Surrounded on all sides by roadblocks and under threat of arrest, demonstrators against the Dakota Access Pipeline have invoked an old ally: fire.
Used by Native Americans ceremonially since time immemorial to heal and to cleanse, demonstrators are setting ablaze their tents, teepees and other structures remaining from a protest encampment since last summer as they leave the camp. The authorities made 9 arrests but said they would not fully empty the camp on Wednesday night. No more than 100 demonstrators were believed to remain in the mandatory evacuation zone. “People have said their last prayers, and offered cedar to the sacred fire and are also burning these structures we have ceremonially built, so they must be ceremonially removed,” said Vanessa Castle of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe. “They cannot be bulldozed, no other hands or malice of bad intentions can touch them.”
Castle has been at the camp since October, except for one week home where she was given her Indian name by her tribe — meaning Strong Woman —for her work fighting the pipeline. She took some of the cedar used in that ceremony with her back to the protest camp, where she burned it as she readied to leave for the last time.
“It is very sad, these are the places where I danced. The places where I prayed,” Castle said.
For weeks, demonstrators have been working toward cleaning up and vacating the camp to get out of the way of the expected seasonal flooding of the Missouri River.
The Morton County Sheriff’s Office has promised to enforce the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ threat of issuing citations with punishment of up to $5,000 and six months in jail to demonstrators who resisted their order to vacate the camp by 2 p.m. local time Wednesday.
The sheriff’s office is offering bus transport, food, hotel vouchers and even amnesty rides Thursday and Friday.
Far from ending their protest, many are simply moving camp to higher ground. The struggle against fossil-fuel development there is far from over.
Organizers already are turning their attention to other projects, including the TransMountain Pipeline in Canada, where First Nations, Washington tribes and environmental groups on both sides of the border have filed lawsuits and are working on direct action to stop it. In that way, Standing Rock is a first draft of the history soon to play out in the northwest, where activism against coal ports, oil terminals and coal trains helped spur the pushback at Standing Rock.
Many Washington state tribes helped support the effort not only with money but travelling to camp repeatedly and staying for months. Many paid a heavy price, with more than 700 arrested since last August, including Castle, who is fighting a felony charge of inciting a riot.
The waning days of the Standing Rock protests
U.S. army to allow completion of Dakota Access oil pipeline
Police have used tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper spray and physical violence against demonstrators seeking to stop the pipeline, which is close to completion, following an executive order from
U.S. President Donald Trump last month to restart the project.
The Obama administration in December stopped further construction pending an environmental review. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Cheyenne River Tribe have been joined by more than 30 tribes in their lawsuit to stop the project and resume the environmental review.
Authorities in North Dakota on Tuesday issued restrictions on media covering the camp evacuation, for the first time imposing a requirement for credentials issued by police. Criteria for credentials include agreement to follow instructions from police, to only work in designated areas and submission of a letter of assignment from “legitimate” news outlets, excluding any freelance reporters or photographers without such a letter. The requirements were issued under threat of arrest and revocation of the credential.
The restrictions were protested by the Society of Professional Journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and other organizations representing the working press.
“It is so sad that we are watching this in the 21st century,” said Brian Cladoosby, president of the National Council of American Indians and chairman of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. “What we witnessed in the 1960s civil rights protests, we are witnessing again.”
The developer of the project, Energy Transfer Partners of Dallas, has maintained that the pipeline across four states from western North Dakota to Patoka, Ill., is the safest, cheapest way to transport oil, and completion of the project is long overdue.
