Problem: What does this say in plain English? "Standing Rock Sioux Opposition to Dakota Access Pipeline At the core of the struggles of Native American people are the issues of land use and sovereignty (discussed earlier in Chapter 5.5). A sovereign state is a political organization with a centralized government that has supreme independent authority over a geographic area. The U.S. has a long history of breaking treaties with American Indian Nations for the purposes of resource extraction. As awareness of the climate crisis increases, especially among young people, resistance to new fossil fuel infrastructure such as the Keystone XL(KXL) pipeline and the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is playing a central role in climate activism. Groups like the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), formed in 1990, lie at the intersection of these social issues. Merging cultural beliefs and activism, IEN's direct-action training against the KXL referenced the Lakota prophecy of the Black Snake, which they believe to be a "manifestation of the sickness of society" and symbolic of oil pipelines (Bioneers, 2017). Their organizational goals are as follows: Educate and empower Indigenous Peoples to address and develop strategies for the protection of our environment, our health, and all life forms - the Circle of Life. Re-affirm our traditional knowledge and respect of natural laws. Recognize, support, and promote environmentally sound lifestyles, economic livelihoods, and to build healthy sustaining. Need Assignment Help?