Clergymen sing, march with pipeline protesters

Clergy members from a range of religions join protesters Thursday near Cannon Ball, N.D. A copy of a 600-year-old religious document that sanctioned the taking of Indian land was burned ceremonially.
Clergy members from a range of religions join protesters Thursday near Cannon Ball, N.D. A copy of a 600-year-old religious document that sanctioned the taking of Indian land was burned ceremonially.

CANNON BALL, N.D. -- Hundreds of clergymen joined protests Thursday against the Dakota Access oil pipeline in southern North Dakota, singing hymns, marching and ceremonially burning a copy of a 600-year-old document.

The interfaith event was organized to draw attention to the concerns of the Standing Rock Sioux and push elected officials to call for a halt to construction of the $3.8 billion pipeline that's to carry North Dakota oil through South Dakota and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois. The tribe believes the pipeline that will skirt its reservation threatens its drinking water and cultural sites.

The pipeline "is a textbook case of marginalizing minority communities in the drive to increase fossil fuel supplies," the Rev. Peter Morales, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, said in a statement. Morales' group sent more than 30 clergymen to the event.

More than 500 religious leaders from around the world gathered with protesters Thursday at a campfire at the main protest camp to burn a copy of a religious document from the 1400s sanctioning the taking of land from indigenous peoples. About 200 people then sang hymns while they marched to a bridge that was the site of a recent clash between protesters and law officers. Some held signs that read, "Clergy for Standing Rock."

"It's amazing the spirituality going around this place," said Joe Gangone, who arrived with an Episcopal church group from South Dakota's Rosebud Sioux Reservation.

The Rev. Tet Gallardo, a Unitarian Universalist minister from the Philippines, said she was "moved to come" to the gathering.

"Water is the subject of concern also in the Philippines," she said. "How can this happen to people who are so faithful to God?"

The group sang and prayed while gathered in a semicircle at the still-closed bridge while law officers monitored from vehicles at a barricade on the other side, from surrounding hillsides and from a helicopter overhead.

John Floberg, an Episcopal minister from the Standing Rock Reservation who organized the event, called for "peaceful, prayerful, nonviolent and lawful activity here." There were no immediate confrontations between group members and authorities, and no arrests, Morton County sheriff's spokesman Rob Keller said.

Later Thursday, 14 protesters were arrested in the judicial wing of the Capitol in Bismarck. Highway Patrol Lt. Tom Iverson said the protesters, who were singing hymns, faced disorderly-conduct charges for refusing to leave the building.

Opponents of the pipeline project have been camped near the route in southern North Dakota for months in an effort to stop construction. Clashes between protesters and police have resulted in more than 400 arrests since August.

The most recent clash came Wednesday, when law officers in riot gear used pepper spray to deter dozens of protesters who tried to cross a frigid stream to access property owned by the pipeline developer. Two people were arrested. About 140 people were arrested on the property last week in a law enforcement operation that cleared the encampment that protesters had established on the land.

Developer Energy Transfer Partners of Texas has said the 1,200-mile pipeline is largely complete outside of the area in south-central North Dakota where it will go under Lake Oahe, a large Missouri River reservoir and the source of the tribe's drinking water. The federal government in September ordered a temporary halt to construction on Army Corps of Engineers land around and beneath the lake while the agency reviews its issuing of permits for the project. There's no timetable for a decision.

A Section on 11/04/2016

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