A protest turned violent when oil pipeline company bulldozers began to dig up land that Native Americans said included sacred ancestral sites.
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BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) A South Dakota tribal chairman has urged members to avoid Bismarck and Mandan in North Dakota after a clash between private security guards and people protesting against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Pipeline opponents say it could disturb sacred sites and impact drinking water for 8,000 tribal members and millions further downstream. They also said the pipeline construction violates long-standing treaties. The ancient cairns and stone prayer rings can not be replaced. One security officer was hospitalized with undisclosed injuries, and the two guard dogs were taken to a Bismarck veterinary clinic, according to the Morton County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Donnell Preskey.
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 project has faced months of resistance from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and members of almost 100 more tribes from across the USA and Canada.
However, that did not stop the protesters, who at the end managed to push back the construction workers along with their security teams. There are claims that the police dispatched to ensure the safety of everyone at the controversial construction site, silently watched the guard dogs tear into multiple civilians and did nothing to intervene.
He said while no arrests were made at the scene, the department, in cooperation with the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, is investigating the incident.
Three formal injury reports were taken, and two security dogs had to be taken to the vet.
Morton County Sheriff, Kyle Kirchmeier described what occurred as a “riot”. Guards can be seen with dogs going after some of the protesters before the crowd eventually seemed to drive them off.
The DAPL crosses several states, including not only North Dakota, but also South Dakota, Iowa, and IL. A federal judge is expected to rule this week on the tribe’s request for an injunction to halt construction.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, activist Linda Black Elk, who is married to a Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal member, said that it’s clear that the pipeline company is trying to “provoke” the peaceful resisters “to violence”.
The fight over the Dakota Access Pipeline escalated this weekend.
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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”.
