Protesters staying put at North Dakota pipeline
Demonstrations escalated this week, with burned-out cars and more than 100 arrests
CANNON BALL, N.D.— Protesters trying to block the Dakota Access oil pipeline were staying near their encampment Saturday, following two days of confrontations that resulted in more than 100 arrests and a barricade of burned-out vehicles blocking a North Dakota highway.
A handful of people walked along the highway amid cloudy, chilly weather early Saturday as campfires burned at the nearby camp where hundreds of protesters are staying.
About half a dozen law-enforcement vehicles were parked along the highway near Cannon Ball, a town about 80 kilometres south of Bismarck.
There was no immediate work on protesters’ plans at the site, but an afternoon rally at the state capitol in Bismarck is expected to feature landowners and community members encouraging supporters to take action however they can. Hundreds of people attended a similar rally in September.
As many as 50 protesters gathered Friday behind heavy plywood sheets and the burned vehicles, facing a line of concrete barriers, military vehicles and police in riot gear.
Asmall group of people, including some observers from Amnesty International, stayed into the evening after protest leaders asked people to return to camp.
Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier described the protesters as “nonconfrontational but unco-operative,” and credited Standing Rock Sioux tribal members for helping ease tensions.
Standing Rock has waged a protest for months against the nearly 2,000-kilometre pipeline being developed across four states by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners.
The pipeline is slated to carry North Dakota crude oil to a shipping point in Patoka, Ill.
The tribe argues that the pipeline is a threat to water and cultural sites. Protest encampments set up to support the tribe have grown to thousands of people, with the effort drawing support from Native Americans and other people from around the country, including environmentalists and some celebrities.
The protest escalated last week when demonstrators set up camp on private land along the pipeline’s path that had recently been acquired by Energy Transfer Partners.
On Thursday, more than 140 people were arrested as law enforcement, bolstered by reinforcements from several states, moved in slowly to envelop the protesters.
Kirchmeier said tribal representatives were later allowed onto the private property to remove teepees. Officers arrested one person, but no details were released.