Construction crew bulldozers went 20 miles out of their way to demolish sacred sites along the pipeline’s pathway in North Dakota, according to Tim Mentz, former historic preservation officer for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The Indian reservation in North Dakota is the site of the largest gathering of Native Americans in more than 100 years.
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The incident occurred within half a mile of an encampment where hundreds of people have gathered to join the tribe’s protest of the oil pipeline, which is slated to cross the Dakotas and Iowa to IL.
Vicki Granado, a spokeswoman for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, which is developing the pipeline, said the protesters broke through a fence and “attacked” the workers.
A protest ensued after tribal leaders say the company and the Army Corp of Engineers did not follow proper procedures when dealing with their territory.
A weekend confrontation between protesters and construction workers near Lake Oahe prompted the tribe to ask Sunday for a temporary stop of construction, which a judge partially granted Tuesday.
The Standing Rock Sioux argue that the pipeline threatens sacred sites and poses a risk to the tribe’s drinking- water supply.
U.S. Judge James Boasberg said on Tuesday he granted in part and denied in part the temporary restraining order by agreement of the parties.
Still, it acknowledged the confrontations that have occurred between private security officers at the construction site and protesters. An attorney for the tribe said it is grateful for the partial stoppage but “disappointed that some of the important sacred sites that we had found and provided evidence for will not be protected”. Stein wrote “I approve this message” in red spray paint on the blade of a bulldozer.
A hearing is scheduled Tuesday in Washington, D.C. The $3.7 billion project would be the first to bring crude oil from Bakken shale, a vast oil formation in North Dakota, directly to refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The tribes wanted Dakota Access restrained from working on areas of “significant cultural and historic value”, pending Boasberg’s decision on an injunction they requested last month.
The tribe has gone to court to challenge the permits granted by the Army Corps of Engineers, and while the Corps has not changed its opinion about the way in which the permits were granted, they did agree Monday that a restraining order against Dakota Access LLC was warranted.
Over the weekend, the tribe filed an emergency motion asking the court to halt construction of the pipeline.
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Dakota Access opposed a broader restraining order, but it agreed to the ruling anyway because it said it had not planned on doing construction on the land covered by it this week.
