Police, protesters face off at Dakota Access pipeline

The company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline continued to move drilling equipment into place near the Missouri River Monday, the day after police used water cannons, tear gas, and rubber bullets to disperse protesters in freezing temperatures.

A statement from the Morton County Sheriff’s Department said only one arrest had been made in the overnight protest.

While activists paint the confrontation as police using violence against peaceful protestors, police say that the protest devolved into a riot, with activists behaving violently towards officers and lighting fires. “Any use of force – such as the water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets – by law enforcement officers must be necessary and proportionate to the threat posed”. Indigenous Environmental Network’s Dallas Goldtooth says 17 people were taken to hospitals, some with hypothermia.

Police used water cannon on protesters as temperatures dropped to below freezing on Sunday night.

However, he did tell the AP that water hoses owned by the Mandan Rural Fire Department were used to put out fires set by protesters and to turn back protesters during a violent clash that was “rapidly unfolding”.

Over the last few weeks, Highway 1806’s Backwater Bridge has emerged as a flashpoint for conflict between the protesters and local law enforcement.

Activists call a television station and ask why reporters aren’t covering the pipeline protest.

The protesters are trying to stop the building of a part of the 1,200-mile-long pipeline from affecting water sources or nearby Native American cultural sites.

The underlying controversy is that the pipeline, which if completed will transport almost half a million barrels of oil per day, will cross the Missouri River less than a mile upstream from the Standing Rock Reservation.

The sheriff’s department told the Tribune that the bridge has been closed since October because transportation officials were concerned about its structural integrity.

The Army Corp of Engineers only has jurisdiction over the pipeline’s path directly adjacent to and under Lake Oahe.

Those involved in the Dakota Access Pipeline protest movement are using every form of social media to get their message across, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

A protestor is treated after being pepper sprayed by private security contractors on land being graded for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) oil pipeline, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, September 3, 2016.

Sophia Wilansky was one of several hundred protesters injured during the standoff with police on Sunday on a bridge near the site where the pipeline is planned to cross under the Missouri river. On Monday, about 200 protesters rallied in Bismarck, North Dakota to call on President Barack Obama to condemn Sunday night’s police crackdown.

“Any protesters should be able to exercise their First Amendment right lawfully and peacefully, but numerous actions we have seen over the past several weeks are not those of lawful protesters and they pose serious safety concerns to other protesters”, Heitkamp said. They reportedly tried to set fires to outflank and attack barricades set by law enforcement.

Water protectors described a different scenario than the one issued by the Morton County Sheriff’s Department on what began Sunday’s events.