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Actress Shailene Woodley speaks during a rally outside U.S. District Court in Washington, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016, in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in their lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Editor's Note: InsideSources wishes to make clear for our readers that the information presented in this op-ed is evidenced in court documents, which is stated below.
With the help of celebrities and professional activists, protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota have attracted international attention. The shouting and violence have drawn sympathy from people who are hearing only one side of the story - the one told by activists. Were the full story to be heard, much, if not all, of that sympathy would vanish.

The activists tell an emotionally-charged tale of greed, racism, and misbehavior by corporate and government officials. But the real story of the Dakota Access Pipeline was revealed in court documents in September, and it is nothing like the activists' tale. In fact, it is the complete opposite.

The record shows that Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the pipeline, spent years working diligently with federal, state, and local officials to route the pipeline safely and with the fewest possible disruptions. The contrast between the protesters' claims and the facts on record is stunning.

Protesters claim that the pipeline was "fast-tracked," denying tribal leaders the opportunity to participate in the process. In fact, project leaders participated in 559 meetings with community leaders, local officials, and organizations to listen to concerns and fine-tune the route. The company asked for, and received, a tougher federal permitting process at sites along the Missouri River. This more difficult procedure included a mandated review of each water crossing's potential impact on historical artifacts and locations.

Protesters claim that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to consult tribal leaders as required by federal law. The record shows that the corps held 389 meetings with 55 tribes. Corps officials met numerous times with leaders of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which initiated the lawsuit and the protests.

Protesters claim that the Standing Rock Sioux pursued meetings with an unresponsive Army Corps of Engineers. Court records show that the roles in that story were in fact reversed. The corps alerted the tribe to the pipeline permit application in the fall of 2014 and repeatedly requested comments from and meetings with tribal leaders only to be rebuffed over and over again. Tribal leaders ignored requests for comment and canceled meetings multiple times.

In September of 2014 alone, the corps made five unsuccessful attempts to meet with Standing Rock Sioux leaders. The next month, a meeting was arranged, but "when the Corps timely arrived for the meeting, Tribal Chairman David Archambault told them that the conclave had started earlier than planned and had already ended," according to a federal judge. At a planned meeting the next month, the tribe took the pipeline off the agenda and refused to discuss it. This stonewalling by tribal leaders continued for a year and a half.

Typical of the misinformation spread during the protests is a comment made by Jesse Jackson, who recently joined the activists in North Dakota. He said the decision to reroute the pipeline so that it crossed close to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe's water intake was "racism."

The pipeline route was adjusted based on concerns expressed by locals - including other tribal leaders - who met with company and Army Corps of Engineers officials. The court record reveals that the Standing Rock Sioux refused to meet with corps officials to discuss the route until after site work had begun. That work is now 77 percent completed at a cost of $3 billion.

In response to a lawsuit filed by the Standing Rock Sioux, the court documented "dozens of attempts" by the corps to consult with the tribe. It documented the legal and proper approval process the corps used to permit all of the contested construction sites the tribe claimed were improperly permitted. It even documented evidence that the corps had exceeded the minimum legal requirements during its earnest and lengthy efforts to receive the input of tribal leaders on the pipeline.

Pipeline protesters may have a tight grip on media coverage of the pipeline, but they have a demonstrably loose grip on the facts. The truth - as documented not by the company but by the federal court system is that pipeline approvals were not rushed, permits were not granted illegally, and tribal leaders were not excluded. These are proven facts upheld by two federal courts.

If only this side of the story were getting the same attention as the other side. Perhaps judges should start announcing their rulings by megaphone while standing beside a few media-attracting celebrities.

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What the Dakota Access Pipeline Protesters Aren't Telling You - InsideSources

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Actress Shailene Woodley speaks during a rally outside U.S. District Court in Washington, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016, in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in their lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) Editor's Note: InsideSources wishes to make clear for our readers that the information presented in this op-ed is evidenced in court documents, which is stated below.

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This is one organization's take on the range of reporting done regarding this event.

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The New York Times ( 11/21/16) gets a failing grade for its headline over a report on escalating police violence against Native American activists and others defending the Missouri River against the Dakota Access Pipeline:

16 Arrested at North Dakota Pipeline Protest

Sorry, New York Times-when more than 470 people have been arrested opposing the pipeline since August, that's not the news. Nor did the print edition headline-"16 Arrested at North Dakota Pipeline Protest as Tensions Continue"-add anything.

No, the news in the story came in the second paragraph, where reporter Jonah Engel Bromwich wrote that "officials also defended their use of fire hoses against protesters the night before, despite the below-freezing weather."

Perhaps Times editors thought that wasn't news, because police use of "water cannons" against demonstrators was mentioned in an AP report that ran on the Times website the day before ( 11/20/16) under the anodyne headline "Police, Protesters Face Off at Dakota Access Pipeline." If that was the case, editors could have found more pressing information than the arrest count in the eighth paragraph of the latest story:

Dallas Goldtooth, a spokesman for the Indigenous Environmental Network, said in a phone interview on Monday that the Oceti Sakowin medical team, which had been working in tandem with medics from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, had reported that nearly 200 people were injured and 12 people were hospitalized for head injuries. One protester went into cardiac arrest and was revived by the medic team, he said.

NPR's website ( 11/21/16) likewise reported the story of police violence leading to widespread injuries under an innocuous headline: "Police, Protesters Clash Near Dakota Access Pipeline Route," as did ABC News ( 11/21/16) with its "Hundreds of Dakota Access Protesters Clash With Police." This "clash" framing-also utilized in headlines on CBS ( 11/20/16) and CNN ( 11/20/16)-implies a parity between police in military vehicles, employing water cannon, tear gas, pepper spray, rubber-coated bullets and concussion grenades (one of which may have cost an activist her arm), on the one hand, and basically unarmed civilians on the other. (Police say one officer was hit in the head by a thrown rock.)

One almost gets the sense that editors writing headlines like these have enlisted themselves on the sheriff's team, waving spectators away with a "nothing to see here, folks."

The Washington Post ( 11/21/16) got the news into the headline, but framed it from a police perspective: "Police Defend Use of Water Cannons on Dakota Access Protesters in Freezing Weather."

Some headlines did a better job of focusing on what was actually new while conveying a sense of the shocking violence employed by militarized police against people defending their water supply:

"Officers Douse Dakota Access Oil Pipeline Protesters With Water in Subfreezing Weather" (Denver Post, 11/21/16)

"Dakota Pipeline: Protesters Soaked With Water in Freezing Temperature" (NBCNews.com, 11/21/16)

"Dakota Access Pipeline: 300 Protesters Injured After Police Use Water Cannons" (Guardian, 11/21/16)

"Dakota Access Pipeline Protester May Lose Her Arm After Small Explosion, Activists Say" (LA Times, 11/21/16)

Jim Naureckas is the editor of FAIR.org. You can follow him on Twitter: @JNaureckas. You can send a message to the New York Times at letters@nytimes.com, or write to public editor Liz Spayd at public@nytimes.com (Twitter:@NYTimes or @SpaydL). Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.

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'Nothing to See Here' Headlines Conceal Police Violence at Dakota Access

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The New York Times ( 11/21/16) gets a failing grade for its headline over a report on escalating police violence against Native American activists and others defending the Missouri River against the Dakota Access Pipeline: Sorry, New York Times-when more than 470 people have been arrested opposing the pipeline since August, that's not the news.

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A quick history of the controversy surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline

Nov 21 (Reuters) - A decision on the Dakota Access Pipeline was delayed further by federal authorities in mid-November as protests continued.

In addition, Donald Trump's unexpected win in the U.S. presidential election could overturn a surprising victory by Native American and environmental groups in September to delay the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The following is a timeline of the project:

December 2014 Energy Transfer Partners LP applies to build a 1,172 mile (1,885 km), 570,000 barrel-per-day pipeline to deliver crude oil from North Dakota's Bakken shale fields to Patoka, Illinois, crossing South Dakota and Iowa to the North Dakota Public Service Commission, kicking off a year of public hearings in the state. January 2016 North Dakota regulators approve the pipeline unanimously

April 29 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers holds a hearing for Native Americans on the pipeline. There was near unanimous opposition to the project, according to local media reports.

July 25 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved three easements for water crossings for the pipeline at Sakakawea, the Mississippi River and Lake Oahe. Lake Oahe is an ancestral site for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.

July 27 The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe sues the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia in connection with the pipeline, citing violation of multiple federal statutes that authorize the pipeline's construction and operation, and seeks an emergency order to halt construction. The tribe also alleges the pipeline threatens their environmental and economic well-being and would damage and destroy sites of historic, religious and cultural significance. The Sioux Tribe say that because the pipeline goes underneath Lake Oahe, approximately half a mile upstream of the tribe's reservation, leaks from the pipeline would be directly in the tribe's ancestral lands.

Aug. 24 Celebrities including Susan Sarandon, Riley Keough and Shailene Woodley joined members of the Tribe outside a courthouse in Washington, D.C., to protest the pipeline saying that it could pollute water and desecrate sacred land.

Sept. 3 Private security guards hired by Energy Transfer Partners used attack dogs and mace after violence erupted at a private construction site along the pipeline route. Six people were reportedly bitten by dogs, a scene that was captured on video and broadcast widely.

Sept. 6 Brian Cladoosby, president of the National Congress of American Indians, which represents more than 500 tribes, spoke to nearly a dozen of President Barack Obama's Cabinet-level advisers at a Sept. 6 meeting of the White House's three-year-old Native American Affairs Council. Cladoosby delivered an impassioned request to his audience: stand with Native Americans who have united with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and block construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Sept. 9 U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington rejected a broad request from Native Americans to block the project. He, however, rules that no construction activity on the Dakota Access may take place between Highway 1806 and 20 miles to the east of Lake Oahe. Construction activity to the west of Highway 1806 may proceed. The tribe appeals the decision.

Sept. 9 Less than an hour after Boasberg's decision, the U.S. Justice and Interior Departments and Army made an unprecedented move and ordered a stop to construction near Lake Oahe until the Army Corps of Engineers reviews its previous decisions and decides if it needs to conduct a fuller environmental and cultural review.

Sept. 13 Energy Transfer Partners told employees in a letter, provided to media, that the company was committed to completing the project. The midstream operator cited that the pipeline was 60 percent complete, and that it had already spent $1.6 billion so far on equipment, materials and the workforce.

Oct. 9 The U.S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia Circuit said that an administrative injunction related to the emergency motion of the Standing Rock Tribe would be dissolved, citing that Dakota Access has rights to construct on private land up to Lake Oahe.

Oct. 11 Environmental activists across four states disrupted the flow of millions of barrels of crude from Canada into the United States in a rare, coordinate action that targeted several key pipelines simultaneously. The protest group, the Climate Direct Action, said their move was in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. As a safety precaution, companies operating the pipelines shut off sections of the lines for several hours while they investigated.

Earlier in the day, Energy Transfer Partners said it looked forward to prompt resumption of construction activities east and west of Lake Oahe on private land.

Oct. 25 Government-to-government tribal consultations began across six regions on how federal government decision-making on infrastructure projects could better include tribal concerns.

Nov. 8 Energy Transfer Partners says it has built the pipe to the edge of Lake Oahe and reiterates its intentions to complete the project.

Nov. 9 Following the surprise victory of Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election, climate activists and the Standing Rock Sioux say they still hope President Obama will be able to kill the pipeline definitively. Analysts say the line is more than likely to go through.

Nov. 14 The U.S. government, in a joint notice issued by the Department of the Interior and the Army Corps of Engineers, delayed a final decision on permitting. They said the permit had followed all legal requirements, but said more consultation with Native American tribes was needed.

Nov. 18 Energy Transfer Partners' CEO Kelcy Warren told the Associated Press that the pipeline would not be re-routed. The statement came as protests grew more heated.

(Reporting by Catherine Ngai and Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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FACTBOX-The Dakota Access Pipeline's long journey

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A quick history of the controversy surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline Nov 21 (Reuters) - A decision on the Dakota Access Pipeline was delayed further by federal authorities in mid-November as protests continued. In addition, Donald Trump's unexpected win in the U.S.

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The protests over the Dakota Access pipeline continue to rage, and police are getting serious about dispersing demonstrators. Last night they broke out the water cannons.

As temperatures in Cannon Ball, N.D., dropped into the 20s, police in riot gear sprayed activists with a hose mounted atop an armored vehicle and formed a line to prevent them from advancing up the road, according to the Bismarck Tribune. Protesters also reported being pelted with rubber bullets, tear gas and concussion grenades during the standoff, which lasted until late Sunday night.

One Twitter user posted some drone camera footage of the scene. The video appears to show an attempt to take down the drone with the water cannon.

Drone footage showing water cannons being used on water protectors

At the end of the clip, they try to shoot drone w/ water cannon#NoDAPL pic.twitter.com/N0S1Sic2TQ

- Petty Is Praxis (@rtyson82) November 21, 2016

It seems as though most of the protesters were smart enough to get out of range.

Video of water cannons being used on protectors in 26°F/-3°C at barricades at barricades in North Dakota ?: @johnkdangers #NoDAPL pic.twitter.com/L8gYUglJ9v

- IndigenousEnviroNet (@IENearth) November 21, 2016

Authorities responded after protesters moved one of the trucks blocking the roadway. The Morton County Sheriff's Department said that by 8:30 p.m. an estimated 400 people had arrived to try to "breach" the bridge and had set dozens of fires in the area. The department called the situation an "ongoing riot," saying protesters were "very aggressive" and were trying to "flank and attack the law enforcement line." At least one person was arrested, the sheriff's department said.

America has around 200,000 miles of oil pipelines that carry liquid oil as well as millions of miles of natural gas pipelines that operate without major incidents. The alternative to using pipelines is to transport petroleum products by rail. Train accidents can and have caused major environmental damage but environmentalists react to any new pipeline construction as if it were a plan to turn Yellowstone National Park into a nuclear test site.

It almost seems like they're really just trying to disrupt the use of oil and the capitalist system which depends on it. That can't be it though, right?

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Drone Footage Shows Police Using Water Cannon on Dakota Access Protestors

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The protests over the Dakota Access pipeline continue to rage, and police are getting serious about dispersing demonstrators. Last night they broke out the water cannons. As temperatures in Cannon Ball, N.D., dropped into the 20s, police in riot gear sprayed activists with a hose mounted atop an armored vehicle and formed a line to prevent them from advancing up the road, according to the Bismarck Tribune.

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Twenty-six people were hospitalized and more than 300 injured after North Dakota law enforcement officers trained water cannons, teargas, and other "less-than-lethal" weapons on unarmed activists protesting against the Dakota Access pipeline in below-freezing weather on Sunday night, according to a group of medical professionals supporting the anti-pipeline movement.

The Standing Rock Medic & Healer Council said that injuries from the "mass casualty incident" included multiple bone fractures from projectiles fired by police, a man with internal bleeding from a rubber bullet injury, a man who suffered a grand mal seizure, and a woman who was struck in the face with a rubber bullet and whose vision was compromised.

The majority of the patients suffered hypothermia, a result of being soaked by water cannons, the group said.

Civil rights groups are decrying the use of water cannons in below-freezing weather.

"It's absolutely a blatant disregard for the safety and humanity of unarmed protesters," said Jen Cook, policy director for the ACLU of North Dakota. "In combination with other tactics, it's a misuse of less-than-lethal weaponry ... It's unjustifiable."

Dramatic video footage of the standoff between several hundred anti-pipeline protesters and law enforcement officers shows police repeatedly aiming the water cannon directly at individuals - and not at fires, as the Morton County sheriff's department claimed on Sunday night.

The footage also appears to show that law enforcement officers were separated from the demonstrators by a barbed wire fence and concertina wire, raising further questions about whether such force was justified.

The Morton County sheriff, Kyle Kirchmaier, defended the use of the water cannons in a press conference today, though he objected to the terminology.

"We don't have a water cannon," he said. "I don't know where the term water cannon comes from. This was basically just a fire hose."

Kirchmaier said that law enforcement officers did consider the low temperatures when they deployed the water, but said: "We're just not going to tolerate people and protesters in large groups coming and threatening officers. That's not happening. So as this was going on, the water was used as a tool to help quell that situation, and when it was no longer necessary, it was not used any longer."

The incident began on Sunday evening, when a group of activists, who refer to themselves as "water protectors", attempted to move two burned trucks off a bridge just north of the protesters' encampments. Law enforcement officers then began attacking the demonstrators with a barrage of less-than-lethal weapons, including teargas, rubber bullets, and concussion grenades.

The bridge has been barricaded for weeks, forcing vehicles to take an approximately 20-mile detour to reach Bismarck, the closest city. Activists say that the barricade is threatening the safety of people in the camps, as well as residents who live further south on the reservation.

The use of water cannons against protesters invokes images of African Americans being bombarded with fire hoses during the civil rights movement, but the crowd control tactic was developed in Germany in the 1930s, according to the ACLU.

The civil liberties organization warns that water cannons can cause hypothermia, frostbite and internal injuries from the force of the stream.

Membership ask

In light of Sunday's events, Cook said the ACLU was renewing its call for the Department of Justice to investigate the use of force by law enforcement officers on the protesters. Cook stressed that the ACLU wants to see Barack Obama's administration open the investigation before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

The ACLU was joined by Amnesty International and the National Lawyers Guild in condemning the use of force by law enforcement agencies.

Sunday's violence drew suspicion and concern from the indigenous and environmental activists who have established encampments near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in opposition to the pipeline, which is planned to cross under the Missouri river. The tribe fears that the pipeline could contaminate their water source and object to construction disturbing sacred burial grounds.

Last week, the US government announced that it was delaying granting the final permit that Dakota Access pipeline needs to drill under the river. The company fired back, filing court papers seeking a judicial order that they be allowed to drill.

The pipeline's parent company, Energy Transfer Partners, announced today that it was merging with Sunoco Logistics Partner. Both companies are part of an oil and gas empire controlled by ETP's CEO, Kelcy Warren. The $21bn all-stock deal will boost the companies by simplifying their complex relationship, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Dave Archambualt, chairman of the tribal council of the Standing Rock Sioux, said that he fears violent confrontations with law enforcement will convince the government to allow drilling to proceed.

"Every time there's something like a confrontation and life is being threatened, I think the government is going to do what they can to try to end this before someone gets killed," he said. "Aggression by law enforcement has always been intentional to force the government to give the easement."

"It's escalating more and more to the point where law enforcement is not really concerned with human life," he added.

Rupa Marya, a physician at the University of California, San Francisco who has travelled to Standing Rock to help provide medical care, echoed Archambault's concerns.

"If the police are going to be there actively spraying people with water in 27-degree weather, its putting people at tremendous risk for death from hypothermia," she said. "They might be calling this non-lethal forms of crowd control, but these are lethal forms of violence."
Nicky Woolf contributed reporting
No billionaire owner, no shareholders. Just independent, investigative reporting that fights for the truth, whatever the cost. Why not support it? Become a Guardian US member for $49 a year, or make a contribution.

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Dakota Access pipeline: 300 protesters injured after police use water cannons

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Twenty-six people were hospitalized and more than 300 injured after North Dakota law enforcement officers trained water cannons, teargas, and other "less-than-lethal" weapons on unarmed activists protesting against the Dakota Access pipeline in below-freezing weather on Sunday night, according to a group of medical professionals supporting the anti-pipeline movement.

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New Yorker Sophia Wilansky was handing out water bottles when she was injured.

Photo taken from Facebook page of Standing Rock Rising

Yesterday, November 22, Sophia Wilansky's dad released a statement providing details of Wilansky's injuries and how they'll move forward through the Indian Country Today Media Network. Read it here.
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During the recent confrontation between #NoDAPL water protectors and the Morton County Sherriff's Department, a concussion grenade allegedly hit 21-year-old water protector Sophia Wilansky, who was handing out water, seriously injuring her left arm. She was airlifted to Hennepin County Medical Center, according to the Facebook pages of the Red Warrior Camp and Standing Rock Rising.

Wilansky was one of about 300 water protectors who were injured at the movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline on November 20-21, when officers used concussion grenades, rubber bullets and water cannons to subdue demonstrators. In an interview with the Guardian, her father, Wayne Wilansky said: "The best-case scenario is no pain and 10-20 percent functionality ... She's devastated. She looks at her arm and she cries." Colorlines has been unable to confirm if, in fact, she has undergone amputation, though the Red Warrior Camp and other Facebook users say she has.

According to a GoFundMe for her medical expenses, Sophia is from New York, where she organizes with NYC Shut It Down, a group that came together in the wake of the Michael Brown and Eric Garner killings, and Hoods4Justice. The GoFundMe page states:

Sophia has always been committed to confronting injustice through vigilance and resistance. Sophia was giving out bottles of water to protectors holding down the space when she was shot with a concussion grenade. This was the response of police and DAPL mercenaries as she and other brave protectors attempted to hold the line against the black snake in service of protecting our water.

As of publication, the fund had raised $152,153 out of the $180,000 goal. The 5,637 donations range from $100 to $5. Those interested can donate here. Friends have planned a prayer vigil at 4 p.m. CST outside the medical center.

The below images of her injury are graphic. Discretion is advised.

Related Articles

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UPDATE: 21-Year-Old Water Protector Faces Arm Amputation After Dakota Access Pipeline Police Confrontation | Colorlines

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New Yorker Sophia Wilansky was handing out water bottles when she was injured. Photo taken from Facebook page of Standing Rock Rising Yesterday, November 22, Sophia Wilansky's dad released a statement providing details of Wilansky's injuries and how they'll move forward through the Indian Country Today Media Network. Read it here.

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The standoff between law-enforcement officials and environmentalists determined to stall completion of the Dakota Access crude oil pipeline turned violent late Sunday night. About 400 protesters set two trucks on fire near Cannon Ball, South Dakota (which sits on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation), and when sheriff's deputies moved in to quell the accelerating riot they were met with a rain of rocks and flaming logs. At least one officer was struck on the head.

All the mainstream media could do was point out that law enforcement used high-pressure water from fire trucks to push back the crowd, along with firing rubber bullets and tear gas grenades. Little was said in the MSM that the crowd had been given multiple orders to disperse as they were trespassing on private land and causing damage.

According to Rob Keller, a spokesman for the sheriff's department, "Protestors were given multiple orders to back up. But these agitators were a little more aggressive and did not back down, and that's why there was [this] force used." Keller added:

It's the same 200 to 300 agitators. That leaves 1,600 in the camp that are peaceful and want to do it the right way.

The sheriff himself, Kyle Kirchmeier of Morton County, did his best to overcome the media's characterization that his deputies "launched" an attack on those same protestors in early September:

Any suggestion that today's event was a peaceful protest is false. This was more like a riot than a protest. Individuals crossed onto private property and accosted private security officers with wooden posts and flag poles.

The aggression and violence displayed here today is unlawful and should not be repeated. While no arrests were made at the scene, we are actively investigating the incident and the individuals who organized and participated in this unlawful event.

Keller said that of the 500 people who have already been arrested as the riots grew violent, only seven percent of them are from North Dakota. And those hard-core who remain intend to stay over the winter in a game of brinksmanship and patience, hoping to force the developer of the pipeline to give it up and either move the pipeline someplace else or cancel the project altogether.

But Kelcy Warren, chairman and CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, said that concerns about the pipeline's potential impact on the water supply were "unfounded," adding that "multiple archaeological studies conducted with state historic preservation offices found no sacred items along the route." Warren went further in his defense of his company's project on PBS News Hour on November 15:

Well, first of all, I think this is well-known by now. We're not on any Indian property at all, no Native American property. We're on private lands. That's number one. Number two, this pipeline is new steel pipe. We're boring underneath Lake Oahe. It's going to go 90 feet to 150 feet below the lake's surface. It's thick wall pipe, extra thick, by the way, more so than just the normal pipe that we lay.

Also, on each side of the lake, there are automated valves that, if in the very, very unlikely situation there were to be a leak, our control room shuts down the pipe, encapsulates that small section that could be in peril. So, that's just not going to happen.

Number one, we're not going to have a leak. I can't promise that, of course, but that - no one would get on airplanes if they thought they were going to crash. And, number two, there is no way there would be any crude contaminate of their water supply. They're 70 miles downstream.

Dakota Access pipeline will bring light sweet crude oil from the Bakken shale formation to refineries in Illinois, covering nearly 1,200 miles in the process. But the chance to shut down construction has drawn left-wing extremists and hard-core environmentalists from around the country to the site, building camps designed to shelter them from the winter weather now descending on the state.

The list of those with too much time on their hands begins, almost automatically, with the fraudulent "reverend" Jesse Jackson who called the development "the ripest case of environmental racism I have seen in a long time. The tribes of this country have sacrificed a lot so this great country could be built.... The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is standing up for their right to clean water." Jackson's twisted sense of justice is remembered with his support of Yasser Arafat, the head of the terrorist PLO, calling his "commitment to justice ... an absolute one." Or his celebration of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro as "the most honest, courageous politician I have ever met."

Then there's Alicia Garza, the self-described "queer" social-justice activist and Marxist founder of Black Lives Matter, who intoned over the "attack" by police on innocent protestors: "If you're white, you can occupy federal property ... and get found not guilty. No teargas, no tanks, no rubber bullets.... If you're indigenous and fighting to protect our earth, and the water we depend on to survive, you get tear gassed, media blackouts, tanks and all that."

It's odd that Garza would have an opinion on the matter as the Sioux allegedly endangered by the pipeline aren't black. According to Garza it's only blacks who suffer, as they are "uniquely, systematically and savagely targeted by the state." She doesn't even cotton to anyone riffing on her "Black Lives Matter" slogan: "Stand with us in affirming Black lives. Not just all lives. Black lives. Please do not change the conversation by talking about how your life matters, too. It does, but we need less watered down unity and more active solidarities with us Black people in defense of our humanity."

And there's the socialist Bernie Sanders who found time to visit the site and encourage the protestors, saying that "the pipeline threatens the environment and water resources and exploits Native Americans." This fits with Sanders' cozy alliances with socialists and revolutionaries ever since he joined the Young Peoples Socialist League, a youth wing of the Socialist Party USA and worked with the United Packinghouse Workers Union, which had been infiltrated by communists years before.

Jill Stein and her Green Party running mate interrupted their presidential campaign to visit the folks at Cannon Ball and spray paint slogans on some of the company's equipment. For their trouble they were arrested and charged with several counts of criminal trespass and mischief.

Stein, it will be remembered, opposed big banks, Wall Street, defense contractors, and the pharmaceutical industry during her campaign. Her cover was blown when the Daily Beast disclosed that her personal assets - between $3.8 million to $8.5 million - were invested "in the very industries that she maligned the most," including companies such as Chevron, Exxon, Conoco Phillips, Duke Energy, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Merck, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Raytheon.

Ultra-liberal journalist Amy Goodman, co-host of the anti-capitalist radio show Democracy Now!, joined in the fun as well, being charged with criminal trespass while filming the protests to bolster her own far-left ideology.

Even Raul Grijalva, the ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee and member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, showed up, demanding that the Army Corps of Engineers withdraw its existing permits for the pipeline.

Like moths to a flame, leftists and environmentalist radicals flocked to Cannon Ball, South Dakota, to join their brothers and sisters in their campaign against the evil capitalists trying to bring crude oil from Bakken to refineries in Illinois. Using the environment, water safety, the potential raping of indigenous Indian burial grounds, and broken treaties as cover for their real intentions, they see the protests there as another opportunity to promote their anti-capitalist agenda, which includes keeping the oil in the ground "where it belongs."

Photo is of an Indian protester locked to a piece of construction equipment

An Ivy League graduate and former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American magazine and blogs frequently at LightFromTheRight.com, primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Greenies, Lefties Protest Dakota Access Pipeline With Violence

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The standoff between law-enforcement officials and environmentalists determined to stall completion of the Dakota Access crude oil pipeline turned violent late Sunday night. About 400 protesters set two trucks on fire near Cannon Ball, South Dakota (which sits on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation), and when sheriff's deputies moved in to quell the accelerating riot they were met with a rain of rocks and flaming logs.

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The sobbing father of a Dakota Access Pipeline protester described Tuesday how his daughter's arm was torn to pieces by a concussion grenade tossed at the unarmed woman.

Sophia Wilansky, 21, of the Bronx, was also shot repeatedly with rubber bullets during the Monday morning showdown with law enforcement near Cannon Ball, N.D., said her dad Wayne Wilansky, 60.

"She's devastated," Wilansky said of his daughter before breaking down in tears. "She's a 21-year-old girl looking at her arm. There are no words to be a parent, and look at your kids, look at her arm that's not there."

"In America. She's hit with a grenade. She's not in Iraq or Afghanistan ... And they're trying to kill her."

Wilansky was airlifted to the Hennepin County Medical Center for emergency surgery on her gruesomely-injured left arm. The grenade blast blew the radius bone right out of her arm, and destroyed most of her arteries.

"The main nerve is missing and most of the muscle," said Wayne Wilansky, who also charged local law enforcement near the pipeline with keeping his daughter from desperately needed medical attention.

Her grotesque injuries went almost untreated for more than six hours.

"They are not letting ambulances come in and out of the site," he said. "I don't know what to call it. It's a human rights violation."

But local authorities blamed the horrific injuries on the protesters, insisting the protesters were throwing fuel cannisters at Morton County Sheriff's officers.

"We don't know where it came from," Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said Monday after the gory explosion.

Wilansky was among those joining the protest with a local Indian tribe, the Standing Rock Sioux, to block construction of the $3.8 billion, four-state pipeline.

The Sioux believe the pipeline carrying oil from North Dakota to Illinois could contaminate their drinking water and threaten some of their sacred tribal sites.

Sophia Wilansky, who joined the ongoing protests three weeks ago, was flown to Minneapolis following the 4 a.m. incident.

"They told me she was bringing water to people at the frontlines," friend and fellow activist Vaimoana Niumeitolu told the Daily News.

Wayne Wilansky said the prognosis at this point was to watch, wait and hope for the best.

"I think she'll be in multiple surgeries over many weeks and months," he said. "The best-case scenario is no pain and 10-20% functionality."

Grisly photos of Wilansky's injuries circulating on social media suggested a long and longshot recovery. She was pictured sitting in a vehicle with a gaping wound exposing her tendons and a broken bone in her left arm.

Wilansky, an avid activist, was arrested while protesting another pipeline construction site in July. She locked herself to an excavator where Vermont Gas crews were digging a natural gas channel in Williston.

The elder Wilansky, a lawyer and yoga teacher, was thrilled by the worldwide support for his daughter and appalled by what happened to her.

"If I had the possibility of seeing the people who did this to her, it would not be pretty," he said. "I'm a peaceful person. But this is just outrageous that this happens in this country."

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NYC woman may lose arm after hit with grenade at Dakota Access pipeline protest site - NY Daily News

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The sobbing father of a Dakota Access Pipeline protester described Tuesday how his daughter's arm was torn to pieces by a concussion grenade tossed at the unarmed woman. Sophia Wilansky, 21, of the Bronx, was also shot repeatedly with rubber bullets during the Monday morning showdown with law enforcement near Cannon Ball, N.D., said her dad Wayne Wilansky, 60.

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Tensions continued in North Dakota on Monday afternoon as law enforcement officials arrested 16 people at a demonstration, one day after hundreds clashed with the police over the Dakota Access Pipeline.

During a news conference on Monday, officials also defended their use of fire hoses against protesters the night before, despite the below-freezing weather.

"Some of the water was used to repel some of the protest activities that were occurring, and it was used at a time where they were aggressive towards the officers," the Morton County sheriff, Kyle Kirchmeier, said at the news conference.

In a statement late on Sunday, the Morton County Sheriff's Department characterized the demonstration as an "ongoing riot," releasing photos that it said showed protesters "setting fires and using aggressive tactics" while trying to dismantle a police barricade on Backwater Bridge, which has for months been the site of a protest against the pipeline.

The statement did not address what dispersal methods the department had used against what it estimated to be a crowd of 400 protesters.

Rob Keller, a spokesman for the department, told The Bismarck Tribune that water was being used for crowd control, adding that water cannons had also been used to douse the fires.

The paper reported that protesters had started a dozen fires and that officers from the sheriff's department had said that rocks and logs were being thrown at them. One officer was struck on the head, it said. The Associated Press reported that at least one person was arrested.

Dallas Goldtooth, a spokesman for the Indigenous Environmental Network, said in a phone interview on Monday that the Oceti Sakowin medical team, which had been working in tandem with medics from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, had reported that nearly 200 people were injured and 12 people were hospitalized for head injuries. One protester went into cardiac arrest and was revived by the medic team, he said.

The medical teams attributed many of the injuries to rubber bullets, pepper spray and shrapnel from concussion grenades, according to Mr. Goldtooth, and said that water sprayed from cannons caused early signs of hypothermia. The air temperature in the area was about 23 degrees at 10:15 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.

"I would love to emphasize here that this entire situation is ripe with irony," Mr. Goldtooth said, adding that on Friday, Sheriff Kirchmeier had urged the protesters to leave their camps because they might be unfamiliar with the harshness of North Dakota winters.

Late last month, tensions boiled over at a protest camp near Backwater Bridge when law enforcement officials forced demonstrators out of the area. That confrontation led to the arrests of more than 140 protesters and resulted in the setting of multiple fires.

Reports coming out of the conflict have been highly contested, with law enforcement officials and protesters leveling substantive accusations of violence at each other.

Dave Archambault II, the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, said in a phone interview Monday that the measures law enforcement officials took on Sunday represented a clear escalation of violence.

"The use of water in freezing temperatures just goes to show that they're being more aggressive and they're actually trying to hurt people," he said. "This is far more threatening to human life than any other time of confrontation with law enforcement."

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Police officers near Cannon Ball, N.D., confronted protesters with rubber bullet guns on Sunday night near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. Credit Stephanie Keith/Reuters

A live video of Sunday's protests was posted by a demonstrator named Kevin Gilbertt, who identifies himself on Facebook as a poet and videographer. Early Monday morning, the often-grainy and unclear video had been viewed over three million times.

Senator Bernie Sanders shared Mr. Gilbertt's video on his Facebook page and called for President Obama to "take all appropriate measures" to protect the protesters.

Senator Sanders also reposted a tweet that said that law enforcement officials were spraying Native Americans with water cannons in 26-degree weather.

The conflict over the $3.7 billion Dakota Access Pipeline has lasted for months, as Energy Transfer Partners, a Dallas-based company, attempts to finish construction of the 1,170-mile project

In an interview with The Associated Press published on Friday, Kelcy Warren, the company's chief executive, said that the company had no alternative but to stick to the plan for construction.

"There's not another way. We're building at that location," Mr. Warren said.

Native Americans, environmental activists and others have said that the pipeline, which would carry oil from North Dakota to Illinois, threatens the local water supply and would also harm sacred Native American grounds.

In an interview with NPR last month, Mr. Archambault, the tribal chairman, said that while protesters were asked to "remain prayerful and peaceful," it was "hard to resist reacting" given the dual pressures coming from Energy Transfer Partners and law enforcement.

"Our purpose is to protect the water," he said. "And no matter what we do, nobody cares. They're going to force this down our throats again."

Niraj Chokshi contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: 16 Arrested at North Dakota Pipeline Protest as Tensions Continue. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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16 Arrested at North Dakota Pipeline Protest

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Tensions continued in North Dakota on Monday afternoon as law enforcement officials arrested 16 people at a demonstration, one day after hundreds clashed with the police over the Dakota Access Pipeline. During a news conference on Monday, officials also defended their use of fire hoses against protesters the night before, despite the below-freezing weather.

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Authorities on Monday defended their decision to douse protesters with water during a skirmish in subfreezing weather near the Dakota Access oil pipeline, and organizers said at least 17 protesters were taken to the hospital - including some who were treated for hypothermia.

Protesters trying to push past a long-blocked bridge on a state highway late Sunday and early Monday were turned back by authorities using tear gas, rubber bullets and water hoses.

Tensions over the Dakota Access oil pipeline flared again Sunday when North Dakota law enforcement used water cannons to disperse a group of about 400 protesters trying to move past a barricaded bridge toward construction sites for the project. As temperatures in Cannon Ball, N.D., dropped into the 20s, police in riot gear sprayed activists with a hose mounted atop an armored vehicle and formed a line to prevent them from advancing up the road, according to the Bismarck Tribune. Protesters also reported being pelted with rubber bullets, tear gas and concussion grenades during the standoff, which lasted until late Sunday night.

A grainy Facebook Live video from the scene shows throngs of people gathered around the Backwater Bridge on Highway 1806, with floodlights shining down on the grass and road below and a haze of smoke and water vapor rising near police vehicles.

The clashes began around 6 p.m., when protesters tried to remove burned-out trucks that had been blocking the bridge since authorities and activists faced off there in late October. Police have since set up wire and concrete barriers on the bridge, which is about a mile south of where the pipeline developer plans to drill.

Protesters, who call themselves "water protectors," have argued that the barricade prevents emergency services from reaching the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and a nearby camp they have used as a staging ground for demonstrations.

Authorities responded after protesters moved one of the trucks blocking the roadway. The Morton County Sheriff's Department said that by 8:30 p.m., an estimated 400 people had arrived to try to "breach" the bridge and had set dozens of fires in the area. The department called the situation an "ongoing riot," saying protesters were "very aggressive" and were trying to "flank and attack the law enforcement line." At least one person was arrested, the sheriff's department said.

One of the protest organizers, Dallas Goldtooth, said protesters started small fires in the area to help warm people who had been sprayed with water in the freezing cold. At least 17 protesters were injured severely enough to be taken to hospitals, Goldtooth said, according to the Associated Press.

He told the Tribune that some activists tried to remove the burned-out trucks to expose the heavily armed authorities behind them. "Folks have a right to be on a public road," Goldtooth said. "It's absurd that people who've been trying to take down the barricade now have their lives at risk."

[U.N. officials denounce 'inhuman' treatment of Native American pipeline protesters]

Another organizer, Tara Houska, told the Tribune that more than 200 people were hit with tear gas, pepper spray or water from the hose.

"They're using everything and anything," she said. "This has been weeks and weeks of those vehicles on the road for no apparent reason, and it's a huge public safety risk. It's putting enormous pressure on the Standing Rock Sioux community and people who live and work in the area."

Organizers said the Cannon Ball gym was being used for emergency relief, with medics from the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes treating people who were injured in the standoff. Physicians and tribal healers with the Standing Rock Medic and Healer Council called on authorities to stop using water cannons against the protesters, saying the below-freezing weather could cause hypothermia and criticizing the "potentially lethal use of these controversial methods against people peacefully assembled," CNN reported.

Video of water cannons being used on protectors in 26°F/-3°C at barricades at barricades in North Dakota 📷: @johnkdangers #NoDAPL pic.twitter.com/L8gYUglJ9v

- IndigenousEnviroNet (@IENearth) November 21, 2016

Ambulances help unarmed citizens wet from water canons mace in freezing temps #NoDAPL @POTUS @washingtonpost pic.twitter.com/bEc4i0RYBR

- Pam Kingfisher (@pjKingfisher) November 21, 2016

Protesters and police massed at the bridge again Monday morning. The Associated Press reported that protesters went back to the camp later in the day at the request of Standing Rock Sioux elders after reports of firearms in the crowd.

The sheriff's department said that water cannons were brought in to control the crowds and extinguish fires set by protesters.

"There are multiple fires being set by protesters on the bridge and in the area of the bridge," department spokeswoman Donnell Hushka told CNN. "We have firetrucks on the scene. They are using their fire hoses to put out the fires, wet the land around so fires don't spread, and they are also using water as crowd control."

The sheriff's department told the Tribune that the bridge has been closed since October because transportation officials were concerned about its structural integrity.

The $3.8 billion pipeline is scheduled to carry crude oil nearly 1,200 miles from North Dakota to Illinois. Construction is nearly complete, but a planned segment of the project that crosses under the Missouri River has been a source of contention for months. The Standing Rock Sioux argue that the pipeline cuts within a mile of their reservation and could pollute water and disrupt cultural sites. The tribe has challenged the project in court, and protesters have camped out near the Missouri River site for months.

Energy Transfer Partners, the project developer, says the pipeline transports oil more safely than trucks and will not harm sacred lands.

In October, a group of activists tried to set up a second protest camp closer to the area where drilling is planned. They blocked the roadway with scrap wood, bales of hay and tires and used abandoned trucks to block the Backwater Bridge. After repeatedly ordering them to leave, authorities stormed the camp, using pepper spray, high-pitched warnings and rubber bullets against those who refused to leave. More than 100 people were arrested.
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Police defend use of water cannons on Dakota Access protesters in freezing weather

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Authorities on Monday defended their decision to douse protesters with water during a skirmish in subfreezing weather near the Dakota Access oil pipeline, and organizers said at least 17 protesters were taken to the hospital - including some who were treated for hypothermia.