Veterans build barracks to support thousands of Dakota Access protesters
By Ernest Scheyder and Terray Sylvester
CANNON BALL, N.D., Dec 2 (Reuters) – U.S. military veterans plan to build a barracks on Friday at a protest camp in North Dakota to support thousands of activists who have squared off against authorities in frigid conditions to oppose the multi-billion-dollar Dakota Access Pipeline project near the Standing Rock Native American reservation.
Veterans volunteering to be human shields have been arriving at the Oceti Sakowin camp near the small town of Cannon Ball, where organizers say they will work with protesters who have spent months demonstrating against plans to route the controversial oil pipeline beneath a lake near the Sioux reservation.
The Native Americans and protesters say the $3.8 billion pipeline threatens water resources and sacred sites.
Some of the more than 2,100 veterans who signed up on the Veterans Stand for Standing Rock group’s Facebook page are at the camp, with hundreds more expected during the weekend. Tribal leaders asked the veterans, who aim to form a wall in front of police to protect the protesters, to avoid confrontation with authorities and not get arrested.
Protesters began setting up tents, tepees and other structures in April and the numbers swelled in August at the main camp. There have been violent confrontations near the route of the pipeline with state and local law enforcement, who used tear gas, rubber bullets and water hoses on the protesters, even in freezing weather.
The number of protesters in recent weeks has topped 1,000. State officials on Monday ordered them to leave the snowy camp, which is on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land, citing harsh weather, but on Wednesday they said they would not enforce the order.
“There is an element there of people protesting who are frightening,” North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said on Thursday. “It’s time for them to go home.”
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Thursday he supported the completion of the pipeline and his transition team also said he supported peaceful protests.
Members of the North Dakota Veterans Coordinating Council denounced the involvement of veterans in a protest that has damaged property and asked them not to take part.
North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple said Wednesday that it was “probably not feasible” to reroute the pipeline but he would try to rebuild a relationship with Standing Rock Sioux leaders.
FREEZING COLD
Morton County Sheriff Department spokeswoman Maxine Herr said 564 people have been arrested since the start of demonstrations.
State officials never contemplated forcibly removing protesters, and Dalrymple said his evacuation order stemmed mainly from concerns about dangerously cold temperatures. Engineers interviewed by Reuters also said such weather made some aspects of pipeline construction more difficult.
The temperature in Cannon Ball is expected to fall to 4 degrees Fahrenheit (-16 Celsius) by the middle of next week, according to Weather.com forecasts.
The 1,172-mile (1,885-km) pipeline project, owned by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP, is mostly complete, except for a segment planned to run under Lake Oahe, a reservoir formed by a dam on the Missouri River.
Protesters, who refer to themselves as “water protectors,” have been gearing up for the winter while they await the Army Corps decision on whether to allow Energy Transfer to tunnel under the river. The Army Corps has twice delayed that decision.
The pipeline operator said in a legal filing in late November that delays following the projected Jan. 1 startup would cost about $84 million a month.
Trump is due to meet on Friday with Democratic U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who a source familiar with the matter said Trump is considering for either the interior or energy secretary positions in his Cabinet.
Morton County Commission Chairman Cody Schulz said in a statement he hoped Heitkamp would be able to tell Trump about the serious impact that “professional protesters” from out of state were having on residents and the local economy, as well as the national energy economy.
“We have seen nothing but foot-dragging and unhelpful directives from the Obama administration,” Schulz said. “I trust Senator Heitkamp will use her meeting and her influence to ensure that help is on the way for the people of North Dakota when the president-elect is sworn in on Jan. 20.”
(Additional reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Bill Trott)
