Central ND News

On this day in 2016, 14 people were arrested at three different locations south and east of St. Anthony, for illegal activities during protests over the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).

According to a press release from the Morton County Sheriff’s Office, authorities received a call at 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 15 that approximately 130 protesters were gathering near the Cannonball camps.

Forty-five minutes later, a report came in that one protester had attached himself to a DAPL track hoe arm, 25 feet above the ground, on one of their worksites, while other protesters had built a teepee on the same site, eight miles southeast of St. Anthony.

After law enforcement arrived, the protester released himself from the track hoe arm after being attached for five hours, and was safely lowered to the ground. He was arrested for reckless endangerment, criminal trespass and inciting a riot.

Authorities also evacuated DAPL workers from the sites impacted by the protesters by 9 a.m.

Another 10 protesters were arrested at the intersection of Highway 6 and County Road 135, which is approximately 4 miles south of St. Anthony. Officers had repeatedly ordered the protesters to clear the road, but the crowd’s failure to obey commands to disperse resulted in the 10 arrests for disorderly conduct and disobedience of public safety order during riot conditions.

Though 135 additional protesters had gathered at Morton County Road 136A and 57th Street just minutes later, at 9:25 a.m., the group left the area after one hour and none were arrested.

At 10:40 a.m., officers responded to a report of three protesters trespassing on private ranch property. Those individuals were located near the ranch and then arrested for criminal trespass on private property at 10:50 a.m.

“Ongoing protests continue to violate the rights of our citizens and raise public safety concerns. They want to conduct commerce and feel safe while traveling on our local roadways. Overall public safety is my number 1 priority,” said Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier. 

A community outreach text message was sent to St. Anthony residents, local farmers and ranchers not to use Highway 6 and to stay off obstructed roads due to the unusual amount of traffic, resulting in Highway 6 being temporarily closed to traffic from St. Anthony to County Road 135.

By 2 p.m. that day, all DAPL construction workers were back at work at the impacted protest sites.

In total by that date, there were 140 arrests that led to charges for illegal activity associated with DAPL protests and protesters.

The DAPL protests of 2016 and 2017 aimed to halt the construction of the reported $3.8 billion pipeline and “drew thousands of people to camp out” in Morton County, the Associated Press reported.

The protests resulted in 761 arrests, according to MPR News. Charges ranged from trespassing to more severe offenses. A significant number of those arrested were from out of state.

California resident and actress Shailene Woodley was arrested in October 2016. Other figures, including actors Mark Ruffalo and Leonardo DiCaprio, participated in the protests but were not arrested.

Certain days of the protests resulted in dozens of arrests, such as Feb. 1, 2017, when 76 people were arrested after Morton County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Rob Keller said a “rogue group of protesters” had trespassed on private property.

The State of North Dakota is currently suing the federal government to “recoup $38 million it claims it spent policing the protest camps,” Source NM reported.

Attorneys for North Dakota reportedly argued in court records that the protests “resulted from an illegal occupation on federal lands and led to ‘frequent outbreaks of illegal, dangerous, unsanitary, and life-threatening activity on federal, state and private property.’”

North Dakota Special Assistant Attorney General Paul Seby said in court that the aftermath of the protests “required a four-day cleanup of the camp and 600 bins to remove 9.8 million pounds of trash,” according to MPR News.

Former Morton County Commissioner Cody Schulz, who is now the director of the North Dakota Parks and Recreation Department, said in court that, “beyond the drain on law enforcement, the protests caused a range of impacts on Morton County — everything from minor inconveniences like sluggish traffic to damage to private property,” Source NM reported.

Energy Transfer Partners, the owner of the pipeline, has filed a $300 million lawsuit in state court against the environmental activist organization Greenpeace for its role in the protests. The suit says Greenpeace “should be held responsible for trying to disrupt pipeline construction and damage the company’s reputation and finances,” the Associated Press reported.

That lawsuit, and an attempted settlement, led to the recent ouster of Greenpeace’s Executive Director Ebony Twilley Martin, said the former Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Greenpeace.

Willem van Rijn, the group’s COO until April 2024, told E&E News that “Twilley Martin ‘advocated a way in which the organization would settle for a minor amount of money so that we could fight another day,’” and that the “board vehemently disagreed.”

Greenpeace has launched a fundraising campaign to “raise awareness” of the lawsuit.

The lawsuit filed by Energy Transfer Partners in Morton County District Court is currently pending.