Published on Feb 23, 2017
http://democracynow.org
- In North Dakota, the main resistance camp set up by Lakota water
protectors fighting the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline has been
largely vacated after protesters were ordered to leave the camp on
Wednesday. Police arrested around 10 people. The U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers and the North Dakota governor had imposed a noon eviction
deadline for the hundreds of water protectors still living at the
resistance camp. Prayers ceremonies were held on Wednesday, and part of
the camp was set on fire before the eviction began. Water protectors say
the resistance camp sits on unceded Sioux territory under the 1851
Treaty of Fort Laramie and that they have a right to remain on their
ancestral land. A couple dozen people remain at the camp. The ongoing
encampments in North Dakota were the largest gathering of Native
Americans in decades. At its peak, more than 10,000 people were at the
resistance camp. Earlier this month, construction crews resumed work on
the final section of the pipeline, after the Trump administration
granted an easement to allow Energy Transfer Partners to drill beneath
the Missouri River. We go to Standing Rock to speak with LaDonna Brave
Bull Allard and Linda Black Elk.