With Trump’s order to continue the Dakota Access Pipeline, protesters near the Standing Rock Reservation have a hard deadline to evacuate their camps by 2pm today — but some are refusing to back down. Some protesters have vowed to remain at the Oceti Sakowin camp and are risking arrest and police force. According to a CNBC article, the Army Corps of Engineers is planning to remove all tents and teepees from federal land due to their concerns of “impending flooding.”
While some protesters are staying behind, others are choosing to evacuate, and the clean-up in the camps is a big job in itself. With the deadline fast approaching and the Rosebud camp being added to the list of camps to be cleared, it seems almost impossible that everything will be properly cleared by 2pm. Within these camps are sacred structures that need to be taken down ceremoniously on top of arrangements for transportation and housing that need to be made. Protesters are worried that their structures and belongings will be bulldozed into a landfill by the state since there is not enough time to properly clear them.
The Dakota Access Pipeline, as many know, would put the water that the Standing Rock Reservation uses in jeopardy — which is why protests have been ongoing for months now, hitting the peak before the winter with thousands of protesters gathered. Now with hundreds of protestors left, some activists plan to stay on the reservation and continue their peaceful protest. But in light of the plan for evacuation, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Chairman Harold Frazier told reporters in a conference call last week, “It is going to get real dangerous and violent in my opinion come [the deadline], and if people come, they need to know what’s in store.” The public information officer for the Morton County Sheriff Department, Rob Keller, told CNBC, “The image that people are looking for to happen probably will not happen unless the rogue protesters do something drastic.”
The Lakota People’s Law Project will be live streaming the removal on their Facebook page starting at 2pm CST.
The women of Standing Rock have put together a brief video calling for action and acknowledgment of the treaties in place and human lives at stake.
Top photo via Facebook/Lakota People’s Law Project
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