The media has, recently, gone crazy about the North Dakota Pipeline Protest after actress Shailene Woodley was arrested on October 10th, 2016. The protest started in April. Native Americans gathered in the town of Cannon Ball near the North Dakota boarder. These protesters are protesting a 1,200 mile pipeline that is supposed to go through the Missouri River. They are concerned with oil leakage into the river that would contaminate their drinking water and kill the wildlife around the reservation. Rumors starting the protest is not a "environmental fight," it's so Native Americans can have a voice. Since the protest started, it has grown to hundreds of Americans as well as many people from other tribes.
Recently, the protest has become more violent. What started out as a peaceful protest has become "police vs. civilians" in the sense of macing, assault, and arrests. On October 24th, 300 protesters trespassed on a private property near State Highway 1809. Over 127 people were arrested with countless charges such as: reckless endangerment, criminal trespass, engaging in a riot, assault on a peace officer and resisting arrest. Protesters call themselves "water protectors," which is a movement to protect sacred areas already destroyed by construction. People accused law enforcement of spraying them with mace and throwing people to the ground "without provocation" as they attempted to leave.
The protests continued on to a man-made blockage on the highway. This protest shut down the highway for several hours. Organizers said they were taking back land based on treaty rights for a camp. Amid the activity, law enforcement shot at a drone camera activists were using to document. When law enforcement agreed to the shoot down of the drone, they also added it was "a danger to police helicopters that were patrolling in the air."
With all this going on, what does each-side want? Protesters say the pipeline will damage the environment and affect historically significant Native American tribal lands. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe, whose reservation in North Dakota is near the pipeline route, and other tribes oppose the project. The pipeline contractors want a line that transfers 420,000 gallons a day of crude oil from the Bakken Formation. The Bakken Formation is a vast underground deposit where Montana and North Dakota meet Canada and they want this pipe-line to go to South Dakota and Iowa.
Standing Rock Chairman Paul Archambault stated "this is not peaceful or lawful anymore." He also said, in an interview with CNN News, "The intimidation by militarized police in riot gear and unlawful arrests are an attack on the First Amendment rights of the protectors, and we again ask the Department of Justice to send observers to the area to ensure that constitutional rights are protected. Police are also routinely strip searching protesters, even when they have only been charged with a misdemeanor offense. Like days of old, this is a thinly veiled attempt to dehumanize and degrade Native people. Thousands of people have come to Standing Rock in prayerful protest of the pipeline and millions more support the Tribe in our efforts to protect our sacred places and water." In exchange for the leaders words in the interview, Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier responded, "Some protesters used bicycle locks and makeshift handcuffs to attach themselves to construction equipment and vehicles. Some cut holes in doors and put their arms through them covered in concrete casts, fusing their arms to the door."
Now with the protest getting less peaceful and more forceful, the North Dakota counsel are reaching out to other states for help with the protesters. So far Nebraska State Patrol units have came to help coral and correct the hundreds of protesters. North Dakota is in a state of emergency because of the blockages on the highway, it's the busiest one to go in or out.
