After months of protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline, officials said the cite will be closed down due to safety concerns of protesters after brutality against them escalates.
Hundreds of camping protesters will be moved amid the cold weather by December 5th, or face charges, according to Buzzfeed. The decisions come after photos were released of police using water cannons against protesters in freezing weather.
Chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Dave Archambault II released a statement after the Amy Corps of Engineers sent him a letter with the ultimatum; leave or face charges.
Archambault said that the decision isn’t surprising due to the mistreatment many natives have faced for nearly 500 years, according to New York Times.
Authorities will close the area north of Cannonball River, including Oceti Sakawin camp, where many protesters have gathered.
Many activists and tribes have been opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline for months due to the fear of pollution. Celebrities such as Nikki Reed, Jane Fonda and Shailene Woodley, who was arrested back in October for trespassing, and comedian Kristen Wiig who ended a Saturday Night Live episode calling for action against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Shailene Woodley posted a video to Facebook over Thanksgiving weekend calling for people to stand up for Native Americans and their land.
“Thanksgiving was founded on a massacre,” Woodley said in her video to Facebook, and sited the brutality many protesters faced, including rubber bullets, mace and water cannons. Police dressed in riot gear cover the perimeter of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
The violent clashes have gotten bloodier when a 21-year-old protester from New York nearly lost her arm due to an explosion, according to CNN. Sophia Wilansky was moving toward the front line to hand out water bottles when Police started to throw concussion grenades, one of which landed near Wilansky’s arm when it detonated, according to witnesses.
After the incident, North Dakota State Patrol Spokesman Lt. Tom Iverson a CNN affiliate KFYR that state troopers had not deployed any explosive devices of any kind, and that if anything, Police felt they were under more threat from make-shift weapons that the protesters were, accoding to WCYB.
