The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe: Water, Land, and #NoDAPL

The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (CRST) has been a major player in the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). Since the NoDAPL movement’s inception, the CRST has been a powerful force, both politically and domestically, on the grounds of the encampment near the Standing Rock reservation and in federal filings which vehemently oppose the construction of the DAPL. If completed, the pipeline will run under Lake Oahe, which borders much of the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River reservations, and threatens to endanger the water of the Missouri River. While indeed it is necessary to stand with Standing Rock, we must also stand with the Oceti Sakowin, the Seven Councils Fire. The CRST is a part of the Oceti Sakowin and is under the same obligations to protect the water and all it does for the people. A fundamental component of the NoDAPL movement has been Native sovereignty. The land where the remaining pipeline would connect with the Missouri River is not only owned by the pipeline company, but is also on land retained by the Oceti Sakowin in the 1851 Ft. Laramie Treaty. As such, it is imperative to have a deeper historical understanding of the CRST and its connections to water and land. This paper focuses on how these connections have profoundly moved the CRST to engage in the fight against the pipeline as land, water, and sovereignty protectors of not only the Missouri River, but of the Oceti Sakowin.