(A line of North Dakota police are trying to stop anti-pipeline demonstrators from gaining access to a nearby construction site. Photo: Tamara Pimentel/APTN)
APTN National News
Demonstrators in North Dakota are in a stand-off with local police at a private ranch near where a section of the Dakota Access LLC pipeline is being built. APTN reporter Tamara Pimentel says medics are on hand and police are threatening to use tear gas.
According to a statement from the Morton County Sheriff’s Department, the stand-off is taking place on the banks of the Cantapeta Creek. Police say demonstrators are trying to gain access to the Cannon Ball Ranch. The ranch was sold to Dakota Access Pipeline LLC (DAPL) in September.
Members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe say the ranch contains hundreds of burials and artifacts.
“Early this morning, law enforcement witnessed a group of protesters building a hand-made, wooden pedestrian bridge across the Cantapeta Creek,” said the Sheriff’s Department statement. “Officers responded and ordered protesters to remove themselves from the bridge and notified them that if they cross the bridge they would be arrested.”
The statement goes on to say the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) gave the Sherriff’s department orders to have the bridge removed and arrest anyone who enters federal land in the area near the ranch. The USACE is currently studying the possibility of rerouting the controversial pipeline.
Police say demonstrators continue to gain access by swimming and using other boats to get across the river after authorities destroyed the bridge.
More to come.
