National Post

Fire and hugs as Dakota protesters face deadline

‘We go in peace, but this fight is not over’

- Mark Berman

Months after a protest of the Dakota Access oil pipeline swelled into a movement that drew thousands of people and national attention across America, the demonstrat­ors that remained Wednesday faced a looming deadline to evacuate or face arrest.

Even before the evacuation deadline, imposed last week by North Dakota’s governor, the main protest camp had already turned into a muddy pit, the ground soggy with melted snow.

Some of the remaining protesters set fire to a building that was serving as the main entrance to the area. Other fires were also started at the former camp.

North Dakota Indian Affairs Director Scott Davis said protesters also strung barbed wire across the opening to the encampment.

The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers set a 2 p. m. deadline Wednesday for protesters to leave the camp that’s on federal land near the Standing Rock Indian Reservatio­n.

Highway Patrol Lt. Tom Iverson says authoritie­s didn’t plan to negotiate after 4 p. m. But he said authoritie­s were not necessaril­y going to go in after that time to make arrests.

At least 150 people marched out of camp ahead of the deadline, but others have said they did not plan to leave on their own.

A large group of protesters exchanged hugs and goodbyes after marching out of the camp. The group sang songs and prayed as they walked along a highway and over a bridge atop the Cannonball River. On two occasions they had to clear the road to make room for ambulances.

A bus from the United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, along with four vans and a truck towing a trailer from the Standing Rock Episcopal Church, were waiting to transport the protesters. The state arranged for the bus to bring campers to a transition centre in Bismarck.

Raymond King Fisher, a protester from Seattle, was one of the leaders of the march. He called it a difficult and emotional day. He ended the parade by saying, “We go in peace, but this fight is not over.”

The evacuation was the latest confrontat­ion in a bitter fight over a crudeoil pipeline, a standoff on a desolate prairie that drew movie stars, military veterans and investment bankers to an unlikely front line. The tribe has argued that a stretch of the US$ 3.8 billion pipeline threatens its water supply, crosses burial grounds and violates treaties between Native Americans and the federal government.

President Donald Trump has supported the project and ultimately cleared the way for it.

He signed an order aimed at expediting the pipeline’s approval before his admini stration approved f i nal permits needed to complete it. The move came as Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambaul­t II arrived in Washington ahead of a scheduled White House meeting, leading him to say: “I think that I was set up.”

A federal judge has left open the possibilit­y of further court interventi­on, and the company behind the pipeline has said that oil could flow within 30 days.

 ?? STEPHEN YANG / GETTY IMAGES ?? Campers set structures ablaze ahead of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers’ deadline Wednesday to leave the protest camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota.
STEPHEN YANG / GETTY IMAGES Campers set structures ablaze ahead of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers’ deadline Wednesday to leave the protest camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota.

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