Oceti Sakowin, Standing Rock Reservation, November 2016.

The Dakota Access Pipeline or Bakken pipeline is a 1,172-mile-long (1,886 km), $3.7 billion underground oil pipeline that runs from the Bakken oil fields in Northwest North Dakota, through South Dakota and Iowa, before terminating  at an oil tank farm near Patoka, Illinois. The pipeline was due to be completed  on January 1, 2017.

The proposed pipeline would have carried crude oil underneath Lake Oahe, a dammed-up part of Missouri River and the main water source for the reservation. The Sioux tribe has repeatedly expressed concerns that the pipeline could lead to contamination of their water supply and threaten the reservation. The pipeline has been controversial regarding its necessity, potential harm to the environment, groundwater, and impact on climate change. Many Native Americans tribes in Iowa, the Dakotas, and across the United States have opposed the pipeline.

They argue that an oil spill would permanently contaminate the reservation's water supply and all of the Missouri River watershed downstream of the pipeline. Additionally, construction of the pipeline would destroy sacred sites where many of their ancestors are buried. 

These are some images from my days at Oceti Sakowin in North Dakota, in the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.

Thousands of people gathered to protect the water and halt the construction of the pipeline. Including members of the Sioux Tribe, indigenous people from across America, non-indigenous allies, and veterans camped out at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, in an effort to halt the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.