Obama: Army Corps Looking For Alternative Pipeline Route To Protect Sioux Lands

As previously reported, the Sioux Tribe has been embroiled in litigation attempting to stop construction of an oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in in North and South Dakota, contending that the construction will destroy sacred ancestral Tribal lands.  A federal district court has refused to enjoin the construction. Nevertheless the federal government said it would delay approval of the construction.  Now, NPR reports that on Tuesday President Obama told an interviewer that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is examining possible alternate routes for the Dakota Access Pipeline. Obama said in part:

We're monitoring this closely and I think, as a general rule, my view is that there's a way for us to accommodate sacred lands of Native Americans. I think right now the Army Corps is examining whether there are ways to reroute this pipeline in a way. So we're going to let it play out for several more weeks and determine whether or not this can be resolved in a way that I think is properly attentive to the traditions of the first Americans.