The tribe was only recently allowed to survey private land north of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, tribal preservation officer Tim Mentz said in court documents.
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Steve Sitting Bear, a spokesman for the tribe, stated that six of his people have been bitten by the security dogs, including a young child. Sheriff’s spokeswoman Donnell Preskey said law enforcement authorities had no reports of protesters being injured.
Hundreds of people across the country have joined the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to protest the oil pipeline that is planned to cross below the Missouri River just north of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. Tribe chairman David Archambault II said construction crews removed topsoil from burial and cultural sites.
After the initial destruction Saturday, Dakota Access Pipeline returned to the area and dug up additional grounds in the pre-dawn hours Sunday, Archambault said.
The administration must halt the issuance of an easement until the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe can have the opportunity to ensure the protection of its waters and sacred places.
“Any suggestion that today’s event was a peaceful protest, is false”, his statement said. The next day, workers with the Dakota Access Pipeline brought in bulldozers on the land, which prompted protesters stationed at a camp on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land to move to where the construction was taking place on a piece of property on the west side of Highway 1806. Over thirty people were exposed to pepper spray.
A federal judge is expected to rule within the week if construction can continue. Tribal leaders say crews have destroyed American Indian burial and cultural sites.
Farmers in Iowa are also protesting the pipeline, which maneuvered to gain eminent domain rights and force the sale of private farmland, some of which has been in families for generations.
Last month, environmental conservation groups also urged President Barack Obama to revoke the standing permit from Army Corps of Engineers citing the pipeline could prove to be an “existential threat to the tribe’s culture and way of life”.
Sheriff Kirchmeier, according to NPR, said that the protesters broke a wire fence by “stepping and jumping on it”.
Private security allegedly hired by Energy Transfer Partners brought dogs and pepper spray to an area where protesters gathered on Saturday.
On Saturday, protesters were suddenly alerted to renewed digging, a day after the tribe filed evidence in court of dozens of newly discovered artefacts, grave markers and sacred sites.
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“Regardless of the court’s decision, the Dakota Access pipeline must be stopped”, he said.
