The protest came as members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe are suing the federal government, claiming they were not properly consulted about the pipeline, which is being constructed by Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners.
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Hundreds of protesters traveled to the construction sites of the Dakota Access Pipeline on Highway 1806 Saturday in North Dakota.
The expensive pipeline which is in the center of the controversy is supposed to pass beneath the Missouri river and destroy a number of sacred sites from the area.
“The desecration of these ancient places has already caused the Standing Rock Sioux irreparable harm”. One security officer was hospitalized with undisclosed injuries, and the two guard dogs were taken to a Bismarck veterinary clinic, according to the Morton County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Donnell Preskey. Private security forces showed up and began macing protesters and sicking dogs on them.
He said while no arrests were made at the scene, the department, in cooperation with the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, is investigating the incident.
A federal judge is expected to rule within the week if construction can continue.
The Army Corps of Engineers granted permits the Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners.The project is estimated to cost $3.8bn and will carry some 500,000 barrels of crude per day from North Dakota to IL, according to NBC News.
It’s unknown at this point if there were any injuries to the security officers or protesters.
“Once protestors arrived at the building area, they broke down a wire fence by stepping and jumping on it”, the sheriff’s office said.
But, a lawsuit has been filed accusing the Army Corps of Engineers for violating the Clean Water Act and the National Historic Preservation Act by issuing final permits for the pipeline.
That was before his tribe was aware of the Dakota Access pipeline, for which developers have promised safeguards, noting that workers monitoring the pipeline remotely in Texas could stop any leak within three minutes.
The months-long protests which have seen the largest gathering of Native Americans in more than 100 years, turned violent on Saturday as protesters confronted construction crews at the site just outside the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. He continued by saying that numerous witnesses had said the crowd of a few hundred protesters became violent within about five minutes.
“Any suggestion that today’s event was a peaceful protest is false”, said Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier.
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Court documents by tribal officer Tim Mentz confirm that burial rock piles and historical artifacts have been found on the site.
