Protest Over Dakota Pipeline Near Reservation Is Growing

The protest over the Dakota Access Pipeline launched by the Standing Rock Sioux Nation is continuing to grow, with fellow tribes and environmentalists joining the cause. The planned pipeline would transport oil from Canada to Illinois, but it would cross the Missouri River just upstream of the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota. That presents grave environmental concerns for the tribe. CBC reports a ruling from a federal judge that could possibly stop work on the pipeline in and around the Standing Rock reservation is expected Friday. Here's what you need to know about the pipeline and the protest before then:

• The AP has an easy-to-read primer on the situation, answering questions such as why the pipeline is being built and if it's safe.
• MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell calls the plight of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation a "morally embarrassing reminder" that the "country was founded on genocide."
• The Daily Beast reports the growing protest isn't so simple as Native Americans vs. the pipeline. Environmentalists are piggybacking on the protest to fight against fossil fuels in general.
• Despite Native Americans being at the heart of the protest, Fox News Latino argues the outcome could have a "disproportionately negative impact on the Latino community," as the battle is about clean water, something minority communities in particular struggle to get access to.
• CNN also has a good explainer of the protest and what's at stake, from an America that is self-sufficient when it comes to its energy to a potential massive environmental disaster.
• Writing in the Los Angeles Times, environmentalist Bill McKibben says it's time for Hillary Clinton to take a public stance on the pipeline, stand with protesters, and prove that she will champion progressive causes as president.
• Meanwhile the Huffington Post reports on Harold Hamm, current Trump aide and potential future US Secretary of Energy, who stands to make a lot of money off the pipeline, which would transport oil obtained by his company.

(More Dakota Access Pipeline stories.)