Hundreds of protesters from three tribes and their allies stopped construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline for the second day in a row Wednesday, but law enforcement and private security are now preparing to amp up their presence. Morton County deployed police, highway patrol and G4S personnel to dispel the gathering, reportedly bringing tear gas because of rumors that the protests were violent.
The $3.8 billion-project will funnel 500,000 barrels of crude per day from North Dakota to Illinois later this year. Members of the Sioux tribe have argued the pipeline will pollute drinking water as it crosses the Missouri and Little Missouri rivers and will disturb sacred sites.
The rivers are a water source for thousands of residents from the reservation and millions more downstream.
“Our Mother Earth is sacred. All things evolve and work together. To poison the water, is to poison the substance of life. Everything that moves must have water. How can we talk about and knowingly poison water?”
“You give them an inch, they take a mile,”
Olowan Sara Martinez of the American Indian Movement
Many of the protesters have broadcast their messages on social media in an open call to other tribes to join in. “It’s in our history. We don’t wanna give them an inch. We don’t wanna give them a mile.”
Thank you for standing up, it’s not easy to fight big oil. #Love it! Sacred sights, clean water as it’s all life mean nothing to these cold blooded oil barons.
