Law enforcement and protesters clash on Sunday night near the site of the Dakota Acces Pipeline project after pipeline opponents tried to push past a bridge that had been blockaded since October.
Twenty-eight tribal leaders in Washington state have written President Obama insisting he stop and reroute the Dakota Access Pipeline, following a night of violence in North Dakota in which police used a water cannon, rubber bullets and tear gas against pipeline protesters.
Declaring their solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the tribal chairs wrote, “We support their call to deny the easement of the Dakota Access Pipeline and to reroute the pipeline away from tribal lands, waters and sacred places.”
Tribal leaders also said they were outraged at the tactics used by police against demonstrators, especially the water cannon deployed in subfreezing weather.
“Industry and their goons and their so-called peacekeepers are taking it to the next level,” said Brian Cladoosby, chairman of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. “I have seen in the last two days some very serious, almost crimes against humanity against citizens. They are going a step too far in enforcing the law, using water cannons during freezing temperatures, tear gas and rubber bullets.”
Some 167 people were treated for injuries, including one elder who was revived from cardiac arrest by medics administering CPR, said Angela Bivens, a volunteer attorney working at Standing Rock with the National Lawyers Guild. Up to 20 people were injured severely enough to be taken to Bismarck, N.D., hospitals, Bivens said.
The Morton County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that protesters used “aggressive” tactics in attempting to open the bridge on Highway 1806, the main road between the Standing Rock reservation and Bismark, North Dakota’s capital city. One officer was struck in the head with a rock, and protesters also threw burning logs, according to the department.
“Officers on the scene are describing protesters’ actions as very aggressive … law enforcement have utilized less-than-lethal means, including launching CS (tear) gas,” Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier wrote in a news release Sunday night.
The department reported one arrest Sunday night.
Yakama tribal member Marshall Lee, a 38-year-old father of two, has been at the Standing Rock camp since August. Washington tribes have rallied to the cause of Standing Rock even as they fight their own fossil-fuel battles back home.
Lee recorded the violence that unfolded Sunday night and posted live on Facebook for hours as demonstrators sought to open the bridge. Law-enforcement officers pushed back with force.
“It was heartbreaking,” Lee told The Seattle Times on Monday.
“I went down there to make sure people were OK. There were a lot of people getting hurt. I saw people standing together in prayer, getting sprayed by the water cannon. I saw people getting carried out on ATVs to medics. I saw concussion grenades going off, things flying through the air, tear gas everywhere.”
In their letter, tribal leaders said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should deny the last easement needed by Energy Transfer Partners of Dallas to complete its more than 1,100-mile-long oil pipeline from North Dakota to Illinois.
The Corps told the company last week it needs more time to study concerns raised by the Standing Rock Sioux and to decide whether to grant the easement.
Dakota Access quickly sued in federal court, seeking a court order to declare that it already has the access it needs to finish the pipeline. That suit, and a suit by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to stop the pipeline, are both pending.
Leaders of the Standing Rock Sioux say the risk of a pipeline spill threatens their drinking-water source and that of many others downstream on the Missouri River. They also say pipeline construction threatens the tribe’s sacred sites.
As violence escalates and winter bears down on protesters camped near the Missouri River, it is time for Obama to step in, tribal leaders wrote in their letter.
“Native people … have been disenfranchised and repeatedly shoved aside for profit,” tribal leaders wrote. “Enough is enough … We want to send a strong message that what happens in Standing Rock sets a precedent for how the United States Government will work with tribes in the future.”
In a news release Monday, tribal elders from Standing Rock and other nations said the actions that began Sunday night were taken by the so-called “water protectors” to clear the highway to improve access for emergency services to the camps where many of the protesters are staying.
The bridge closure also hampers local traffic to the tribe’s casino and inconveniences local residents and other travelers denied direct north-south access to Bismarck, elders in the Camp of the Sacred Stones wrote in their release.
The highway has been closed since an outburst of violence on the bridge in October. It has remained closed because of damage to the bridge, according to the Morton County Sheriff’s Office.
On Sunday night, the community of Cannonball opened its school gymnasium for emergency relief, and the Standing Rock tribe’s emergency medical service department and volunteer medics assisted demonstrators at the main camp.
Treatment was given to protesters for hypothermia, blunt trauma because of rubber bullets and contamination from tear gas, according to the elders’ release.
The Standing Rock Medic and Healer Council called for an immediate end to the use of water cannons in freezing temperatures. “As medical professionals we are concerned for the real risk of loss of life due to severe hypothermia under these conditions,” the council wrote in a statement that was included in the elders’ release.
Tribes signing the letter to Obama were the Lummi Nation, Nooksack Tribe; Sauk Suiattle Tribe; Upper Skagit Tribe; Tulalip Tribes; Stillaguamish Tribe; Puyallup Tribe; Nisqually Tribe; Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe; Suquamish Tribe; Squaxin Island Tribe; Chehalis Tribe; Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe; Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe; Makah Tribe; Hoh Tribe; Quileute Tribe; Quinault Tribe; Snoqualmie Tribe; Cowlitz Tribe; Shoalwater Bay Tribe; Yakama Nation; Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation; Spokane Tribe of Indians; Kalispell Tribe; Samish Nation; and the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians.
