The 2,000 water protectors who have gathered to oppose the pipeline's construction were met today by the Morton County Sheriff Department, who removed people and their camping gear.

Heavily armed authorities pushed through a supply area for the Water Protectors blockade Thursday. The public witnessed a new level of escalation that day in the Native struggle at Standing Rock, as police swept through an encampment in the direct path of the Dakota Access pipeline. The resulting standoff with the National Guard, and police officers from various states, led to 141 arrests. Advancing authorities attacked Water Protectors with flash grenades, bean bag launchers, pepper spray and Long Range Acoustic Devices. It is crucial that people recognize that Standing Rock is part of an ongoing struggle against colonial violence. The Dakota Access pipeline is a front of struggle in a long-erased war against Native peoples—a war that has been active since first contact, and waged without interruption.

Greenpeace stands in solidarity with and lends full support to the water protectors at Standing Rock, and we recognize the rights and sovereignty of the Standing Rock Sioux, accorded by the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868. We call on President Obama to use his executive power to revoke the permits for construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline immediately. And we reject the actions of North Dakota law enforcement in favoring the interests of Energy Transfer Partners and the fossil fuel industry over the rights of this land's inhabitants. We join in proclaiming the sacred power of water and the responsibility we have to protect it at all costs. And we urge our government to respect the sovereignty of the Standing Rock Sioux, whose constitutional right to peacefully protest has been unjustly met by a militarized police force.

The Dakota Access Pipeline is a direct threat to the life, rights and water of the Standing Rock Sioux. It is unconscionable that a militarized force was deployed to serve a massive pipeline to move dirty, fracked oil that would threaten our climate and the life-sustaining water of the Missouri River. And, despite law enforcement's effort to jam video feeds coming out of the camps today, seeing those forces moving against Indigenous people will only galvanize the public rejection of the Dakota Access Pipeline and all it stands for.

Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda	Peter Burgess note: It has been commonplace during the last 200 years for indigenous peoples to be treated in ways that made it possible for profit performance to progress with the minimum of inconvenience. To a great extent, the rule of law has been constructed so that the interests of investors are protected while those interests of importance to indigenous peoples have been discounted. The United States was a critic of European colonialism for a very long time, while at the same time acting in a very 'colonial' manner towards its own indigenous peoples. The confrontation in South Dakota has right and wrong on both sides ... but the idea that might makes right is no way to obtain an outcome that is reasonable and a win-win for both sides of the argument.
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda

Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Greenpeace USA / ©Richard Bluecloud Castaneda