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Dakota Access pipeline: governor says onus on US to lead campsite closures Standing Rock protesters will not follow official directive to leave camps
(about 3 hours later)
North Dakota governor Jack Dalrymple said on Saturday the federal government must take the lead in any action to close land where thousands of protesters have camped for months, in opposition to the four-state, $3.8bn Dakota Access pipeline. Dakota Access oil pipeline protesters will not follow a government directive to leave the federal land where hundreds have camped for months, organizers said on Saturday, despite state officials encouraging them to do so.
On Friday, the US army corps of engineers sent a letter to the Standing Rock Sioux tribal leader Dave Archambault, saying it would close army land to protesters on 5 December. The letter said anyone on the property north of the Cannonball river after that date would be trespassing and subject to prosecution. At a press conference, Standing Rock Sioux tribal leader Dave Archambault and other protest organizers confidently explained that they would stay at the Oceti Sakowin camp and continue with nonviolent protests, a day after Archambault received a letter from the US army corps of engineers that said all federal lands north of the Cannonball river would be closed to public access 5 December over “safety concerns”.
Dalrymple said he supported the decision, citing public safety concerns and health risks due to camping in winter conditions, and said the federal government had allowed protesters to camp on the land for more than 100 days, so it would be the government’s responsibility to lead the camp’s peaceful closure. The corps cited the coming winter and increasingly contentious clashes between protesters – who believe the pipeline could harm drinking water and Native American cultural sites – and police.
The largest encampment, Oceti Sakowin, is on land in southern North Dakota, a place where several hundred people have created a self-sustaining community and put up semi-permanent structures in advance of the harsh winter. “We are wardens of this land. This is our land and they can’t remove us,” said Issac Weston, a protester and Oglala Sioux member from South Dakota. “We have every right to be here to protect our land and to protect our water.”
The encampment is near the confluence of the Missouri and Cannonball rivers, and more than a mile from a Missouri river reservoir under which the pipeline is scheduled to pass. That final large segment is yet to be completed, held up while the army consults with the tribe, who believe the project could harm drinking water and cultural sites. The vast majority of the several hundred people fighting against the four-state, $3.8bn pipeline have created a self-sustaining community at the sprawling camp, which is on corps land in southern North Dakota, and have put up semi-permanent structures or brought motor homes and trailers in advance of the harsh winter.
In early October, the army said it would not evict the encampment, which started as overflow from smaller private and permitted protest sites and began growing in August. Representatives from the corps of engineers did not immediately return multiple messages seeking comment and verification of the letter to Archembault. On the unseasonably warm Saturday, people were chopping wood and setting up tents at the encampment, which is more than a mile from a Missouri river reservoir where the final large segment of the pipeline is yet to be completed, due to the corps consulting with the tribe. Authorities had set up a staging area about a mile away on a hill overlooking the site.
It was not clear whether the protesters would move voluntarily to another site or where that site might be; the corps said in its letter that a free speech zone would be set up south of the Cannonball river. A news conference was planned later on Saturday. Dallas Goldtooth, a protest organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network, said the situation was “an atrocious example that colonization has not ended for us here as indigenous people” and that the government’s request would escalate already rocky tensions.
On Friday, Archambault, whose tribe offered protesters land on its reservation south of the river earlier this fall, said: “Our resolve to protect our water is stronger than ever.” Representatives from the army corps of engineers didn’t immediately return multiple messages seeking comment and verification of the letter. Last month, the corps said it would not evict the encampment, which started as overflow from smaller private and permitted protest sites nearby and began growing in August.
Earlier this month, Barack Obama raised the possibility of rerouting the pipeline, something Kelcy Warren, chief executive of the Texas-based pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners, said was not an option from the company’s standpoint. Barack Obama raised the possibility of rerouting the pipeline in that area earlier this month, something Kelcy Warren, chief executive of the Texas-based pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners, said was not an option from the company’s standpoint. Obama said his administration was monitoring the “challenging situation” but would “let it play out for several more weeks”.
Obama said his administration was monitoring the “challenging situation” but would “let it play out for several more weeks”. Some of the protests have resulted in violent confrontations – one woman suffered a serious arm injury last weekend – and more than 500 people have been arrested since August.
The state’s Republican US senator, John Hoeven, and Democratic US senator, Heidi Heitkamp, say the encampment should move due to public safety. Some of the protests have resulted in violent confrontations and hundreds of arrests. The corps’ letter, according to Archambault, said that those who stay on the land after 5 December might be prosecuted, and that there would be a free speech zone south of the river.
“The well-being and property of ranchers, farmers and everyone else living in the region should not be threatened by protesters who are willing to commit acts of violence,” Hoeven said in a statement on Friday. Archambault said Saturday that he did not believe the corps would forcibly evict people from the camp, adding that the tribe was working to provide protesters protection from the elements on its reservation, which is south of the Cannonball river, but offered few details.
He also called on the Obama administration to let work on the pipeline move forward, saying: “This difficult situation has gone on too long and we need to get it resolved.” It is the federal government’s job to peacefully close the camp because it allowed people to stay there in the first place, Governor Jack Dalrymple said in a statement Saturday.
Heitkamp said in a statement on Saturday the corps’ order was “a needed step to support the safety of residents, workers, protesters and law enforcement”. “Our state and local law enforcement agencies continue to do all they can to keep private property and public infrastructure free from unpermitted protest activities, and it’s past time that the federal government provides the law enforcement resources ... to enforce their own order to vacate,” the Republican said.
Republican US senator John Hoeven and Democratic US senator Heidi Heitkamp said the protesters need to move for public safety.
“The well-being and property of ranchers, farmers and everyone else living in the region should not be threatened by protesters who are willing to commit acts of violence,” Hoeven said in a statement Friday. He also called on the Obama administration to let work on the pipeline move forward, saying: “This difficult situation has gone on too long and we need to get it resolved.”
Heitkamp said the corps’ order was “a needed step to support the safety of residents, workers, protesters and law enforcement”.