Native Americans protest over North Dakota oil pipeline
NEAR THE STANDING ROCK SIOUX RESERVATION, N.D. (AP) — Native Americans from reservations hundreds of miles away from North Dakota have joined the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s growing protest against a $3.8 billion four-state oil pipeline that they say could disturb sacred sites and impact drinking water for 8,000 tribal members and millions further downstream.
About 30 people have been arrested in recent weeks, and the Texas-based company has temporarily stopped construction.
A federal judge will rule before Sept. 9 on whether construction can be halted on the Dakota Access pipeline, which will pass through Iowa, Illinois, North Dakota and South Dakota.
One of the protesters is an 11-year-old Navajo girl who sold about 50 homemade soaps and gave the money to protest organizers. Her own home has no running water, and her sales pitch was “I don’t want water to be poisoned.”
