Increasing level of violence and intimidation against Native American community in North Dakota

Shocking news coverage continues to emerge about the levels of violence and intimidation being used against Native American protesters in North Dakota. Protesters from some 200 Native American nations have been objecting to the construction of a huge new oil pipeline which passes over the Missouri River less than a mile upstream from a “reservation” belonging to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. It crosses tribal lands that contain relics that have already been disturbed or damaged during work on the pipeline. There are major concerns that a leak could threaten the area’s water supply. Originally the pipeline had been designated to go close to Bismarck the capital of the U.S. state of North Dakota. However, in a move thought by many to prevent environmental objections there, the route was changed to the area of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe “reservation”. 

The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), a $3.8 billion project, is expected to carry 570,000 barrels of crude oil a day from the Bakken and Three Forks production fields in North Dakota to Illinois and then distributed onward to the eastern United States and Gulf Coast area. Joining the Standing Rock Sioux have been activists from other indigenous American nations. They have had to witness the destruction of graves and sacred sites while construction work is undertaken. Protesters have faced an army of local and state police working in cooperation with private security contractors. Independent observers have witnessed alarming levels of violence used against the opponents of the pipeline, including the use of rubber bullets, attack dogs, tear gas, compression grenades and mace. Hundreds of people have been arrested in what has been described as an increasingly militarized response that has as its aim the protection of the big business interests that are profiting from DAPL. The independent Irish media website An Sionnach Fionn has made a number of posts on the issue, which has received little coverage from major news outlets. Nevertheless, far from Native American campaigners bowing to the environmental destruction taking place around them they continue to protest.