Tipis and tents dot the countryside near the Cannonball River, in south central North Dakota.
The river divides Morton County from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. And it is the home for people protesting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
All you hear is prayer and song, and an occasional drumbeat. The protestors are celebrating the decision by the US Departments of Justice and Interior, and the Army Corps of Engineers, to ask that construction be stopped. It is a change from last weekend, when things became violent.
But even as protestors celebrate, that joy is tempered by the fact that the halt to pipeline construction is not yet permanently stopped.
“We won the day,” said John Wauthen, a protestor from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He describes himself as an environmental activist. “There’s a long fight still ahead of us.”
Wauthen and others say they’re ready to stay at the camps, until that fight is over.
Philana Hutchison came to the protest from Boulder, Coloradio. She said she had planned to be here four days. But she says when the violence broke out last Saturday, she knew she had to stay. She and a group of other protestors set up a camp north of the main Spirit Camp, at what she called the “front line” of the protest.
“Running away and leaving this space to go back to the main camp makes no sense,” Hutchison said. “It would be showing a sign of backing down.”
Hutchison said she’s getting help from friends and family to pay her rent, while she keeps with the protestors.
“I don’t know how I’m getting home, but here I am,” Hutchison said.
A group from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota has set up camp on the south side of the Cannonball, on Standing Rock tribal land. This group was also active in protesting the Keystone XL Pipeline.
“Everything we had left over from that occupation, we moved here,” said Rosebud spokesperson Lance Dorian. “We’ve set up for a long term. This could go all winter, and into next summer.”
Dorian said big Army-style tents have been set up, as well as a kitchen.
“We’re in it for the long haul,” Dorian said.
Tonya Bonitatibus is from Augusta, Georgia. She’s with a group called the Savannah River-Keepers. She said her group fought the Palmetto Pipeline last year. And Bonitatibus said there are big issues with the regulation of oil pipelines.
“The people’s voice needs to be heard,” Bonitatibus said. She said she is going back home for a few days, but plans to be back at the protest site this fall.
Bonitatibus said there’s another aspect of this protest. She said it has brought tribes together for one cause.
“It’s fantastic and wonderful to see the cultures coming back,” Bonitatbus said.
