Hundreds Rally In St. Paul Against Dakota Pipeline
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Nearly 1,000 people marched in St. Paul Tuesday in protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
This rally is one of hundreds across the country to show solidarity with indigenous tribes who say their water supply is in jeopardy.
Nataanii Means has been camped out at Standing Rock in North Dakota on and off since August. He says the pipeline is a direct threat to his native tribes.
"Aside from the water being threatened, they're desecrating graves, known graves," Means said. "They are desecrating sites where we pray, where our chiefs went to pray."
The company building the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, is seeking a federal court's permission to move forward and finish the project.
ETP is also denouncing a decision from the Army Corps of Engineers to delay it for more studies and tribal input.
CEO Kelcy Warren says he is 100-percent confident president-elect Donald Trump will help get the project finished.
Trump has minor holdings in Warren's company, and Warren donated $103,000 to Trump's campaign.
The CEO says he is taking every precaution to make the steel pipeline safe.
"Pipelines do leak. It's rare," Warren said. "I think the chances of this pipeline leaking is extremely remote."
Trump has yet to speak about the Dakota Access Pipeline. The president-elect said last month he will move forward with the Keystone Pipeline, which President Obama rejected in 2015.