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A6 U.S. NEWS
Saturday 3 december 2016
Frigid North Dakota winter menaces pipeline protest camp
JAMES MacPHERSON are being erected, even
Associated Press though the Army Corps of
CANNON BALL, N.D. (AP) Engineers considers them il-
— So far, the hundreds of legal on government prop-
protesters fighting the Da- erty. The Standing Rock
kota Access pipeline have Sioux insist the land still be-
shrugged off the heavy longs to their tribe under a
snow, icy winds and frigid nearly 150-year-old treaty.
temperatures that have Nate Bison, a member of
swirled around their large South Dakota’s Cheyenne
encampment on the North River Sioux, came to the
Dakota grasslands. camp after quitting his job
But if they defy next week’s in Las Vegas a week ago.
government deadline to He said he intends to stay
abandon the camp, dem- indefinitely, a prospect
onstrators know the real that may cause him to lose
deep freeze lies ahead, his house in Nevada.
when the full weight of “But since I’ve lived in
the Great Plains winter de- these conditions before, to
scends on their community me it’s not all that bad,” he
of nylon tents and teepees. said.
Life-threatening wind chills Camp morale is high, he
and towering snow drifts added, despite the onset
could mean the greatest of winter.
challenge is simple survival. “Everybody I’ve talked
“I’m scared. I’m a Califor- In this Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016 photo, a student walks into the school at the Oceti Sakowin camp to, you hear laughter and
nia girl, you know?” said where people have gathered to protest the Dakota Access pipeline near Cannon Ball, N.D. people just having a good
Loretta Reddog of Placer- (AP Photo/David Goldman) time, enjoying the cama-
ville, California, a protester raderie and the support
who said she arrived sever- to the harsher climate. federal land by Monday, ties will do to enforce that from each other,” Bison
The government has or-
although it’s not clear
mandate. Demonstrators
al months ago with her two said. “And the love. People
dogs and has yet to adjust dered protesters to leave what, if anything, authori- insist they will stay for as are taking the shirts off their
long as it takes to divert the own backs for other peo-
$3.8 billion pipeline, which ple. No one is left out that
the Standing Rock Sioux I’ve seen.”
tribe believes threatens sa- On Thursday, the camp
cred sites and a river that near the confluence of
provides drinking water for the Missouri and Cannon-
millions of people. ball rivers was shrouded
The pipeline is largely com- in snow, much of it com-
plete except for a short pacted by foot and ve-
segment that is planned hicle traffic. Temperatures
to pass beneath a Missouri hovered in the 20s. Next
River reservoir. The compa- week’s forecast calls for
ny doing the building says single digits and subzero
it is unwilling to reroute the wind chills.
project. For several months, Camp dwellers are getting
the government permitted ready for the hardships of
the gathering, allowing its a long stay. Mountains of
population to swell. The donated food and water
Seven Council Fires camp are being stockpiled, as is
began growing in August firewood, much of which
as it took in the overflow has come from outside of
crowd from smaller protest North Dakota, the least-
sites nearby. It now covers forested state in the na-
a half square mile, with liv- tion. A collection of Army
ing quarters that include surplus tents with heating
old school buses, fancy stoves serve as kitchen,
motorhomes and domelike dining hall, medical clinic
yurts. Hale bales are piled and a camp-run school.
around some teepees to Many of the smaller tents
keep out the wind. There’s have become tattered by
even a crude corral for the wind.
horses. Thane Maxwell, a 32-year-
The number of inhabitants old Minneapolis native
has ranged from several who has been living at the
hundred to several thou- camp since July, said North
sand. It has been called Dakota’s bitter cold will not
the largest gathering of deter protesters commit-
Native American tribes in a ted to fighting the pipeline,
century. or “black snake” as they
Increasingly, more perma- call it.
nent wooden structures Continued from page 27
