"In a new bid to stop the Keystone XL pipeline, two Native American tribes are suing the Trump administration, saying it failed to adhere to historical treaty boundaries and circumvented environmental impact analysis. As a result, they are asking a federal judge in Montana to rescind the 2017 permit and block any further construction or use of the controversial pipeline.
The Fort Belknap Indian Community of Montana and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, contend there was no effort to study how the 1,200-mile pipeline project through their respective territories would affect their water systems and sacred lands.
As NPR's Bill Chappell reported, in 2015 the State Department, which has jurisdiction over transnational oil pipelines, "rejected a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline," and the following year, President Obama "ordered work halted on the Dakota pipeline after Native American groups and other activists protested its route near culturally sensitive sites in North Dakota." But shortly after taking office, President Trump approved the construction of the Dakota Access project and and on the same day, invited TransCanada — the Canadian company that owns Keystone — to re-apply for a permit. Less than two months later, the State Department, greenlighted the project, paving the way for construction to begin as early as this summer. "
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