The Army Corps of Engineers (or at least the freezing cold weather) should have put a halt to protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline when they decided to re-open an investigation into the project back in December. But a 600-person #NoDAPL camp is still on the site — and now even the Native Americans leading the protest are sick of it.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has now passed two resolutions — the latest coming Saturday night — demanding that the well-meaning protesters, who come mostly from outside North Dakota, pack up their camps and head home.
“The pipeline fight has moved beyond the camps and our strategy must evolve with the process,” the tribe said in a statement, adding that recent clashes between protesters and law enforcement — when 21 protesters were arrested on weapons and trespass charges — aren’t earning the #NoDAPL movement any friends in the Army Corps of Engineers (or the new Trump Administration).
The Standing Rock Sioux also say that protesters are causing an environmental crisis of their own, damaging the land under their camps, and that protesters aren’t experienced enough in the rigors of the Northern Plains to survive a North Dakota winter.
“Because we worked together, the federal government will prepare an Environmental Impact Statement,” the tribes told media. “Moving forward, our ultimate objective is best served by our elected officials, navigating strategically through the administrative and legal processes.”
The Army Corps of Engineers issued an evacuation order to #NoDAPL protesters back on December 5th, along with a commitment to revisit the pipeline’s trajectory, but have yet to enforce the order.
North Dakota’s governor declared a weather emergency in early January, in an attempt to warn protesters that the Dakotas get painfully cold in winter, and to help the state save money: controlling, patrolling and caring for the protesters has already cost the state $22 million.
But #NoDAPL has to follow those orders voluntarily, and they’ve been slow to comply. And now, the Standing Rock Sioux, who invited the protesters in the first place, feel they need o step in. The tribe is now giving the 600 protesters, some of whom quit their jobs to occupy the camp full time, 30 days to get out.
