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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Construction resumed Sunday afternoon on the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota after a protest turned violent the day before.
A protest of a four-state, $3.8 billion oil pipeline turned violent Saturday after tribal officials say construction crews destroyed American Indian burial and cultural sites on private land in southern North Dakota.
Protestors say they worry that the massive pipeline, which is slated to run through four states, could upset the reservation’s sacred sites and taint the land’s drinking water.
In a press release, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe says the temporary restraining order will prevent destruction to sacred areas. The desecration of these ancient places has already caused the Standing Rock Sioux irreparable harm.
The Dakota Access Pipeline protest took a very ugly turn when private security agencies, hired by the construction agencies, allegedly set vicious guard dogs on peaceful protesters and even attacked them with pepper spray. A spokesperson for the Morton County Sheriff’s Office said no protesters were reported injured.
At least six protesters were viciously bitten by the canines, tribe spokesman Steve Sitting Bear said, adding that over 30 others were pepper-sprayed in the face.
The almost 1,200-mile pipeline would be the first to shuttle Bakken shale from North Dakota directly to refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast. She said there weren’t any reports of protestors being injured. Lance Keeble is a volunteer security guard for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s protest efforts.
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”. Sometime before September 9, a federal judge will hear arguments and rule as to whether construction will be stopped or not on the Dakota Access pipeline.
Gov. Jack Dalrymple’s office in a statement Sunday: “We urge all protesters to participate only in peaceful and lawful activities”.
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“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. Mentz said that rock piles called cairns, used for burial purposes, were discovered, as well as “other sites of historic significance to Native Americans”.
