“These grounds are the resting places of our ancestors,” one tribal leader said. “In one day, our sacred land has been turned into hollow ground.”
Clashes broke out Saturday in North Dakota between Native American protesters and private security guards with guard dogs after construction crews for a 3.4 billion dollar pipeline allegedly began running bulldozers over sacred sites.
Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images
The dramatic scenes unfolded after the federal government angered local tribes in August by approving construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a 1,172-mile long pipeline that runs through four states and will transfer crude oil.
Hundreds of protesters — including many Native Americans, primarily from the Lakota and Dakota reservations, as well as their supporters and environmentalists — have launched a determined protest against the initial construction phase of the pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.
Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images
Protesters say the pipeline would cross over sacred lands, including burial grounds.
Opposition groups also contend an oil pipeline near the Mississippi, Missouri, and Big Sioux rivers runs the risk of a spill into water supplies — similar to previous North Dakota oil spills that occurred in 2014 and as recently as May 2016.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/2bP43iQ
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