Trump team says he backs disputed Dakota Access oil pipeline

In recent weeks, law enforcement equipped with full military gear escalated their assault on protesters, who are protesting the $3.8bn pipeline that is planned to span 1,172 miles with concerns that the local water supply will become tainted and sacred sites destroyed.

More than 525 people from across the country have been arrested since August.

In a report from Reuters, the Standing Rock protestors have been battling the elements just as much as they have been battling the authorities trying to drive them out of the area for construction of the DAPL pipeline.

The bill was introduced as some Navajo Nation veterans prepare to travel to North Dakota to join the protesters, some of whom refer to themselves as “water protectors”.

Dave Archambault II is the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux.

“When we get there, we’re not just Latinos, blacks or whites, we are veterans”, Erick Lizandro Marroquin, on the Veterans Standing for Standing rock members told Russia Today. Engineers interviewed by Reuters also said such weather made some aspects of pipeline construction more hard. “To look across the concertina wire out there at these other veterans is going to be disheartening to them also”.

The Dakota Access Pipeline is a $3.7 billion project that would move 470,000 barrels of oil per day across North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and IL.

The tribe recently released the recording of a Standing Rock Tribal Council meeting that seems to contradict recent statements made by Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren.

According to the Associated Press, the government has ordered protestors to leave the federal land by Monday – the consequences for not following that order were not clear. It’s past time this situation resolved peacefully as it’s lingered for months and the debate has descended into violence.

“They provide an incredible amount of warmth, especially when you have a portable wood stove inside”, said the 24-year-old Grassrope, who was one of the first to reside at the camp in late summer.

“Things are rapidly changing now”, she said. It’s time for the voices of Native Americans to be heard.

Laura Wacker, of Columbia, was at Standing Rock from November 13-17 representing Mid-Missouri Peaceworks.

After speaking with their peers, they decided they needed to bring back the narrative of the Indigenous people there. He also is a member of the Sac and Fox tribe and the Otoe tribe.

“They need feet on the ground and hands to help”, he said. “If not, we want it understood, these are not North Dakota veterans, and they do not represent the veterans of North Dakota, and we’re encouraging all of our people not to go out there”.

He said he knows he is on the winning side of the fight.