After the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline said they will resume construction of sections of the project, a group of U.S. Army veterans are returning to the Standing Rock protest camp and have offered to act as human shields to protect protesters from police.
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Police and government officials are trying to remove Native American and environmental activists at the occupying camps who have taken up their fight against the 1,170-mile pipeline, which they say will destroy Indigenous sacred sites and damage the local environment.
The group of veterans could now help protect the protesters from police and law enforcement. The veterans' help would be a welcome change as protesters have frequently been forcefully targeted by militarized police and security forces along with legal action, with hundreds being arrested and a number facing federal charges.
“We are prepared to put our bodies between Native elders and a privatized military force … We’ve stood in the face of fire before. We feel a responsibility to use the skills we have,” 34-year-old air force veteran Elizabeth Williams told the Guardian.
Estimates by organizers vary from dozens to hundreds of veterans turning up to Standing Rock. Last year, hundreds of veterans answered the call to help protect protesters and also took part in a ceremony where veterans apologized for the history of systematic violence of the U.S. against its Indigenous population.
“This is the right war, right side … Finally, it’s the U.S. military coming on to Sioux land to help, for the first time in history, instead of coming on to Sioux land to kill natives,” said Dan Luker, a 66-year-old Vietnam War veteran who returned to Standing Rock after also being present in December.
In one of his first moves as president, Trump signed an order to advance construction of the US$3.8 billion pipeline, which overturned a decision by the Obama administration to halt construction until an environmental impact study could be completed.
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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has since filed an easement to go ahead with the project. Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the project, announced that it will resume construction on a previously blocked section.
While the odds seemed to have turned against protesters since Trump took the White House, the support of the veterans and a final legal challenge by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe signal that the long standing struggle is not over just yet.