Members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe met outside the steps of the Washington, D.C., courthouse August 25 to protest the construction of the pipeline, which they say would wreak havoc on their native lands and cause widespread water contamination.
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When it did, the researchers found burial rock piles called cairns and other sites that have historic significance to the Native Americans, and which are in a danger from the pipeline.
ND -The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe released a statement Sunday stating it has filed a temporary restraining order against Dakota Access Pipeline.
A months-long protest against the $3.8 billion oil pipeline, which will run through four states, descended into violence during the weekend after construction destroyed sacred Native American burial grounds in South Dakota.
Morton County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Donnell Preskey says four security guards and two guard dogs were injured after several hundred protesters confronted construction crews Saturday afternoon at the site just outside the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. Tribe spokesman Steve Sitting Bear however says that six people were bitten by dogs.
When police officers arrived, she said that the crowd disbursed.
The security officers were protecting workers and the company’s assets, she said, and “safety is ETP’s top priority and the company is committed to having the appropriate safety measures in place”. “Individuals crossed onto private property and accosted private security guards with wooden posts and flag poles”, Morton County Sheriff Kirchmeier said in a statement obtained by NBC News. They literally bulldozed the ancestors right out of the ground, along with destroying tipi rings and cairns.
The AP adds the tribe is also challenging the pipeline in federal court.
If people are unhappy about issues – protests are a great way to stand as a group and initiate a social change and conversation. But Dakota Access Pipeline used evidence submitted to the Court as their roadmap for what to bulldoze. The ancient cairns and stone prayer rings there can not be replaced.
“Not only will the people, the folks in South Dakota and North Dakota be affected, but we too will be affected”, Brings Plenty said.
Since April, more than 3,000 Native American people have camped at the construction site in protest. They said the pipeline could prove to be an “existential threat to the tribe’s culture and way of life”.
According to Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeir, the event looked like a riot, not a protest.
“I am calling on all members of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe to avoid traveling to or doing business in the Mandan-Bismarck area until this crisis is resolved”, Frazier said in a statement.
“I wasn’t expecting them to mace, it came out of nowhere”, one protester said.
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He has also called on the Governor of North Dakota, Jack Dalrymple to meet with Tribal leaders in an effort to resolve the conflict.
