Members of American Indian tribes from across the United States have rallied in support, gathering for months in a makeshift camp near the reservation.
Advertisement
Protesters said the pipeline, which would be built to go underneath the Missouri River, would ruin the tribe’s water supply.
Over the past two weeks, the Native American Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and its supporters have been protesting a 1,170-mile oil pipeline that will come in close contact with the tribe’s reservation, which is located in rural North Dakota. Dogs appeared to bite protesters and security guards appeared to use pepper spray.
The crowd dispersed quietly once law enforcement arrived.
The security officers were protecting workers and the company’s assets, she said, and “safety is ETP’s top priority and the company is committed to having the appropriate safety measures in place”.
Tribal preservation officer Tim Mentz said in court documents that the tribe was only recently allowed to survey private land north of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. One of the security officers was taken to a Bismarck hospital for undisclosed injuries. “In one day, our sacred land has turned into hollow ground”.
Construction resumed Sunday afternoon on the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota after a protest turned violent the day before. “These grounds are the resting places of our ancestors”.
Keeble is referring to private security and their dogs hired by the pipeline developer to protect the Dakota Access construction crew.
Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said it “was more like a riot than a protest”.
The Morton County Sheriff says private security for Transfer Energy Partners and a few hundred protesters clashed at a work site south of Mandan.
Standing Rock Sioux chairman David Archambault II said in a statement that construction crews removed topsoil across an area about 150 feet (46m) wide stretching for two miles (3.2 km).
Last week, environmental groups petitioned President Barack Obama to deny permits to the construction pipe, and to revoke the standing permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. Our Northwest treaty tribes have sent delegations to Standing Rock.
“Regardless of the court’s decision, the Dakota Access pipeline must be stopped”, he said.
For months, the Standing Rock Sioux and dozens of other tribes from the USA and Canada have resisted the construction of the proposed four-state pipeline that, if completed, would transport about 500,000 barrels of crude per day from North Dakota to IL.
Advertisement
A federal judge is expected to decide by September 9 whether to grant a temporary injunction to stop the pipeline construction under the river, as the tribe pursues its lawsuit.
