Dakota Access Pipeline Fighters Arrested
By Black Powder | Red Power Media, Staff, Aug 31, 2016
Arrests were made Wednesday at a Dakota Access pipeline worksite after demonstrators disrupted construction, west of the main protest site ― where hundreds of mostly Native Americans are camped out.
Construction has been stopped for days near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota, while the Dakota Access company and those opposing its controversial oil pipeline await a court decision on Sept 9th. Dakota Access has agreed not to drill under the Missouri River; However, construction has continued elsewhere. And today, protesters targeted one of those spots.
Sheriff’s deputies spent all morning trying to get down Dale American Horse Jr, who is known as Happy, after he attached himself to heavy machinery at a Dakota Access construction site, near State Highway 6 south of St. Anthony, or about 20 miles west of the main protest site near Standing Rock. Problems in taking apart the equipment slowed his release into custody. The site had to shut down for the day.
The Grand Forks Herald reports, Morton County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Donnell Preskey said two protesters, using what appeared to be tape and PVC pipe or casting type of material, bound themselves to a piece of machinery that appeared in the video. Authorities called the Mandan Rural Fire Department to help cut the men free.
Around 11:15 a.m., Authorities pushed a group of protesters surrounding American Horse back 100 yards. At least two were taken into custody.
According to the Bismarck Tribune, Eight Dakota Access Pipeline protesters had been arrested as of 2:05 today
Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network, said today’s act to chain themselves to Dakota Access Pipeline equipment was done by members of the Red Warrior Camp.
Goldtooth said the Red Warrior Camp is made up of Dakota and Lakota people residing within the original Sacred Stone spirit camp on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.
The Sheriff’s Department arrested protesters for a variety of charges including suspicion of preventing arrest, disorderly conduct, trespassing, and obstruction to a government function.
The pipeline fighters in Standing Rock have so far succeeded in halting construction and the mainstream media has been criticized for lack of coverage on the Dakota Access pipeline protests. Much of today’s action by the Native American activists opposed to the pipeline, unfolded live on social media sites.
Julia Slocum of Ames, Iowa, is placed under arrest on trespassing charges by a member of the Boone County Sherrif’s Department on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016, in Boone, Iowa.
30 arrested in Iowa at the Bakken pipeline protest
Meanwhile, after a Judge denied a restraining order, pipeline fighters in Iowa at other end the Dakota Access, ―also known as the Bakken pipeline― met Wednesday morning to learn the techniques of peaceful civil disobedience. In the afternoon, more than 100 protesters converged on the Farm Progress grounds in Boone, and a few dozen blocked four entrances to the construction site grounds. Those who would not move to make way for vehicles coming in and out were arrested by law enforcement officials with the Boone County Sheriff’s Department and Iowa State Patrol.
KCCI’s Mark Tauscheck reported the first arrest happened about 2:48 p.m.
30 arrested protesters were arrested and taken to the Boone County Jail on charges of trespassing, the sheriff’s department said.
Protesters are arrested by Iowa State troopers as they march against the Dakota Access pipeline near Pilot Mound on Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 31, 2016. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
For two years, activists in Iowa have been demonstrating against Dakota Access, which is placing 346 miles of pipeline in 18 Iowa counties, crossing the state on a diagonal from northwest to southeast. It’s part of the interstate route that starts in the Bakken fields of North Dakota, crosses part of South Dakota and the width of Iowa before ending at a distribution hub in Illinois.
Resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline project has grown fierce as landowners, Indigenous people, farmers, and environmentalists have banded together in opposition.
Dale American Horse Jr, who is known as Happy, sits in protest at the site of construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016. Photo: The Bismarck Tribune via AP Tom Stromme
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