begin quote from:
CANNON
BALL, N.D. — Dakota Access oil pipeline protesters will not follow a
government directive to leave the federal land where hundreds have
camped for months, organizers said Saturday, despite state officials …
North Dakota pipeline protesters pledge to remain on federal land
Published 2:32 pm, Saturday, November 26, 2016
Organizers of the protest
against the Dakota Access pipeline hold a news briefing near Cannon
Ball, N.D. They say they have a right to remain on land where they have
camped for months.
Standing Rock Sioux tribal leader Dave Archambault and other protest organizers said they will stay at the Oceti Sakowin camp and continue with nonviolent protests a day after Archambault received a letter from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that said all federal lands north of the Cannonball River will be closed to public access Dec. 5 for “safety concerns.”
The corps cited the oncoming winter and increasingly contentious clashes between protesters, who believe the pipeline could harm drinking water and Native American cultural sites, and police.
“We are wardens of this land. This is our land, and they can’t remove us,” said protester Isaac Weston, who is an Oglala Sioux member from South Dakota. “We have every right to be here to protect our land and to protect our water.”
The vast majority of the several hundred people fighting against the four-state, $3.8 billion pipeline have created a self-sustaining community at the sprawling camp, which is on corps land in southern North Dakota, and have put up semipermanent structures or brought motor homes and trailers in advance of the harsh winter.
On an unseasonably warm Saturday, people were chopping wood and setting up tents at the encampment, which is more than a mile from a Missouri River reservoir where the final large segment of the pipeline is yet to be completed because of the corps consulting with the tribe. Authorities had set up a staging area about a mile away on a hill overlooking the site.
President Obama raised the possibility of rerouting the pipeline in the area this month, something Kelcy Warren, CEO of Texas pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners, said is not an option. Obama said his administration is monitoring the “challenging situation” but would “let it play out for several more weeks.”
Some of the protests have resulted in violent confrontations — one woman suffered a serious arm injury last weekend — and more than 500 people have been arrested since August.
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