Archambault and others have been arrested in the past week for interfering with the construction in southern North Dakota.
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The Dakota Access pipeline quickly obtained US permit and brought in heavy equipment and began digging last week. Marcella LeBeau, 96, was among those enduring hot temperatures Monday to sit in a ditch adjacent to the road being used to access pipeline construction. “It’s critical that as federal agencies like the Army Corps of Engineers review energy infrastructure projects, they follow all applicable environmental requirements, and respect treaty rights as well as the need for proper consultation with tribal nations”. “Standing Rock wants there to be peace”.
“The Dakota Access Pipeline is committed to working with individual landowners to make accommodations, minimize disruption and achieve full restoration of impacted land”, it says in a statement on their website.
“I was doing what everyone else was doing”, Archambault said of his arrest on charges of disorderly conduct.
Donna Solomon, the tribe’s legislative liaison, says at least two buses and several cars carrying tribal members will arrive Monday evening to the site of the protest in North Dakota, just north of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. She said she’s disappointed protesters were putting pipeline workers at risk.
The tribe last week organized protesters to occupy land less than a mile from the tribe’s reservation boundary – land that Dakota Access had meant to cross in order to begin laying down pipe, said Nicole Donaghy, a native of Standing Rock and lobbyist for the Dakota Resource Council.
Standing Rock opposes the pipeline’s Missouri River crossing because tribal members fear a pipeline leak would threaten their water supply and other sacred sites. Their rallying cry is “mni Wiconi”, a Lakota phrase meaning “Water is life”. Several arrests were made when protesters pushed back against a police line when an attempt was made to block workers from leaving the site.
Laney said he’s serving as the deputy incident commander. He said Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier asked him Saturday to put out a statewide call for mutual aid from other sheriff’s departments.
Dakota Access says in court records it costs more than $75,000 for each day of lost construction, and the damages are expected to increase significantly each day that construction is halted.
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The Iowa Utilities Board action authorized Dakota Access Pipeline to start construction activity outside the pre-construction notice (PCN) areas along the route, which crosses the state diagonally from the northwest to southeast corners.
