North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum (right) addresses a press conference announcing plans for clean up of Oceti Sakowin protest camp in Mandan, yesterday.
Cannon Ball, North Dakota: Police in full riot gear began arresting Dakota Access pipeline opponents who remained in a protest camp in North Dakota yesterday in defiance of orders to leave.
Most protesters left peacefully, when authorities closed the camp on Army Corps of Engineers land in advance of spring flooding, but some refused to go.
Eighteen National Guardsmen and dozens of law officers entered the camp from two directions yesterday, along with several law enforcement and military vehicles. A helicopter and airplane flew overhead.
Officers checked structures and began arresting people, putting them in vans to take to jail. About two dozen people were arrested, according to Levi Bachmeier, an adviser to Governor Doug Burgum.
The operation began after authorities said Corps officials had met with camp leaders. They didn’t divulge the outcome of those talks.
The camp — known as Oceti Sakowin — near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation has since August been the main site for demonstrators trying to thwart construction of the final section of the $3.8bn pipeline. The Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux, whose reservation is downstream, say Dakota Access threatens their drinking water and cultural sites. Dallas-based pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners disputes that.
Police also had a SWAT vehicle on hand yesterday in case of what Highway Patrol Lt. Tom Iverson described as a worst-case “SWAT scenario” — an armed person barricading themselves in a structure in the camp.
American Indian elders have told police there are people willing to resort to drastic measures to stay in the camp, Iverson said. Similar sentiments have been expressed by protesters on social media, Iverson said.
“We’re doing everything we can to avoid that kind of a situation,” he said. “We don’t want it to reach a flash point, but at some point, enough is enough.”
Before authorities moved in, Burgum had said those remaining at the camp still had a chance to leave without facing charges. The state sent a bus to the site yesterday to transport anyone to Bismarck, where officials were doling out basic necessities, along with hotel and bus vouchers.
