Law enforcement officials in North Dakota, escorted by armored vehicles and helicopters, moved Thursday to dismantle the newest campsite for the Dakota Access protesters, built just days ago directly on the $3.8 billion pipeline’s path.
At least one blockade was on fire as the Morton County Sheriff’s Department said it “began taking steps” to remove roadblocks and protesters from the private property of Dakota Access, the Bismarck Tribune reported. Law enforcement were accompanying Dakota Access trucks and bulldozers, while the state’s Department of Emergency Services had staff in place in case of injuries.
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The eviction comes just a day after negotiations broke down between protesters — who call themselves water protectors — and authorities.
On Sunday, activists put up tents and tepees directly on the project’s path for the first time, saying the land belongs to Native Americans per a treaty signed in the 1800s. The land is now owned by Dakota Access, a developing arm of Energy Transfer Partners. Authorities said earlier this week they couldn’t move in as they lack manpower. Since then, six states sent law enforcement to Morton, a rural county of less than 30,000 people.
As authorities moved in around noon on Thursday, some activists backed up arm in arm, according to multiple reports. The Associated Press said officials used a loudspeaker to tell the group to move out and to back up so emergency services could reach the blazing blockade.
Activists, who are mostly Native American, have been bracing for an eviction. Some had parked cars on the highway nearby and slashed the vehicles’ tires to slow the authorities. They also set a small fire at one of two roadblocks, according to the Associated Press.
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The Dakota Access pipeline would move more than 500,000 barrels of fracked crude oil daily through the Dakotas and Iowa, before reaching a hub in Illinois. The project is set to be built in the area of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which opposes the line because of the risk of a spill into the Missouri River, the longest river in North America and the tribe’s sole water supply.
For roughly four months, Standing Rock tribe members, as well as protesters and Native Americans from all over the country, have been living in massive camps located near where the Missouri and Cannonball rivers meet. Last weekend some 127 people were arrested, bringing the total tally to more than 200, according to the AP. Activists have clashed with private security — who allegedly attacked protesters with dogs, and law enforcement officials who have used pepper spray.
Earlier this week, the Standing Rock tribe urged U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to probe law enforcement tactics against activists, saying authorities are escalating the situation as they are growing militarized.
Authorities say the opposite is true. Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney told local news media Wednesday that law enforcement was not looking for a confrontation and was trying to negotiate. “If you go back two and half months, the only times we’ve engaged with them is when they break the law,” he said.
Also on Thursday, envoys from the Standing Rock tribe and other tribes traveled to New York City, where Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is campaigning, to demand she take a stand on the pipeline. Like the Republican presidential nominee, Clinton has been mum on what is now the largest Native American protest movement in years.
“As a young person I want to know what the next four years are going to entail. Is Hillary going to be focused on protecting our land? I want to know if my younger family is going to be safe,” Garrett Hairychin, 23, said in a statement.