thousands of Indigenous people and their supporters marched in Washington, D.C., on March 10, taking a stand for Native sovereignty and in defense of water and land. This march was called after the Trump administration ordered resumption of the illegal construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline on Dakota Sioux treaty land in Standing Rock, N.D., after a U.S. judge refused to impose an injunction to stop the multibillion-dollar underground project. The oil pipeline poses a threat to the water supply of 18 million people in four states.

The march began at the headquarters of the Army Corps of Engineers, which granted final easements so that Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, could begin drilling under the Missouri River to finalize the project. It then moved to the Trump International Hotel, where a tipi was erected, to other federal buildings and ended in front of the White House.

Those at the march demanded that Trump meet with tribal leaders, that federal and state governments respect Native sovereignty, and that no pipeline or other projects affecting Indigenous Nations should be approved without full consent. Satellite rallies and marches took place in many other cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle. For more online coverage, see workers.org.

— Report by Mahtowin Munro and Monica Moorehead