Authorities in North Dakota removed the last remaining protesters from the Dakota Access pipeline protest camp after the deadline for the camp’s eviction passed on Thursday, February 23.
Morton County Sheriff’s Department said 46 people had been arrested at the camp site that at one point had housed thousands of environmental and Native American rights activists opposed to plans to build a pipeline under a lake near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.
The Associated Press reported that Energy Transfer Partners could complete the pipeline as early as March 6 but the Texas-based developer faces a new court challenge from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and hundreds of protesters remain camped nearby on tribal land.
Protests agains the pipeline, which activists claimed threatened sacred sites and the reservation’s water supply, gained international attention following clashes between activists, pipeline security guards and the North Dakota authorities.
This video shows one man sitting on top of a structure at the Oceti Sakowin Main Camp and authorities beginning to clear the site. Credit: Facebook/ Hunter Nolan via Storyful
