Dakota Access pipeline fight hangs over White House tribal summit

By Valerie Volcovici and Julia Harte

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration will soon ask federal agencies to require that Native American treaty rights be considered in decision-making on natural resource projects, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said on Monday, hoping to avoid future conflicts with tribes such as the current Dakota Access pipeline dispute.

Dakota Access Getty Image photo by Alex Wong.

Jewell announced a forthcoming memorandum from President Barack Obama at a Tribal Nations Conference – the eighth and final one he will attend – which began on Monday. Leaders of more than 560 Native American tribes are discussing the environment among other issues as one of the largest Native-American protests in decades continues in North Dakota.

Regan Dunn, 15, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, one of the main opponents of the pipeline, delivered opening remarks at the conference.

Dunn said afterward she had never imagined a company might try to build a pipeline through her homeland, but that the wide opposition among various tribes – including some she had not previously heard of – has been “heartwarming”.

“Your voices are important,” Jewell said in her opening remarks to the tribal leaders’ summit, which included many youth groups. “The president gets this.”

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Brian Cladoosby, president of the National Congress of American Indians, which represents more than 500 tribes, praised Obama’s legacy on Native American issues and warned the assembly that “there is no guarantee going forward there will be the same commitment from the next administration.”

The Interior secretary acknowledged the demonstrations by thousands of Native Americans and environmentalists against the $3.7 billion oil pipeline they say threatens the water supply and sacred sites of the Standing Rock Sioux. She praised the “the unprecedented solidarity” through weeks of “prayerful and peaceful assembly to make your voices heard.”

She also recognized to wide applause the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, Dave Archambault, who has been the face of the demonstrations.

“What we have today is an opportunity to ask ourselves if we are doing all we can to live up to those principles of the nation-to-nation relationship,” she said.

The Justice and Interior Departments on Monday announced settlements with 17 tribes that had sued the U.S. government for allegedly mismanaging monetary assets and natural resources that the government held in trust for the tribes.

The “vast majority” of all such disputes have been settled, according to the government, which has paid $1.9 billion to resolve the cases since April 2012.

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Those settlements characterize the Obama administration’s overall effort to mend ties “where we have failed in the past in our trust responsibilities,” said Lawrence Roberts, assistant secretary for Indian Affairs at the Interior Department, on the sidelines of Monday’s conference.

Obama will address the summit on Monday afternoon, though it was not clear if he would discuss the 1,100-mile (1,886-km) Dakota Access pipeline being developed by Energy Transfer Partners LP.

He has not publicly commented on the pipeline since the Justice Department, Interior Department and the U.S. Army made a surprise move on Sept. 9 to temporarily block its construction. At that time, the administration called for “a serious discussion” about how tribes are consulted by the government on decisions over major infrastructure projects.

The uproar over the Dakota Access pipeline has sparked a resurgence in Native-American activism.

The Army, Interior and Justice departments will hold hearings on the shortcomings of the present process on Oct. 11, and formal discussions with tribes in six U.S. regions from Oct. 25 through Nov. 21.

The deadline for written comments will be Nov. 30, the agencies announced.

On Thursday, Archambault told a House of Representatives panel there was no “meaningful consultation” before permits were issued to bring the pipeline through his tribe’s territory.

Archambault is scheduled to speak on Monday evening at a rally of pipeline opponents.

(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Matthew Lewis)

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