Dakota Access oil pipeline camp cleared of protesters

Associated Press

CANNON BALL, N.D.

Authorities on Thursday cleared a protest camp where opponents of the Dakota Access oil pipeline had gathered for the better part of a year, searching tents and huts and arresting three dozen holdouts who had defied a government order to leave.

It took 3 Ω hours for about 220 officers and 18 National Guardsmen to methodically search the protesters’ temporary homes and arrest people, including a man who climbed atop a building and stayed there for more than an hour.

Native Americans who oppose the $3.8 billion pipeline established the Oceti Sakowin camp last April on federal land near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation to draw attention to their concerns that the project will hurt the environment and sacred sites – claims Dallas-based pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners disputes.

The Army Corps of Engineers said it needed to clear the camp ahead of spring flooding, and had ordered everyone to leave by 2 p.m. Wednesday. Most protesters left peacefully Wednesday, when authorities closed the camp, but some stayed overnight in defiance of the order.