Associate Clinical Professor and Director of the American Indian Law Clinic Carla Fredericks and Getches-Wilkinson Center Fellow Jesse Heibel ('16), along with Rebecca Adamson and Nick Pelosi, co-authored “Indigenous Rights of Standing Rock: Federal Courts and Beyond." The article, which appeared in the American Bar Association’s Human Rights magazine, explores legal and human rights topics surrounding Standing Rock. An excerpt appears below.
“The controversy surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is ubiquitous—galvanizing indigenous communities and allies across the globe to stand with Standing Rock. One positive outcome has been a historic, revitalized movement to protect indigenous and human rights in the face of ever-expanding exploitation in the fossil fuel industry. However, the fight against DAPL has been historic in more than just size and scope. As the case proceeds through the courts, the tribes have expanded the battlefield by going beyond domestic litigation and appealing directly to international human rights bodies and initiating broad corporate engagement. This multipronged approach to defending tribal rights has played a key role in not only sustaining the conversation, but also expanding the forums in which the conversation takes place while the federal courts’ action continues.
The circumstances surrounding DAPL have proven what indigenous communities across the globe have known for centuries—that the human, social, cultural, and environmental impacts of large extractive and infrastructure projects threaten a wide range of indigenous and human rights, including those enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. While many have identified the rights threatened by such projects, the DAPL has exposed a reality of Indian tribes that was previously invisible to the American mainstream. Projects like this, and the governments that allow them, implicate and oftentimes violate internationally recognized human rights and collective indigenous rights, including the rights to culture; health; water; property; assembly; personal security; participation in government; and free, prior, and informed consent.”
In September 2016, Fredericks and Heibel worked alongside the American Indian Law Clinic at Colorado Law to represent the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in its fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Read the full story in our fall alumni magazine.