Some local protesters, including Alena Clatterbuck, just returned from protesting with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota.
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Across the country, thousands of people participated in more than 200 rallies to stand in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in a national day of action to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, according to CREDO Action, a network of activists. Some protestors, who locked themselves to construction machinery, were arrested on Tuesday after causing construction to grind to a halt.
But the Standing Rock Sioux, other tribes and environmental groups say that the pipeline could threaten water supplies for millions, since it will cross the Missouri River, as well as harm sacred sites and artifacts.
Protesters have said the pipeline could leak oil into the Missouri and Cannon Ball rivers, on which the tribe relies for water.
Kelcy Warren, CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, says in a memo to employees that the Dakota Access pipeline is almost complete.
Representatives from tribes all across the US and Canada along with many other supporters have established a camp near Cannon Ball, North Dakota where the efforts to stop the pipeline are now centered.
On Tuesday, people in North Dakota, Washington, DC and other U.S. states rallied against the Dakota Access Pipeline, which will move crude oil through four states from North Dakota to IL.
The protests against the Dakota Access pipeline have drawn global attention, sparking a renewal of Native American activism and prompting the USA government to block its construction on federal land, even as the company building the line expressed its commitment to the project on Tuesday.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg declined to block the pipeline, but the federal agencies stopped work on a small portion of the pipeline near Lake Oahe while they re-examine their approval of the pipeline on Army Corps of Engineers’ land.
“People are still coming down here and are committed to stopping the project”, he said.
Vicki Granado, spokeswoman with Dakota Access, told The Gazette in an email Tuesday that work has been ongoing along the four-state pipeline route.
It is unusual for a federal agency to reverse itself on a large infrastructure project that has been permitted and is under construction.
For weeks, members of the Standing Rock Sioux have gathered in Cannonball, North Dakota standing against what’s known as the Dakota Access pipeline.
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About 50 officers, many wearing helmets and face shields, responded to a Dakota Access construction site near Glen Ullin about 10:45 a.m. Tuesday, the Morton County Sheriff’s Office said.
