Story highlights Obama suggested there's a way to re-route the Dakota Access Pipeline, but also said he wants to let the process "play out"

Obama said his inclination was to respect the tribe's concerns

(CNN) President Barack Obama said in an interview Tuesday that members of his administration were devising options to reroute the controversial oil pipeline near a Native American reservation in South Dakota.

It was Obama's first time commenting in detail on the Dakota Access Pipeline, which was designed to transport crude across a swath of Midwestern US states, including near two major American Indian reservations. Outside one of them, the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, activists have set up camp opposing the project. Members of the tribe argue the pipeline could displace burial ground and other sacred land

Obama, speaking to NowThisNews after a campaign rally in Ohio, said his inclination was to respect the tribe's concerns.

"As a general rule, my view is that there is a way for us to accommodate sacred lands of Native Americans, and I think that right now the Army Corps is examining whether there are ways to reroute this pipeline," Obama said, explaining he was planning to "let it play out for several more weeks" before coming to a final conclusion.

Proponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline argue the project would safely transport crude from oil-rich North Dakota to other states. But worries over ground water safety and spills, along with the tribal concerns, have led to outcry from an array of environmental and Native American groups.

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