{"id":28663,"date":"2016-11-01T08:02:54","date_gmt":"2016-11-01T15:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/protesters-increasingly-divided-over-tactics\/"},"modified":"2016-11-01T08:02:54","modified_gmt":"2016-11-01T15:02:54","slug":"protesters-increasingly-divided-over-tactics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/protesters-increasingly-divided-over-tactics\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesters increasingly divided over tactics"},"content":{"rendered":"

BISMARCK, N.D.<\/strong> \u2014 Protesters at the demonstration against the Dakota Access pipeline are increasingly divided over how to stop the project, with militant younger activists seeking more aggressive tactics and an older crowd arguing for peaceful protest centered on prayer.<\/p>\n

The differences came to a head last week after law enforcement officers in riot gear forced hundreds of protesters off an encampment on private property. In response, some demonstrators torched three vehicles on a bridge, creating a blockade that effectively cut off easy access to the pipeline construction zone and made it far harder for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and nearby residents to get to Bismarck for errands and medical appointments.<\/p>\n

Many other protesters insist that their cause cannot resort to law breaking, and they support the threat of eviction that the main camp has issued against people who would cause problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want people instigating things that are going to get out of hand. We don\u2019t need them,\u201d said Don Cuny, chief of security for the large camp near the confluence of the Missouri and Cannonball rivers.<\/p>\n

With the potential for more violence, tribal elders have asked that children be removed from the camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want the kids out of here if things get ugly,\u201d said Emmett White Temple, a 55-year-old member of the Standing Rock Sioux.<\/p>\n

A Denver woman was charged Monday with attempted murder by authorities who said she fired three shots at law officers during Thursday\u2019s operation.<\/p>\n

The sprawling encampment known as Oceti Sakowin, or Seven Council Fires camp, is on Army Corps of Engineers land. Within it are smaller camps occupied by protesters from across the U.S. and beyond. Residents are hesitant about singling out the group or groups that set the vehicles on fire, but they overwhelmingly point to a young crowd of campers.<\/p>\n

For months now, opponents of the four-state, $3.8 billion pipeline have been camping in this area about 50 miles south of Bismarck. They worry the pipeline will disturb cultural artifacts and threaten drinking water sources on the Standing Rock Sioux\u2019s nearby reservation and downstream.<\/p>\n

The pipeline\u2019s operator, Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, insists the project is safe. The tribe is fighting the pipeline\u2019s permitting process in federal court.<\/p>\n

Tribal elders condemned the destruction of the vehicles, White Temple said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were getting chewed out for the aggression,\u201d he said of a meeting Sunday at the main protest camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to keep on with prayer, but those people are still digging that pipeline,\u201d he said. Others believe \u201cviolence gets action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, construction crews worked right next to the camp that authorities cleared Thursday, when they arrested more than 140 people.<\/p>\n

Winter clothing, propane tanks, wood, tires, bottled water and other items belonging to the protesters lay next to heavy equipment. The vehicles set on fire were still smoldering Sunday as at least 10 dozen law enforcement vehicles and officers from different jurisdictions stood just beyond a cement barricade.<\/p>\n

Cody Hall, a former spokesman for one of the encampment\u2019s factions, said the entire camp must remain united to successfully fight the pipeline. He said the violence seen Thursday was \u201cexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to say anything bad about the fire being put up,\u201d Hall said. \u201cIt happens and we are dealing with it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BISMARCK, N.D. \u2014 Protesters at the demonstration against the Dakota Access pipeline are increasingly divided over how to stop the project, with militant younger activists seeking more aggressive tactics and an older crowd arguing for peaceful protest centered on prayer. The differences came to a head last week after law enforcement officers in riot gear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":28664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-28663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28663"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=28663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}