Iowa protesters go to court for trespassing pipeline project

Unicorn Riot, which has been broadcasting live video of the tense standoff in North Dakota, says Facebook has been censoring their link from livestream.com.

“I think it’s important to stop and consider what we’re doing to the Earth right now”, said protestor Rachel Deatherage.

Conflict between inhabitants of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota and supporters of the Dakota Access oil pipeline reached a fever pitch over the past few weeks.

Nearby, mountains of food, clothing and other supplies are stacked on pallets, donations that have been shipped in from around the world, said Ron Martel, a volunteer who lives on the Standing Rock Reservation.

I know you have all heard of the Bundy Militia, the group of so-called patriots who didn’t feel the need to pay taxes and made a decision to launch an armed protest.

“Nearly every day the citizens of North Dakota are inundated with images of “peaceful” protesters engaging in mindless and senseless criminal mayhem”, Hovland wrote. The standoff at Standing Rock is a historic gathering of thousands of people from over 200 tribes from the U.S., Canada and Latin America who call themselves “protectors, not protesters”.

Dalrymple, who leaves office in December, urged the Obama administration not to conflate review of permits for the Dakota Access line with a broader goal, announced on Friday, of overhauling the permitting process for pipelines near Native American lands.

Energy Transfer Partners, the company responsible for building the $3.7 billion oil pipeline, has no intentions to halt or delay their work.

Historically, this is not the first time that the issue of construction on Native American land, particularly Sioux land along the Missouri River, has generated controversy. Scores of people, mostly Native American, raced to the scene, demanding the bulldozers leave. The level of uncertainty for Dakota Access Pipeline is mounting: the pipeline can not be joined without access to federal land, the winter is quickly approaching and Bank of America and the other banks are at risk of their investment being stranded.

The company did not clarify if it would voluntarily halt construction. On Friday, the judge ruled against the tribe, allowing construction to continue.

Joanne Barker, a member of the Lenape Nation and an American Indian studies professor, helped to organize the event.

On Thursday, Purdon also asked Hovland to dismiss the suit against the protesters.

“Mni wiconi!” was a cry heard from numerous protesters as they shouted the Sioux words for “Water is life”. “If you’re not Native American, you can’t tell a Native American how to feel”. “We should be concerned not only for today, but for many generations in the future”, Delaney said. Indigenous groups from as far away as New Zealand have sent word of their support for the action.

The order barred the protests from “unlawfully interfering in any way with the plaintiff and its representatives’ access and construction of the pipeline”.