The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers arguing that the agency acted illegally by taking a “narrow view” of its responsibilities before approving the pipeline, which is expected to carry 470,000 barrels of crude oil per day from North Dakota to IL.
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The tribe, whose reservation is located just south of where the 1,200-mile (1,900-kilometer) pipeline would cross the Missouri River, has been locked in a court battle to stop the project, which it says would endanger its drinking water and destroy historic sites.
The Standing Rock Tribe is challenging Army Corps of Engineers approval of permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners to build the pipeline from northwest North Dakota to IL, and announced Friday it had found several sites of “significant cultural and historic value” along the route.
Morton County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Donnell Preskey told reporters four security guards not affiliated with law enforcement and two guard dogs were injured as several hundred protesters living in the Standing Rock Sioux reservation confronted pipeline workers at the site. At least six protesters were bitten by the guard dogs, including a child, and 30 people were pepper sprayed.
Law-enforcement personnel were not present at the North Dakota site when the incident occurred, Preskey said. The crowd dispersed when officers arrived and no one was arrested, she said. “They did this on a holiday weekend, one day after we filed court papers identifying these sacred sites”.
Archambault called the demolition that had already been done devastating.
Last week, environmental groups petitioned President Barack Obama to deny permits to the construction pipe, and to revoke the standing permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. Some of the photos show dogs with blood all over their mouths and protesters with deep gashes on their bodies.
Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said in a statement that “individuals crossed onto private property and accosted private security officers with wooden posts and flag poles”.
A judge is expected to rule on a preliminary injunction by September 9. The ancient cairns and stone prayer rings can not be replaced.
My plan is to be at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in Cannonball, North Dakota on October 10, 2016-yes, how appropriate to be there on “Columbus/Genocide Day”. FOX News reported that he said, “These grounds are the resting places of our ancestors”.
“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.
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Demonstrators in Kansas City also held a protest to support the Sioux and protest the pipeline’s threat to water resources and sacred sites.
