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The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is in a steadfast resistance campaign against a proposed pipeline project that will threaten the Missouri River which serves as a drinking source for the indigenous community, as well as threatening the sacred burial grounds that the pipeline will intrude upon.

The Dakota Access Pipeline is a proposed project that involves building an oil pipeline that will start from North Dakota, pass through South Dakota, Iowa and all the way into Illinois. This development project was initiated by Dakota Access LLC which is a subsidiary to Energy Transfer Crude Oil Company.

Oil companies and corporate projects like this one are increasingly being faced with resistance by the indigenous peoples and their allies. Indigenous peoples are resisting settler colonial state oppression that aims to violate the rights of indigenous peoples and other communities on the periphery to live a healthy and sustainable life in the name of progress and corporate expansionism enabled by corrupt political endeavours. The Energy Transfer Crude Oil Company has appointed former Texas Governor Rick Perry on the Board of Directors in the midst of two state-level felony charges for abuse of power.

This is the essence and epitome of the corruption prevalent in the very nature of the settler colonial state and its dealings with indigenous peoples. Such state sponsored actions are not new for indigenous peoples in Canada. A prime example of such corruption and impunity is the case of the Lubicon Cree who have resisted against state-sponsored oil company developments in their territories; a fourteen year ongoing battle in the courts that had the Lubicon Cree’s legal case presented in the face of Government appointed judges, who were the ex-head lawyers for involved oil companies, judges who were the ex-partners of senior oil company lawyers on the case and judges who, upon retirement, were appointed to the governing boards of involved oil companies.

Lateral Violence and the United Nations: A Two Prong Problem for Indigenous Peoples

Impunity and corruption in relation to the arrested advancement or protection of indigenous peoples’ rights in North America is an all too familiar experience for the Palestinians. Setting aside the similar historical patterns of settler colonial expansionism, systemic racism and ethnic cleansing as well as genocidal processes, both past and present taking place in various methods, the Palestinians, like the indigenous peoples of North America, are facing joint corporate political ventures that violate indigenous peoples’ rights. The examples of such an affront to indigenous rights are outlined in a Human Rights Watch report known as Occupation Inc., in relation to the Palestinian context.

However, what needs to be mentioned is the fact that indigenous peoples’ rights are threatened by a two-prong problem - the role of the co-opted leadership in perpetuating the violations of the settler colonial state, as well as the impotence and genuine inaction by the United Nations in internationally enforcing the protection of indigenous peoples’ rights in times of impunity and corruption by the settler colonial state.

A good example of this in Canada is with a former Assembly of First Nations Chief taking an employment opportunity with TransCanada Corp and specifically working on the proposed Energy East pipeline. Obviously, such co-opted leadership was not only denounced by the indigenous peoples in Canada, but has also been exposed in the globalized aspect of the co-optation in relation to his visit to Israel, during which he vocalized support for the settler colonial state of Israel. The Palestinian Authority operates with the same calibre of corruption, which includes members of the Palestinian Authority engaging in partnerships with Israeli companies at the expense of their own peoples’ struggle for political and socio-economic self-determination.

And with the recent news of the police and corporate mercenaries in the United States attacking protesters and activists at the Dakota Access Pipeline site with dogs and pepper spray, this tactic among others has been exported by Israel whereby the use of dogs to taunt and terrorize Palestinians is prevalent as a means to halt protest and activism; similarly including such attacks targeting women and children. Israel’s exportation of colonial suppression and oppression tactics against the Palestinians emphasizes the level of globalized injustice against indigenous rights issues.

Therefore, in addition to the fact that there are leaders co-opting with the settler colonial state’s political-economic establishment that Standing Rock Sioux Tribe need to be wary of, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples clearly protects Standing Rock Sioux Tribe from this Dakota Access Pipeline Project within Article 32 of the Declaration. Given that the United Nations recently decided to investigate the plight of Native Americans for the first time in history through a human rights inquiry, this project is a chance for the world to see this as part and parcel of a greater injustice taking place that must be halted on an international level.

A court ruling will be released in relation to the halting of the project on September 9, 2016. One would hope that the rule of law demonstrates its independence from political and economic contingencies. However, given the realities and recent developments on the ground, the United Nations must be ready to hear the voices of the people of Standing Rock, and Palestine, and comply.