If you think it impossible that development might threaten sacred areas and environmentally-critical areas close to our home, think again.

The Duwamish River is a Superfund cleanup site; estimates are that it will take 25 years before it’s safe to eat a salmon caught there. Shellfish cannot be harvested in several Kitsap bays; one source told us of finding a black geoduck, sickened by pollution from 150 years of industrial activity, on the floor of Port Gamble Bay. There are dead zones in Hood Canal.

Roughly 125 miles south of here, a proposed coal terminal in Longview would be the debarkation point for 16 coal train loads every day from Washington to markets in Asia. It would be the largest coal-shipping terminal in the United States. The trains will pass through numerous communities, and along a critical waterway, en route to the coast.

That’s why you should stand with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, whose water and burial sites are threatened by the Dakota Access Pipeline. Because if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere.

The Dakota Access Pipeline is a proposed 1,172-mile, 30-inch diameter pipeline that will be used to transport Bakken crude oil from North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois for refining. It will pass through 50 counties in four states. According to the Dakota Access Pipeline website, the Dakota Access team worked with agriculture experts, engineers and farmers “to ensure that the route had taken into consideration every aspect of the land in order to mitigate any risks. … the route is still subject to change slightly in order to accommodate the individual needs and concerns of landowners along the route.”

Not so for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. First, Standing Rock, an indigenous nation and, with the U.S., a signatory to a treaty, was not consulted as required by U.S. law. Second, the pipeline is proposed to go under the Missouri River, Standing Rock’s only source of water. If the pipeline ever leaked or broke, that would be a disaster for the people of Standing Rock. Third, important cultural sites have already been disrupted or destroyed by construction by Dakota Access.

In the United States, there are several forms of governments: Local government, county government, state government, federal government. And Tribal government. Native Nations ceded land to the United States to make it available to newcomers — true, many treaties were forced — but they never ceded their inherent authority to govern themselves and their lands.

Native Nations have authority over Indian Country, which is defined by U.S. Code as “(a) all land within the limits of any Indian reservation under the jurisdiction of the United States Government … including rights-of-way running through the reservation, (b) all dependent Indian communities within the borders of the United States whether within the original or subsequently acquired territory thereof, and whether within or without the limits of a state, and (c) all Indian allotments, the Indian titles to which have not been extinguished, including rights-of-way running through the same.”

What is happening in Standing Rock is unjust in so many ways: A government was not consulted about a project that could affect the health and well-being of its people, and sacred sites have been destroyed and more are threatened. If it happens there, it can happen anywhere.

Learn more, and help take a stand in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, at “Water is Life: Benefit for Standing Rock,” 6:30-9:30 p.m. Oct. 15 at Island Center Hall, 8395 Fletcher Bay Road NE, Bainbridge Island. There will be live music, an art auction, speakers, storytelling, salmon dinner, and drumming and song by Sacred Water Canoe Family. Suggested donation: $25. Go to http://seattle.eventful.com/events/water-life-benefit-standing-rock-/E0-001-096855992-4