Authorities clear pipeline camp of last protesters
The camp gained increased attention starting in August after its population had grown and authorities made their first arrests. At its height, the camp included thousands of people, but the numbers had dwindled during the winter and as the fight over the pipeline moved into the courts.
The Army Corps of Engineers said it needed to clear the camp ahead of spring flooding, and had ordered everyone to leave by 2 p.m. Wednesday. The agency said it was concerned about protesters’ safety and about the environmental effects of tents, cars, garbage and other items in the camp being washed into nearby rivers.
Most protesters left peaceful- ly Wednesday, when authorities closed the camp, but some stayed overnight in defiance of the government order.
Before the arrests, protester Ed Higgins 39, of Lowell, Massachusetts, said by phone from the camp that morale was high and opponents were prepared to stay as long as necessary. Protesters maintain that the camp was on land that rightfully belongs to American Indians under old treaties.
“They do not own the land. They do not have the right to be here,” said Higgins, who did not answer his phone after authorities cleared the camp.
As police in full riot gear worked to arrest the stragglers, cleanup crews began razing buildings on the square-mile piece of property at the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri rivers.
American Indian activist Chase Iron Eyes, an outspoken supporter of the camp, said its shutdown isn’t the end of the fight against the pipeline.
“The battleground has shifted to the legal courts and the court of public opinion,” he said, referring to lawsuits filed by tribes and an effort planned by the Lakota People’s Law Project to rally lawmakers and others in Washington, D.C., to their cause.