William Petroski

bpetrosk@dmreg.com

PILOT MOUND, Ia. — Two Native American tribes are supporting the battle against the Dakota Access Pipeline in Iowa, as foes of the $3.8 billion project attempt to broaden their base of opposition.

An anti-pipeline rally and protest here Thursday included several representatives of Iowa's Meskwaki tribe, based in Tama, as well as a half-dozen members of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribe of Agency Village, S.D., which has a reservation straddling both sides of the South Dakota-North Dakota border. In addition, activists from Illinois and Minnesota attended the events along with Iowans who have been fighting the pipeline the past two years.

Strong opposition to the pipeline by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota has generated national news coverage in recent weeks as tribes from throughout the U.S. have joined forces against the Dakota Access project. They contend the pipeline will endanger sacred burial grounds and could threaten the tribe's water supply from Lake Oahe on the Missouri River.

"We are going back to Standing Rock, and we are going to spread the word," Sylvana Flute, a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribe, told Iowans here. "We are all in this together, and we are here to support you."

Terrance Robertson, who is also a Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribal member, said he is convinced the pipeline will leak, polluting life-sustaining water. "Nothing man-made lasts forever, even if they build it perfectly," he said.

About 175 people participated in Thursday's demonstration in rural Boone County as they tried to disrupt pipeline construction on the west bank of the Des Moines River. There were no arrests, but 11 protesters received $200 tickets for illegally parking on a county road in front of the construction site, and one vehicle was towed for blocking the construction site entrance.

Adam Mason, state policy director for Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, which led the organizing for Thursday's protest, urged pipeline foes to contact President Barack Obama and to ask him to halt the Dakota Access construction project. "Hey, Obama, shut it down!" Mason yelled to the crowd.

The Meskwaki tribe initially voiced its disapproval of the Dakota Access project last year while the pipeline was being considered by the Iowa Utilities Board. That opposition was reiterated last month in a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers written by Troy Wanatee, chairman of the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa (the formal name for the Meskwaki tribe). Wanatee expressed worries about protecting Native American graves and impacts on ancestral and ceded treaty lands, as well as potential contamination of water and a lack of state oversight of the pipeline.

"Our main concern is Iowa’s aquifers might be significantly damaged," Wanatee wrote. "And it will only take one mistake and life in Iowa will change for the next thousands of years.

Ed Fallon of Des Moines, a leader of Bold Iowa, part of an anti-pipeline coalition, said activists from outside of Iowa are starting to recognize significant opposition has developed in the state to the Dakota Access project. The pipeline will diagonally cross 18 Iowa counties, and many activists are emphasizing environmental threats posed by the project.

"Our waters are pretty darn important for our landowners and farmers, and all of us," Fallon said.

The Dakota Access pipeline will transport up to 570,000 barrels of oil daily from North Dakota's Bakken oil patch through South Dakota and Iowa to Illinois, where much of the oil is expected to be routed to the Gulf Coast. Dakota Access, a unit of Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, reports that about 45 percent of the Iowa section of the pipeline has been lowered into the ground and covered with earth, according to documents filed this week with the Iowa Utilities Board.

Dakota Access says the pipeline will provide a safer method of transporting oil than railroads or trucks, and it will contribute to U.S. energy security. The company also says the pipeline will employ advanced technology to ensure safety and reliability.

As of Thursday, 92 arrests of pipeline protesters have occurred in Iowa, according to anti-pipeline protest leaders. Most of the arrests have involved activists trying to block construction in Boone County, where the pipeline will be bored underneath the Des Moines River, and in Lee County in southeast Iowa, where the pipeline will cross underneath the Mississippi River.

The activists have also begun to employ new tactics in an effort to hamper pipeline construction in Iowa.

On Tuesday, Fallon said he and three other activists blocked construction at a pipeline site in Webster County for more than an hour. When law enforcement arrived and asked the protesters to leave, he said they agreed and left. But then they traveled to Boone County, where they interrupted construction for another 20 minutes in the same manner. He said the small protest teams are autonomous and decentralized by design, and deploy whenever or wherever they are inclined to intervene by blocking construction equipment or vehicles heading to and from a work site.

In a related matter, the Iowa Utilities Board, which had unanimously approved the Dakota Access project, issued an order this week denying a request by pipeline foes to establish a public liaison officer to handle complaints about the project. Critics said landowners and the public have had no effective process for enforcing an agricultural mitigation plan and to enforce the board's requirements for pipeline construction. The board said established complaint procedures are already in place and are functioning.