In North Dakota, more than 20 people were arrested Tuesday blocking construction of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, which has faced months of resistance from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and members of hundreds of other tribes from across the U.S., Canada and Latin America. Tuesday’s actions took place near New Salem, which is about 70 miles northwest of the main protest camps. Video shows police in full riot gear carrying assault rifles at the site of the protest. Among those arrested were two journalists with the outlet Unicorn Riot. Construction was halted for hours, as two people locked themselves to heavy machinery.
Water protector: “We’re here locking down to this pipeline machinery and stopping construction on this site for today and letting the world know that pipeline construction of the Dakota Access pipeline is still continuing. Contrary to what a lot of folks thought after last Friday’s intervention by the Obama administration, making it seem like they were going to stop the pipeline, pipeline continues to be built.”
The arrests come only days after the Obama administration intervened in the pipeline battle, indefinitely halting construction under the Missouri River and asking Dakota Access to voluntarily cease construction on a 40-mile stretch of land spanning the river—although construction on the vast majority of the 1,172-mile pipeline continues. Meanwhile, the Dakota Access pipeline company says it has removed 27 pieces of equipment from another construction site on Tuesday.