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Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Dave Archambault II on Tuesday, Sept. 20, brought the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline to Geneva, Switzerland, asking members of the United Nations Human Rights Commission to condemn “the deliberate destruction of our sacred places.”

Archambault told the commission the 1,172-mile, $3.8 billion pipeline that would move 450,000 barrels of crude daily from the Bakken oil fields to a hub in Illinois “threatens our communities, the river and the earth.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has paused pipeline construction where it would cross Lake Oahe – a dammed section of the Missouri River – less than a mile north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in south-central North Dakota until the Corps can determine whether it should reconsider its previous decisions about the lake crossing. The tribe is suing the Corps for permitting the pipeline, claiming the tribe wasn’t properly consulted.

“Our nation is working to protect our waters and our sacred places for the benefit of our children not yet born. But the oil companies and the government of the United States have failed to respect our sovereign rights,” Archambault told the commission in a video shared by the tribe.