Witnesses said pipeline construction workers were in the area when protesters arrived but are no longer working in the area.
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The Texas-based company building the $3.8 billion Dakota Access oil pipeline opposes the request, and attorneys for Energy Transfer Partners said in court documents that workers have not destroyed any cultural sites. It halts construction on some, but not all, of the 1,172-mile pipeline that would pump oil from the fracked shale deposits in North Dakota to an oil hub in IL.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Tuesday reportedly denied an emergency request for a restraining order filed by the Standing Rock Sioux.
Organizers at the North Dakota camp near the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri rivers say the protests represent the largest gathering of tribes since the days of Sitting Bull. A broader decision on the tribe’s challenge of federal regulators granting permits to Dakota Access is expected Friday.
What began as a peaceful demonstration quickly evolved into a violent outbreak, during which Energy Transfer Partners’ security dogs bit the protestors and almost 30 Natives were pepper-sprayed as they stampeded the site.
That’s what the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe says is happening in North Dakota.
A spokesman for Earthjustice, a non-profit environmental law organization, said Judge Boasberg’s temporary injunction does not include a work stoppage on the land that was the scene of the protests. On the tribe’s website, you can find press releases about the alleged destruction of burial grounds; resolutions supporting the tribe; a donation link; and other information on the pipeline from the tribe’s perspective.
Tomas Alejo, who participated in Saturday’s demonstrations, said in an interview that the security officers had formed a “barricade” with guard dogs to prevent protesters from accessing the bulldozers, and that the dogs bit children and tribal elders.
Pipeline supporters maintain that the project was properly vetted and permitted, that tribes had the opportunity to comment, and that Dakota Access will move the US and its oil-consuming population closer to energy independence. The company said it “has taken and continues to take every reasonable precaution” to protect cultural sites. As around 350 protesters gathered at the site, workers left without incident.
A spokeswoman for Stein said Tuesday that activists invited her to leave a message at the protest site.
The North Dakota tribes fear the roughly 1,200-mile pipeline from the Bakken oil fields to southern IL will harm waterways and threaten historical artifacts.
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Tensions escalated last weekend at Dakota Access Pipeline construction sites. The sheriff’s department also said two guard dogs were injured. Two protesters attached themselves to bulldozers, and some machinery was reportedly vandalized.
