Demonstrators fear the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline would affect the drinking water of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and also trample on sacred Native American sites. Several hundred marchers walked from the four directions to the Capitol to take part in the rally against the oil pipeline.
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A camp set up to support the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s fight against the oil pipeline has swelled over the past few days, now populated by thousands of people from across North America.
The National Guard will assist with security and traffic near the site of the ongoing Dakota Access Pipeline protest south of Mandan.
A major, history-making demonstration is underway in North Dakota, where the Standing Rock Sioux tribe is leading an effort to stop a giant oil pipeline that’s now under construction on land the tribe considers sacred.
September 8th, more than 10 North Dakota pipeline protesters locked themselves to Dakota Access pipeline bulldozers.
The Yankton Sioux Tribe, also known as the Ihanktonwan Oyate, claimed in the suit, also filed against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, that the approval was illegal because it “foreclosed the legally-mandated consultation process before consultation even began”.
Tuesday, U.S. Judge James Boasberg temporarily stopped some, but not all, construction on the project.
Some two dozen troops will help with security at traffic checkpoints – the closest of which is about 30 miles (48 km) from the protest site, said Guard spokeswoman Amber Balken.
The tribe has been leading a protest for weeks at a site where the route passes near its reservation near the North Dakota-South Dakota border.
A several-mile stretch of the highway that runs through the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in southern North Dakota had been closed since August 17.
“We’re now evaluating the situation and intend to visit when arrangements are made”, Chief Archaeologist Paul Picha told Forum News Service.
Tribal leaders say the pipeline and its construction would damage ancestral sites of the Standing Rock Sioux and put the tribe’s water supply at risk.
Dallas, Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners lawyers denied in a court response that its workers destroyed cultural sites and says it is taking “every reasonable precaution” to protect them.
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A federal judge allowed construction to continue there earlier this week, but is expected to rule by Friday on the tribe’s lawsuit challenging federal permits.
