People rally on the grounds of the state Capitol in Bismarck, N.D., Friday, Sept. 9, 2016, following a federal judge’s ruling in Washington denying a request by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe to halt construction on the Dakota Access pipeline, a thousand-mile pipeline being built to carry North Dakota crude oil across four states to IL.
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Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II is expected to speak from the North Dakota Capitol on Friday afternoon.
He said protests would continue until the pipeline project is “officially killed”.
A status conference in the tribe’s lawsuit is scheduled for September 16.
When fully connected to existing lines, the 1,100-mile (1,770 km) Dakota Access pipeline would be the first to carry crude oil from the Bakken shale, a vast oil formation in North Dakota, Montana and parts of Canada, directly to the US Gulf. The U.S. Army Corps called for a temporary pause in pipeline construction under the river and for 20 miles on both sides of it. No law officers had arrived at the scene by late Friday morning.
The tribe argues the project threatens water supplies and has already disrupted sacred sites.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington rejected a request for a court order to stop the project, but the government blocked construction in a response to growing opposition. We also want to recognize the Standing Rock people and Natives from all over the United States who have joined in solidarity for months to halt this risky pipeline. But he went on to say that the Army Corps “likely complied” with its obligation to consult the tribe, adding that the tribe “has not shown it will suffer injury that would be prevented by any injunction the Court could issue”.
Tribal historian LaDonna Brave Bull Allard said after the ruling that it gives her “a great amount of grief. My heart is hurting, but we will continue to stand, and we will look for other legal recourses”.
“There’s never been a coming together of tribes like this”, she said of Friday’s gathering of Native Americans, which she estimated could be the largest in a century.
On Thursday, a state National Guard statement said the governor had asked it “to support law enforcement and augment public safety efforts, in light of recent activity with the Dakota Access Pipeline protest”.
Native Americans ride with raised fists to a sacred burial ground that was disturbed by bulldozers building the Dakota Access Pipeline, near the encampment where hundreds of people have gathered to join the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s protest of the oil pipeline slated to cross the nearby Missouri River, Sept. 4, 2016 near Cannon Ball, North Dakota.
September is National Lice Awareness Month, but most people aren’t aware of those cringe-worthy critters until they’re dealing with a full-on infestation.That was the issue Stacey Cole faced when her children became infested with lice.”I just didn’t know what I was supposed to do, what I needed to do in the house, what I needed to do to their heads”, Cole said.That helpless feeling comes at a time when a new study reports most states are overrun by what’s often called “super lice”.
The developments come on the heels of the issuance of an arrest warrant for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein in connection with protests at the project site. However, those once peaceful standoffs have turned ugly, with protesters claiming to have been subjected to excessive force, including police use of pepper spray and attack dogs. Previous incidents of violence in the area where construction is occurring were provoked by the company, Archambault said.
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One group of protesters, Red Warrior Camp, wrote on Facebook: “Nothing has changed for the 1000s of people who came from 1000s of miles on prayers & fumes to stop this pipeline”.
