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Page added on September 4, 2016
Oil-Pipeline Protest Turns Violent in North Dakota
Tribal officials say burial and cultural sites destroyed by Dakota Access Pipeline construction crews
ENLARGE BISMARCK, N.D.—A protest of a four-state, $3.8 billion oil pipeline turned violent Saturday after tribal officials said construction crews destroyed American Indian burial and cultural sites on private land in southern North Dakota.
Morton County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Donnell Preskey said four private security guards and two guard dogs were injured after several hundred protesters confronted construction crews at the site just outside the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. One of the security officers was taken to a Bismarck hospital for undisclosed injuries. The two guard dogs were taken to a Bismarck veterinary clinic, Ms. Preskey said.
Tribe spokesman Steve Sitting Bear said protesters reported that six people were bitten by security dogs, including a young child. At least 30 people were pepper-sprayed, he said. Ms. Preskey said law-enforcement authorities had no reports of protesters being injured.
ENLARGE There were no law-enforcement personnel at the site when the incident occurred, Ms. Preskey said. The crowd disbursed when officers arrived and no one was arrested, she said.
The incident occurred within half a mile of an encampment where hundreds of people have gathered to join the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s protest of the oil pipeline that is slated to cross the Missouri River nearby.
The tribe is challenging the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners ’ Dakota Access Pipeline, which crosses the Dakotas and Iowa to Illinois, including near the reservation in North Dakota. A federal judge will rule before Sept. 9 whether construction can be halted on the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Energy Transfer Partners didn’t return phone calls and emails from the Associated Press on Saturday seeking comment.
The tribe fears the project would disturb sacred sites and impact drinking water for thousands of tribal members on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and millions further downstream.
Saturday’s protest came one day after the tribe filed court papers saying it found several sites of “significant cultural and historic value” along the path of the proposed pipeline.
Tribal preservation officer Tim Mentz said in court documents that the tribe was only recently allowed to survey private land north of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. Mr. Mentz said researchers found burial rock piles and other sites of historic significance to Native Americans.
Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault II said in a statement that construction crews removed topsoil across an area about 150 feet wide stretching for 2 miles.
“This demolition is devastating,” Mr. Archambault said. “These grounds are the resting places of our ancestors. The ancient cairns and stone prayer rings there cannot be replaced. In one day, our sacred land has been turned into hollow ground.”
Ms. Preskey said the company filmed the confrontation by helicopter and turned the video over to authorities. Protesters also have posted some of the confrontation on social media.
Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said in a statement that “individuals crossed onto private property and accosted private security officers with wooden posts and flagpoles.”
“Any suggestion that today’s event was a peaceful protest, is false,” his statement said.
15 Comments on "Oil-Pipeline Protest Turns Violent in North Dakota"
Cloggie on Sun, 4th Sep 2016 7:19 am
Is that you Rockman, on the photo, next to Chief Blackfoot?
Sissyfuss on Sun, 4th Sep 2016 8:17 am
And now we are met on a battlefield of this great war, testing whether that nation or any nation can so long endure.
Northwest Resident on Sun, 4th Sep 2016 10:55 am
I’m with the Sioux on this one.
All around the world we see habitat and biosphere annihilation in the cause of short term gain that benefits only the few. But what’s new? The rape of planet earth by the financial and industrial elite has been ongoing, vicious, unconscionable and devastating since industrialization began over 200 years ago. That North Dakota pipeline will be an ugly scar across the landscape for decades if not centuries to come, and for what? The age of oil is crashing and burning — that pipeline will almost certainly not be operational for any extended period of time. Heck, the way things are going, I doubt its construction will ever be completed even if it does get approved, much less put into operation. Like everything else these days on the part of big industry/finance, it is a desperate attempt to keep the game going for a little while longer, an attempt by some small group of power and money-mongers to squeeze a few more bucks out of planet earth, at everybody else’s expense. Par for the course.
Time for a pow-wow.
jjhman on Sun, 4th Sep 2016 1:14 pm
Everybody that drives a car, even an electric car, or flies in an airplane is part of the culture that is destroying the ecosystem.
Kudos to the protestors.
Apneaman on Sun, 4th Sep 2016 3:28 pm
Clogged, rockman stays in the office trailer,counting his money, while the hired thugs do his dirty work.
Mercenaries Just Attacked Dakota Pipeline Protesters with Dogs & Pepper Spray (VIDEO)
Private security guards working on behalf of the companies building the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline have reached a despicable new low. Video and photos of the pepper spray and dog attacks are going viral on social media.
http://usuncut.com/climate/dakota-pipeline-pepper-spray-video/
makati1 on Sun, 4th Sep 2016 5:56 pm
jjhman, EVERYONE, including you, is part of the culture that is destroying the ecosystem, unless you are a hunter-gatherer, and not a consumer. Unless you raised it in your garden from saved seeds and used handmade tools, everything you have came to you in some form of petroleum powered vehicle, from somewhere in the world.
globalfks on Sun, 4th Sep 2016 9:16 pm
Dead red skins lives matter!
Go Speed Racer on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 1:46 am
Hmmm a Pipeline Protest.
Sounds like a Pipe Dream.
And it should have pipe bombs.
The media can pipe them thru to the world.
They can beat each other up with pieces of pipe.
Kenz300 on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 10:33 am
Big Oil’s Nightmare Comes True – EcoWatch
http://www.ecowatch.com/california-climate-policy-1988157045.html
The oil companies and the auto companies need to get their collective heads out of the sand and realize that the world is changing with or without them.
Climate Change is real….. it will impact all of us…
It is time to move away from fossil fuels and embrace alternative energy sources like wind, solar, wave energy, geothermal and second generation biofuels made from algae, cellulose and waste. They need to change their business models and move from being OIL companies to ENERGY companies. The auto industry needs to move from just building compliance vehicles to embracing electric vehicles and start putting development and advertising behind them..
The world is moving to embrace alternative energy sources…….. the fossil fuel companies can transform themselves into “energy” companies or they can die a slow death.
As Climate Change impacts more people there will be a bigger backlash against fossil fuels.
Clean energy production with wind and solar…….
Clean energy consumption with electric vehicles……
Batteries, range and charge points get better every year
Soon we will hit the tipping point for cost of electric vehicles vs ICE fossil fuel vehicles.
dave thompson on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 12:12 pm
I was once involved with a BP bitumen refinery protest in Whiting Indiana. I pointed out to anyone that would listen that we all had showed up in cars that burned gasoline to get there and the gasoline in our cars very well could have been refined on the very spot. The irony was lost on everyone I pointed this out to. One fellow got angry with me and asked me, “so what should we do”? I said “stop buying petroleum products”. This fellow then asked “how do we get to the protest then?”
Anonymous on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 6:51 pm
Dave, By ‘involved’ do you mean you there to use your juju mind and vulcan level logic to deflect the protesters from focusing on BP, and instead on the fact that they drove a oil-burner to the protest? Did it work? Did your jedi-mind tricks make everyone abandon the protest and drive off into the sunset, realizing only after listening to you of course, that resistance is futile? I mean, in face of unassailable, airtight logic like yours dave, why protest anything at all? Was BP happy with your ability to befuddle all those VW driving hippy morons?
But I have to wonder, If someone say, rode a horse to the protest would you have given them a pass? Or would you told the rider that a lot of horse feed and horse gear is made using fossil fuels? I mean, with your awesome mind juju, It sounds like you could tried to make just about anyone that showed up feel like some kind of Low IQ hypocrite even in the event they didn’t use a oil burning car to get there. (But Im guessing you didnt have to face much of that since everyone drives in amerika, even the curb to pick up their junk mail).
dave thompson on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 11:09 pm
Yes, involved as a musician at this protest. The thought had not occurred to me(about driving a car) until that day about the time we assembled at the protest. There might have been 100 people at this refinery in a park across the street. No cops were present. No notice was made of any of it that I recall, maybe on facebook by the group leader. Nothing of note in the local paper. If someone had road a horse, We all would have been amazed I am sure. I am not sure why you have to come across like such an AHOE ANON. I was only relating a silly observation I made. The refinery is still in operation, the way.
shortonoil on Tue, 6th Sep 2016 7:42 am
The Indians are not complaining about building a pipe line; they are complaining about putting it through an Indian burial ground! The Indians have not yet got to the same state as the White man; where nothing is sacred if it interferes with making a buck. Since they have been here for 14,000 years, and Whitey only recently showed up, maybe they have learned something about the balance of their earth that we have missed?
Joe D on Tue, 6th Sep 2016 11:36 am
The white man has been the most vile creature on earth, with nothing but devastation in it’s path.
Go Speed Racer on Tue, 6th Sep 2016 8:41 pm
Wait a minute. It’s an Indian Burial Ground.
So if the corporation will cooperate and bury
the pipe in the ground, should be ok then.