The billion dollar oil corporation Dakota Access pipeline has filed for a restraining order against the Dakota and Lakota land and water defenders who are sacrificing their all to protect their water source of the Missouri River.
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“Lawful assembly and peaceful protest is the hallmark of our democracy; however, threats of physical harm or violence and criminal activity is unacceptable”, Hovland wrote in the order. According to the Gazette, the denial of the Keystone XL pipeline may have affected how the company building the Dakota Access pipeline executed its strategy; having the pipeline route avoid federal lands.
“We need to work together in peace”, he said.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe are anxious that the 1,100+ miles-long pipeline is created to cross many lakes and rivers – including Lake Oahe and the Missouri River – and may pollute their drinking water and disturb sacred sites and burial grounds. Construction crews with armed private security guards arrived last week just north of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation at the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri rivers, where native Americans have been staging a protest for months at a “spirit camp”.
Clifford is from the Oglala Sioux tribe in South Dakota, but he says there are many opposed to the pipeline much farther away. The Texas-based company’s complaint alleges protesters are putting the safety of workers and law enforcement at risk.
Maybe that’s why Dakota Access LLC, the company building one of the biggest pipelines proposed in the USA since Keystone XL, is attacking its critics directly. “Standing Rock wants there to be peace”.
The chairman said he has also met over the past year with federal officials from numerous agencies “to express the Tribe’s strong opposition and to let them know that we will be heard”, and noted the upcoming hearing on the tribe’s lawsuit against the Army Corps.
There are crucial local issues at stake: water quality in the region, which will be imperiled if and when the oil leaks, and the sacred sites being disturbed by the construction. They were named in a temporary restraining order yesterday in federal court here. One protester says the Sioux Nation is gathering.
“.we are disappointed that there are those who will put the lives of others in jeopardy”.
Yellow Fat said Tuesday he hadn’t been served with the restraining order, but he said it wasn’t necessary.
Chairman Dave Archambault II said he’s spreading the word among tribal members and hundreds who have come from out of state that violence diminishes the power of their message.
Dakota Access states in court records it costs more than $75,000 for each day of lost construction, and the damages are expected to increase significantly for each day construction is halted.
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A hearing is set for 2:30 p.m. August 25 in Eagle Courtroom of the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota in Bismarck to determine whether a preliminary injunction should be issued in the Dakota Access suit against the protesters.
