美国国家公共电台 NPR Tensions Escalate As Police Clear Protesters Near Dakota Access Pipeline

Tensions Escalate 1 As Police Clear Protesters Near Dakota Access Pipeline 2

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Well, now to a protest in North Dakota. Police and National Guard troops yesterday arrested more than 140 people who had been demonstrating against the construction of a 1,200-mile oil pipeline. The Standing 4 Rock Sioux tribe has sued to stop the pipeline from crossing under the Missouri River next to its reservation, saying the project would destroy sacred sites and threaten its water supply. Here's Amy Sisk, who saw what happened yesterday.

AMY SISK, BYLINE 5: What started months ago as a dispute between a tribe and the federal government has escalated 6 into clashes between protesters and police. Hundreds of law enforcement in riot gear formed a line Thursday across the prairie and moved in on an encampment of tents and teepees. The protest camp was set up over the weekend along the pipeline route on land owned by the Dakota Access pipeline company. Officers were backed up by dozens of police cars, armored vehicles and aircraft.

Surveillance helicopters are circling above as I stand next to a makeshift roadblock of beat-up cars, tires and wooden pallets. Protesters lit it on fire, and you can still see and smell the smoke. They were trying to keep police out. The police have since pushed protesters back and are trying to get them to move further down the highway.

ROBERT EDER: We won't have it any more. This is our stand. We'll stand, and we'll stop this pipeline.

SISK: That's Robert Eder, who's from Cannonball, the first town downstream from the pipeline's proposed river crossing. He's joined by hundreds of Native Americans from tribes across the country and by activists 7 camped nearby since August. The project is slated 8 to carry Bakken crude to Illinois.

Pipeline supporters and state officials assure it's safer than transporting crude by the trains that carry it across the very same river every day. Protesters knew when they moved to private land last weekend that it would provoke a confrontation 9.

And that came yesterday, with law enforcement barking orders over a speaker. Highway Patrol Lieutenant 10 Tom Iverson says he was hoping not to arrest anyone.

TOM IVERSON: If we could have come out here today and not made any arrests, that would have been great. But they've forced us into - into arresting them.

(SOUNDBITE OF DEMONSTRATION)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Chanting) Black snake killers 11.

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting) Black snake killers.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Chanting) Black snake killers.

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting) Black snake killers.

SISK: Demonstrators remain adamant 12 that the pipeline not cross under the water, and they unite in prayers as well as with chants.

(SOUNDBITE OF DEMONSTRATION)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Chanting) Black snake killers.

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting) Black snake killers.

SISK: Black snake killers - that's how some describe their purpose here - to kill the pipeline they have dubbed 13 the black snake. Jeff Chavis of South Carolina's Pee Dee tribe says they won't back down until...

JEFF CHAVIS: They stop the pipeline. They stop the pipeline. They get their pipes, they get their machine, they get their people, and they leave. There's no negotiation 14.

SISK: Yesterday the Republican Governors of Iowa and the Dakotas urged the Army Corps 15 of Engineers to issue the easement for construction to continue. This river crossing has been on hold since the federal government decided 16 to review the permit. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe has argued in courts that the Corps failed to adequately consult them. If construction is approved, they'll do everything they can to block it. For NPR News, I'm Amy Sisk.