ARRESTS CONTINUE A MILE FROM STANDING ROCK INDIAN RESERVATION AS 250 AMERICAN INDIANS PROTEST PIPELINE
CANNONBALL, NORTH DAKOTA—Some 250 American Indians, with more on their way, are protesting the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline that will extend from North Dakota to Chicago. Friday is the third day of the protests and arrests. Two American Indians were arrested this morning.
By late morning some 30 police cruisers from local, county and state law enforcement agencies were on site where the protests are taking place. The protest is taking place one-mile from the Standing Rock Reservation.
Tribal citizens from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have had a spirit camp where the Cannonball and Missouri meet.
Tribes from North Dakota and South Dakota are adamantly opposed to oil companies coming near tribal lands in fear of pipelines bursting and then contaminated water supplies, tribal lands and especially sacred sites on tribal lands.
The opposition intensified after the U.S. Army Corps Engineers released their approval on July 26, 2016. Dakota Access, LLC, the company laying the pipeline began construction against opposition from American Indian tribes and other environmental groups.
Dakota Access LLC, the company behind the pipeline, wrote in a statement to ThinkProgress: “We are working with local law enforcement on this situation to ensure the safety of our employees and the safety of those who live and work in the area.” They went on to add a particularly grim note, saying “We will press charges against anyone who interferes in the construction of the pipeline. Construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline will continue across all four states along the route.”
“Our phone service is being interrupted because of the plane Dakota Access has flying over our protest site,” said Phyliss Young, a Standing Rock tribal citizen, to Native News Online this afternoon.
The Standing Rock Sioux has requested a preliminary injunction against the U.S. Army Corps Engineers’ approval to proceed with the pipeline. The injunction is to heard in a federal court in Washington, D.C. on August 24, 2016.
The injunction filed on behalf of the Standing Rock Sioux maintains the U.S. Army Corps Engineers approval was “in violation of multiple federal statutes that authorize the pipeline.”
Levi Rickert for Native News Online
http://nativenewsonline.net/currents/arrests-continue-mile-standing-rock-indian-reservation-250-american-indians-protest-pipeline/
