A North American indigenous bishop has welcomed a decision in the US which bars an oil pipeline from crossing into land “vital” to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
Mark MacDonald, the World Council of Churches president for North America and national indigenous bishop of the Anglican Church of Canada, said it was “good news, Gospel news, to hear of the decision to deny the necessary permits that would allow the Dakota Access Pipeline to cross into land vital to the Standing Rock Tribe”.
“It is particularly good that the recent decision recognises the indigenous rights of the Standing Rock people,” he said in a statement released by the WCC. “I am grateful to God and grateful for the many prayers offered towards this decision.”
The decision, made by the Department of the Army in the US last Sunday, came after months of protests by thousands of people representing tribal nations as well as faith, environmental, and indigenous rights groups.
The $US3.7 billion oil pipeline, which will connect production fields in North Dakota to refineries in Illinois, was intended to run alongside the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and traverse the Missouri River.
Those opposed to the pipeline’s planned river crossing – located upstream from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation – had claimed it would pose a risk to the reservation’s water supply and would also have crossed lands considered sacred by the Sioux.
