Image Credit: X / @AntoniaJuhasz

Washington, June 13 (RHC)-- Indigenous-led climate activists rallied outside the White House this week demanding President Biden halt the flow of oil through the Dakota Access Pipeline. 

Doug Crow Ghost, water director of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, told reporters:  “We come to you as Standing Rock and Cheyenne River youth, members of this country, members before the United States was even the United States.  Before states were states, we were a people of this country, this nation, this Indigenous land.  We are Indigenous children.  We are here to protect the water, the land, the air and the environment.”

The protests came as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave the go-ahead for the highly contested Mountain Valley Pipeline to begin operating.  The 300-mile pipeline is set to carry 2 billion cubic feet of fracked gas daily through Virginia and West Virginia, despite vocal opposition from local communities and environmental groups.