North Dakota leaders urge Obama for pipeline completion

Protest leaders report numerous injuries requiring hospitalization.

“Keep standing up for what you believe in, especially to protect Mother Earth because we only have one, and without her there’s no us”, Grassrope says. As Quartz so aptly puts it, the Sunday night incident was referred to as a “protest”, a “clash with the police”, while in reality, it wasn’t that at all.

During a confrontation with police on the site this week, Sophia Wilanksy, a Standing Rock activist who was reportedly distributing water to others at the scene, was struck directly by a concussion grenade and hospitalized.

They organized the trip through social media after images surfaced of the tension between police and the protesters who are standing against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Access to the building was granted only to workers with security key cards and members of the public with legitimate business, according to Highway Patrol Lt. Tom Iverson.

Wayne Wilansky said, “The police did not do this by accident”.

A small group of protesters briefly blocked traffic in downtown Bismarck on Monday morning.

“As protesters took to the bridge, police deployed tear gas and sponge bullets”.

“We’re just not going to let people or protesters in large groups come in and threaten officers”. Morton County also has spent more than $8 million policing protests, and county officials have said they might apply for reimbursement from the state.

“Most of the long-term protesters are Native Americans”. Native Hawaiian Daniel Kanahele (kahn-uh-HEE’-lee) blew a conch shell to summon native spirits.

Wayne Wilansky did not indicate whether his daughter would pursue specific legal action against North Dakota officials, but did say the “shrapnel” had been saved as evidence. “We’re not sure yet exactly what we’ll be doing, but we’ll be there to fill in where we’re needed”, she said. On Tuesday, Nov. 15, an estimated 400 in Center City stopped traffic on JFK Boulevard in peaceful protest. Nothing officers used could cause such severe injuries, a police spokeswoman said, speculating that Sophia Wilansky had injured herself while constructing an explosive.

The Army Corps of Engineers and the company developing the Dakota Access pipeline are arguing in court over whether the Corps granted a critical easement for the project.

Kelcy Warren, CEO of pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners, told The Associated Press last Friday that he made a verbal offer to reimburse the state for policing costs during an earlier conversation with Gov. Jack Dalrymple. The company says the Corps said several times that approval was complete and the easement signed.

The Standing Rock Sioux tribe orchestrated a months-long battle against the pipeline due in large part to worries about contamination of their primary water source. According to the fund, Wilansky was “giving out bottles of water to protectors holding down the space when she was shot with a concussion grenade”.

Dallas Goldtooth, a protest organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

The discovery of the bomb-making materials prompted speculation about whether Ms. Wilansky may have been hurt as protesters attempted to devise or throw a Molotov cocktail.

For three weeks, 21-year-old Sophia Wilansky has been demonstrating against the Dakota access pipeline in North Dakota. Opponents skirmished with law officers late Sunday and early Monday. “They have scrap metal, and the sheriff’s office says they did it to themselves – that they blew up their own bombs or something”.

(Morton County Sheriff’s Department via AP). One of them was arrested late in the summer, Sapiel said, for protecting tribal elders.

Law enforcement closed down the bridge after it was burned and damaged by protesters during the October 27 rioting.

On Inauguration Day, the DAPL and the Keystone XL pipeline will both gain the support of a White House that has publicly prioritized energy independence over climate change and environmental concerns.