Keep your eyes on Indian Country in the coming few days. Protestors are trying to stop, or reroute the Dakota Access Pipeline. Friends of mine are at the protest site today. It’s probably a lost cause, but that’s never stopped the Lakota from trying.
18 people arrested in the construction zone of a $3.8 billion oil pipeline projected by the end of the year to be carrying nearly a half-million barrels of crude daily from North Dakota's rich Bakken oil fields more than 1,000 miles to Illinois.
In North Dakota, the pipeline would cross beneath the Little Missouri River once and the Missouri River twice. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe late last month sued federal regulators for approving the pipeline, which would be the largest-capacity pipeline yet in North Dakota. The tribe argues the pipeline would disturb sacred sites and affect drinking water for the thousands of residents on the reservation and the millions who rely on it downstream.
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People vs. Dakota Access pipeline protest strengthens
Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault was arrested Friday afternoon at a protest rally.
Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said a total of 18 men and women have been arrested over the two-day protest, most for disorderly conduct, and two for a more serious charge of criminal trespass.
Kirchmeier said Friday's number of protesters appeared to be about the same as Thursday, when some 225-250 people gathered alongside Highway 1806 to sing, pray and draw attention to the pipeline. They fear it will rupture and contaminate their water, downstream water and disrupt sacred sites. Pipeline construction started in late May but it was only this week that it moved onto location near the reservation where it will be bored very near the confluence of the Missouri and Cannonball rivers.
Pipeline organizers say the number of protesters will keep growing and they expect busloads from regional reservations to join them in coming days.
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