Tribe vows to continue N. Dakota pipeline
fight despite arrests
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[October 29, 2016]
By Timothy Mclaughlin
(Reuters) - A Native American tribe and
other activists opposed to a multibillion-dollar oil pipeline project in
North Dakota vowed on Friday to continue their fight through direct
action, legal challenges and growing celebrity support, a day after
police arrested 141 of their members.
Thursday's arrests came at the site of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access
pipeline when dozens of riot police swept through a protester camp on
private land using pepper spray, bean bag rounds and an audio cannon
against demonstrators who refused to leave.
Some of the protesters set fire to roadblocks and threw rocks, bottles
and Molotov cocktails at the law enforcement officers, the local Morton
County Sheriff's Department said.
Dallas Goldtooth, 33, an activist from the Indigenous Environmental
Network, said on Friday the demonstrators were taking the day off to
regroup and pray. He added there were still ample opportunities for them
to stop the pipeline.
"They still have miles of construction to happen and that is miles of
construction yet to be stopped," Goldtooth said via telephone from the
protest site in North Dakota. "There are still windows of opportunity to
disrupt construction."
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The sheriff's department said in a statement Friday that it was
maintaining a presence in the area and that a section of a state highway
remained closed. Protesters were nonconfrontational, the department
said, but still not cooperating with orders to leave a bridge that was
damaged by a fire on Thursday. One additional protester was arrested on
Friday morning, the department said.
The 1,172-mile (1,885-km) pipeline, being built by a group of companies
led by Energy Transfer Partners LP <ETP.N>, would offer the fastest and
most direct route to bring Bakken shale oil from North Dakota to U.S.
Gulf Coast refineries.
Vicki Granado, a spokeswoman for Dakota Access, declined to comment on
the latest developments with protesters.
Supporters say the pipeline would be safer and more cost-effective than
transporting the oil by road or rail.
'WE WON'T STEP DOWN'
But the project has drawn angry opposition from the Standing Rock Sioux
Tribe, as well as environmental activists, who say it threatens local
water supplies and sacred tribal sites. They have been protesting for
several months, and a total of 411 protesters have been arrested since
Aug. 10, the sheriff's department said.
The tribe wants observers from the U.S. Department of Justice to probe
the use of force by police, said Sue Evans, a spokeswoman for the
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
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![](../images/102916pics/news_J15.jpg)
A line of police move towards a roadblock and encampment of Native
American and environmental protesters near an oil pipeline
construction site, near the town of Cannon Ball, North Dakota,
October 27, 2016. REUTERS/Rob Wilson
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"We've heard many, many reports on injury and unlawful arrests," Evans
said. "We would like those law enforcement abuses investigated."
In a statement, Dave Archambault II, the tribe's chairman, said: "We
won't step down from this fight ... This is about our water, our
rights, and our dignity as human beings."
Amid the protests, the U.S. government in September halted
construction on part of the pipeline. The affected area includes
land under Lake Oahe, a large and culturally important reservoir on
the Missouri River where the line was supposed to cross.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is currently deciding whether to
grant the pipeline company an easement to build under the lake.
The decision will "hopefully be soon" but there is no estimated time
of arrival, a spokesman for the Corps, Thomas O'Hara, said on
Friday.
Meanwhile, opposition to the pipeline continues to gather the
backing of celebrities. Among the actors who have already lent their
voices to the cause are Shailene Woodley, Susan Sarandon and Riley
Keough.
On Thursday, Australian actor Chris Hemsworth showed his solidarity
with demonstrators in an Instagram post.
The support of famous people has frustrated Morton County Sheriff
Kyle Kirchmeier, who said on Thursday he resented being asked by
"outsiders and millionaire Hollywood actors" to let "agitators and
rioters" break the law.
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(Reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago; Additional reporting by
Julia Harte in Washington and Mica Rosenberg in New York; Editing by
Matthew Lewis)
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