The Dakota Access Oil Pipeline is something that has been argued over for years but just recently the clash between protestors and the builders turned violent.
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On Saturday, protesters were suddenly alerted to renewed digging, a day after the tribe filed evidence in court of dozens of newly discovered artefacts, grave markers and sacred sites.
Morton County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Donnell Preskey told reporters four security guards not affiliated with law enforcement and two guard dogs were injured as several hundred protesters living in the Standing Rock Sioux reservation confronted pipeline workers at the site.
The Standing Rock Tribe is challenging Army Corps of Engineers approval of permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners to build the pipeline from northwest North Dakota to IL, and announced Friday it had found several sites of “significant cultural and historic value” along the route. 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. He continued by saying that numerous witnesses had said the crowd of a few hundred protesters became violent within about five minutes.
Tim Mentz is a former tribal historic preservation officer for the Standing Rock Sioux and also part of the tribe’s efforts to prevent construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said it “was more like a riot than a protest”.
“This demolition is devastating” said Tribal Chairman David Archambault in a press release.
Preskey said the sheriff’s department isn’t planning to send additional officers to the construction site after what happened Saturday, but they will go out there if similar incidents were to arise.
Sunday, North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple urged protesters “to participate only in peaceful and lawful activities”, while Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Harold Frazier urged tribal members to avoid Bismarck and Mandan. “These grounds are the resting places of our ancestors”.
The independent television and radio program Democracy Now! documented dogs appearing to bite protesters and security guards appeared to use pepper spray.
No arrests were made at the scene, and law enforcement continues to investigate. “In one day, our sacred land has been turned into hollow ground”.
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Native Americans ride with raised fists to a sacred burial ground that was disturbed by bulldozers building the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), September 4, 2016 near Cannon Ball, North Dakota. He said that when construction crews were working “it was peaceful at first until they started spraying us with mace”.
