The latest confrontation came just hours after North Dakota regulators criticized the pipeline company for not immediately reporting they had found Native American artifacts and a day after President Obama had raised the possibility of finding a way to reroute the pipeline to alleviate tribal concerns, according to the Associated Press.
In the meantime, the U.S. Corps of Engineers had requested that the Morton County Sherriff’s Department remove any protesters that entered into Corps land. Law enforcement officers said the protesters were building an illegal, man-made wooden bridge across Cantapeta Creek to reach the land.
When deputies dismantled the bridge, protesters attempted to cross the creek by swimming or boating across the cold waters. Law enforcement stepped in and arrested two of the protesters.
Officials say the protesters violated numerous state and federal laws when they built the wooden bridge, including the Clean Water Act and the Safe River and Harbors Act. The protesters were warned several times they would be arrested if they crossed the bridge or tried to swim or boat across to the Corps’ land.
After pepper spraying and using tear gas on the protesters, the confrontation ended around 2:00 in the afternoon, but not before a number of the protesters became hypothermic and required treatment by volunteer medics back at the protesters camp.
According to CBS News, Public Service Commission Chairwoman Julie Fedorchak said she was “extremely disappointed” that Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners took 10 days to report finding stone cairns and other artifacts on the pipeline site.
The real crux of the matter
While news media is saying the protest over the Dakota Access Pipeline is all about the potential for damage to American Indian sites and artifacts, it is much more than just artifacts. The plan is for the pipeline to go right through the tribe’s water source, and no one, especially the government, should forget that.
But to this writer, it’s a matter of it being the way that Native Americans have always been treated by the federal government — more like second-class citizens. This has been going on ever since Chief Justice John Marshall, in 1831, established the federal trust doctrine, which assigns the government as the trustee of Indian affairs.
That trusteeship continues today, but it has not served Indians well. Did you know that the government is the legal owner of all land and assets on native American lands and is required to manage them for the benefit of Indians?
So the federal government has final say on the pipeline, and to hell with the notion that it might pollute the reservation’s drinking water. As long as big oil companies make their billions in profits, Washington is happy and so are the oil companies. And this is why I am in favor of the protests.
