A SCOTTISH MP has tabled an Early Day Motion (EDM) highlighting the environmental and cultural threats posed to the lands of Native Americans by the Dakota pipeline project.

There have been clashes over recent weeks between police and protesters near the site of the 1,170-mile pipeline that will deliver billions of barrels of crude oil from the Bakken Formation – a huge underground deposit where North Dakota and Montana meet Canada – into South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.

But many see it as a potential environmental disaster that could destroy sacred Native American sites.

Martin Docherty-Hughes, the SNP MP for West Dunbartonshire, who tabled the EDM, told The National: “I am deeply concerned to see reports of continuing violent clashes between demonstrators at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and American law enforcement.

“The construction of the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline is viewed by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe as a serious environmental and cultural threat to scared Native American lands. The possibility of catastrophic environmental damage in the event of the pipeline rupturing is alarming and the US authorities must take account of these concerns.

“The situation in North Dakota is causing outrage amongst people across the world who are concerned about the handling of this situation.

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