BISMARCK, N.D. -- The front lines of the battle against the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline are shifting away from the dwindling encampment in North Dakota, with main opposing groups asking for activism to be spread across the U.S.
The message also has evolved from a struggle against a single four-state pipeline to an effort to advance the rights of American Indians, the leader of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe said.
"The opportunity to build awareness started at Standing Rock, and it's spreading out to other communities, other areas of the United States," tribal Chairman Dave Archambault said. "It's something that the United States, corporate America, the government has taken for granted -- the original occupation of Native lands, all the wrongs of the past."
The cost of policing the Dakota Access pipeline protests in North Dakota surpassed $22 million, with agencies such as the Corrections Department and Transportation Department using money from their budgets with the intent of repaying it later, according to Emergency Services spokesman Cecily Fong. Most of the money is going to pay personnel costs.
State Rep. Jeff Delzer said state officials also still hope the federal government will help with funding.
"We're not happy at all that the federal government is not ponying up. This should be their responsibility," said Delzer, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. "But the fact of the matter is, until they pony up we have to cover those costs."
Outside the state, protest actions that have popped up include a banner at a Minnesota Vikings game, a demonstration at the Jan. 2 Rose Parade in California, bank protests from New York to California, and protests of other pipelines in Texas, Florida and Louisiana.
It's a strategy that sociology professors who study protest movements say is advantageous and possibly allows for innovative ways to draw attention to the issue. A decentralized effort also heeds Archambault's and other protest groups' requests for protesters to leave the once-sprawling campsite during the winter months for their safety.
"Those are all examples of what we're calling for, and some of those things we coordinated," said Dallas Goldtooth, an organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network. "The fight isn't over -- it's just the front line is transitioning to a new place, and that's a national campaign."
The demonstrations in other states are examples of how Dakota Access protests are helping highlight other regional issues and broader issues of concern to American Indians, such land rights under old treaties with the federal government and the need for state and federal governments to better consult with tribes when it comes to infrastructure projects that affect them, Goldtooth said. The Standing Rock tribe is even considering forming a tribal utilities commission to govern such projects.
Goldtooth's group, as well as Honor the Earth and the International Indigenous Youth Council, issued a statement Dec. 9 urging people to stop traveling to the camp "and instead take bold action in your local communities." Since then, the camp's population has dwindled to between 500 and 800, according to the Morton County sheriff's office, and clashes between protesters and police have dropped off: only 17 arrests were made since Dec. 9, compared with 568 in the preceding four months.
The pipeline that's to carry North Dakota oil to a shipping point in Illinois skirts the Standing Rock reservation to the north, where Texas developer Energy Transfer Partners plans to lay pipe under a Missouri River reservoir. The tribe and its supporters believe the project threatens drinking water and cultural sites, which Energy Transfer denies. The crossing under Lake Oahe is the last remaining chunk of construction, but work is stalled while Energy Transfer battles the federal government in court. The Army Corps of Engineers wants more study of alternative routes, potential for a leak and tribal treaty rights.
A centralized protest has its advantages, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison sociology professor Pamela Oliver.
"[Media outlets] rarely get interested unless an action is either very, very large ... or disruptive, or especially, violent," she said.
However, large encampments can't be sustained indefinitely, and diversifying targets can be helpful, said Oliver, who has written extensively about social movements. She notes that "in a practical sense, it is reasonable to look for tactics people can use where they live, and that are consistent with also holding jobs."
That protest involved two people climbing into the rafters of U.S. Bank Stadium during a Jan. 1 game between the Vikings and Chicago Bears and unfurling a protest banner. Charges are pending against three people, including Karl Zimmermann Mayo, who told the media that "this pipeline is not ethical."
Groups protesting the pipeline stress that they're not backing down, saying in December that "this fight is escalating" -- though for the time being, not in North Dakota.
"We really are seeing this message materialize, to nationalize this fight," Goldtooth said.
A Section on 01/12/2017