THPO Talk

Episode 3: Stronger Together

Sheila Bird
The world responded to DAPL, the Dakota Access Pipeline during a time when Energy Transfer Partners were laying a pipeline that threatened the lifeline of the Missouri River that lay across the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Prior to this movement, the US Army Corp of Engineers had recently proposed the pipeline to be placed above Bismark, ND and the North Dakota was not going that have the threat of that pipeline leaking into their water resources whatsoever, so what do they do? they move it below Bismark, and right above the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. 

Little did anyone know the federal process of Appendix C and Nationwide Permit 12 of the USACE had a dismissive process that would not allow the tribes a voice that carried any leverage to stop this pipeline, where the people of this tribal community shared the exact same concerns as the city of Bismark. 

Listen to this episode to learn about the THPO responses and how tribal consultation had begun fighting this battle years before any of these actions, and learn about the efforts that the tribes can take, in an effort to change the game.

In this episode, Host Sheila Bird sits with Women's Council members RaeLynn Butler of the Muskogee Creek Nation and Deanna Byrd of the Choctaw Nation as we welcome our guest Charles "Chip" Smith,  Assistant for Environment, Tribal & Regulatory Affairs; Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works. (1996-Present) Washington, DC. 

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