Tribe puts ‘black snake prophecy’ at center of pipeline battle

WASHINGTON — Citing religious rites and the dark prophecy of a “terrible black snake” that will bring harm to its people, a Sioux Indian tribe returned to court Tuesday in an eleventh-hour push to keep the Dakota Access pipeline from carrying its first crude oil.

The industry has been bolstered by President Trump’s reversal of Obama administration commitments to reconsider the route of the pipeline’s last link.

While the Cheyenne River Sioux’s claims arise from ancient ritual and lore, their legal arguments are grounded in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a 1993 law that allowed closely held companies to avoid providing contraception insurance to employees.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, a 2011 Obama administration appointee who has rejected previous attempts to block work on the pipeline, heard more than an hour of arguments from lawyers for the tribe, the pipeline builder and the U.S. He said he will rule by March 7 and ordered the company to give him at least 48-hours notice before the pipeline is operational.