IVAW Tells the Army Corps of Engineers: Stand Down at Standing Rock

Ashton Carter

Secretary of Defense

1000 Defense Pentagon

Washington, DC 20301-1000

General Mark A. Milley

Army Chief of Staff

200 Army Pentagon

Washington, DC 20310-0200

Lieutenant General Todd T. Semonite

Commanding General and Chief of Engineers

Headquarters U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

441 G Street NW Washington, DC 20314-1000

Dear Sirs,

As fellow Veterans and Service Members, we are deeply concerned with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) involvement in the Dakota Access Pipeline Project and its planned construction under the Missouri River. Not only does the proposed pipeline violate the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie Treaties with The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Oceti Sakowin (Great Sioux Nation) but it also contradicts the stated mission of the USACE, which outlines “environmental sustainability as a guiding principle”.

We are in a precarious time, with regards to the environment, in the face of climate change. The Dakota Access Pipeline project will contribute to greater environmental degradation, not less. By contributing to this project the USACE is in violation of its own guiding principle of environmental sustainability as written in your mission statement.

We call upon the USACE to uphold American democracy by denying permits for the Dakota Access Pipeline. We must respect the laws that protect the land of first nation peoples particularly with regards to how many treaties have been broken against them. We support your decision to honor the sovereignty of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation and evaluate the pipeline by considering both its environmental impact and the role of the U.S. military in the dispossessions of Indigenous lands throughout American history.

As Veterans and Service Members, we support your stated commitment to lead by moral example. We hope that you continue to stand on the right side of history. We call on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stand down and stop all construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The USACE should refuse to act until it has met and come to an agreement with those who inhabit the land on which the pipeline is to be constructed. We stand today in solidarity with Standing Rock and hope that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will do the same.

Iraq Veterans Against the War

P.O. Box 3565 New York, NY

10008-3565

Tel: 646.723.0989