A federal judge granted the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s request Tuesday to temporarily stop work on some, but not all of a portion of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline to safeguard cultural sites in North Dakota.
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Vicki Granado, a spokeswoman for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, which is developing the pipeline, said the protesters broke through a fence and “attacked” the workers.
With the weather beginning to change and a ruling coming by Friday on an injunction sought by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., pipeline opponents see their actions as just beginning.
“We have laws that require federal agencies to consider environmental risks and protection of Indian historic and sacred sites”, Dave Archambault II, the elected chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said in a statement.
Though she’s a from a different tribe and lives in a different state, Sarah Ortegon felt compelled to drive from Denver to North Dakota to join the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Tribal spokesman Steve Sitting Bear told CBS News that six people had been bitten by the dogs, including a child, and 30 people had been maced.
A protest of the $3.8 billion oil pipeline from North Dakota to IL turned violent on Saturday.
Videos of Native Americans and allied environmentalists demonstrating against the $3.8 billion pipeline in August show them chanting and marching, with police officers present at the scene.
In a letter dated August 29, the Klamath Tribal Council offered their “strong support” to leaders of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, who are leading demonstrations against the pipeline.
On Tuesday morning, pipeline workers showing up at the construction site were met by protesters.
“This demolition is devastating”, said Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman David Archambault II. It originally was going to cross the Missouri River, north of Bismarck, but North Dakota citizens were anxious about the potential damage to their water supply, so the pipeline was rerouted upriver from the Standing Rock Reservation.
Still, it acknowledged the confrontations that have occurred between private security officers at the construction site and protesters.
The Morton County Sheriff’s Office accused the protesters of stampeding into the building area and assaulting the security guards.
The USA’s Green Party Presidential Candidate, Jill Stein has visited the Sacred Stone Camp in North Dakota to support the call for an end to construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Native Americans protest pipeline in North Dakota because of potential leak into water. The ancient cairns and stone prayer rings can not be replaced. “We’re asking the court to halt this path of destruction”. The Army Corps of Engineers that granted a “standing permit” apparent to have violated several federal laws in applying a fast-track process to enrich big oil without any kind of review whatsoever or any public input as required by law. “What I’ve discovered in looking at the funding for the Energy Transfer family of companies, and specifically for the Dakota Access pipeline, is that many more banks are involved”. “This is the first time in hundreds of years that we all have come together”, Black Elk said.
The judge ordered construction can proceed on private land west of the highway because there is no ownership and jurisdiction by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
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On Friday, the Standing Sioux Tribe’s legal team filed important evidence identifying the sacred burial sites and pointing out that they were directly in the pipeline’s route in order to legally stop construction on the site.
