More than 70 people were arrested on Wednesday afternoon near the proposed route of the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota, as Western lawmakers expressed opposing views on the future of the $3.8 billion project.
The Morton County Sheriff's Office said it had arrested "approximately 76" people who were camping on land the sheriff's department said was privately owned, north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and south of the pipeline's proposed crossing under the Missouri River.
The so-called Last Child Camp was near the larger, and still occupied, Oceti Sakowin Camp established last year on nearby federal land, according to a Facebook post yesterday by Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network, one of the groups that has organized protests against the pipeline.
Across the Cannonball River, the Sacred Stone Camp is also still occupied by protesters.
Construction of the final piece of the more than 1,700-mile pipeline is awaiting approval from the U.S. Army. On Jan. 24, President Trump signed a memorandum encouraging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to expedite the review and approval process, and earlier this week the Army said that it had been directed to expedite its review of the route, which requires an easement in order to cross under a portion of the Missouri river north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.