A protest of the multi-state, $3.8 million oil pipeline turned violent Saturday when members of a Native American tribe in North Dakota and private security forces clashed as construction crews began work on the project.
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Morton County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Donnell Preskey says several hundred protesters confronted construction crews after the workers destroyed American Indian burial and cultural sites on private land just outside the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in southern North Dakota. Standing Rock Sioux tribe spokesperson Steve Sitting Bear also told the Associated Pressthat a young child had been bitten, and 30 people were pepper sprayed.
There were no law enforcement personnel at the site when the incident occurred, Preskey said.
“This demolition is devastating” said Tribal Chairman David Archambault in a press release.
On Friday, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe submitted documents in court Friday, identifying areas along the path of the pipeline that are home to Native American artifacts and sacred sites. “In one day, our sacred land has been turned into hollow ground”. The tribe is demonstrating against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant permission to Energy Transfer Partners’ Dakota Access pipeline, which crosses North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and IL – including the reservation in southern North Dakota. FOX News reported that he said, “These grounds are the resting places of our ancestors”. The tribe is waiting for a federal court decision on a preliminary injunction to stop the pipeline construction, the pipeline company is waiting for the Army Corps of Engineers to grant an easement to drill under Lake Oahe.
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. As a result of the violence that broke out on Saturday, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Harold Frazier “is urging members to avoid Bismarck and Mandan in North Dakota”. He was of the opinion that proved the protest was not a peaceful one.
The Morton County Sherriff’s department said three private security guards were injured after being struck with fence posts and flag poles. “According to numerous witnesses within five minutes the crowd of protestors, estimated to be a few hundred people became violent”. “This was more like a riot than a protest”.
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Sioux Tribe members and many other supporters of the movement from across the country gathered at the construction site near the Sacred Stone Camp in North Dakota on Saturday and breached fences in an attempt to stop bulldozers doing groundwork in the area.
