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Dakota pipeline protesters are increasingly divided over tactics

FILE – In this Oct. 27, 2016 file photo, Dakota Access Pipeline protesters sit in a prayer circle at the Front Line Camp as a line of law enforcement officers make their way across the camp to remove the protesters and relocate to the overflow camp a few miles to the south in Morton County, North Dakota. Members of more than 200 tribes from across North America have come to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s encampment at the confluence of the Missouri and Cannonball rivers since August, the tribe says. (Mike McCleary / The Bismarck Tribune via AP)
By Regina Garcia Cano and James Macpherson Associated Press

BISMARCK, N.D. – Protesters at the demonstration against the Dakota Access pipeline are increasingly divided over how to stop the project, with militant younger activists seeking more aggressive tactics and an older crowd arguing for peaceful protest centered on prayer.

The differences came to a head last week after law enforcement officers in riot gear forced hundreds of protesters off an encampment on private property. In response, some demonstrators torched three vehicles on a bridge, creating a blockade that effectively cut off easy access to the pipeline construction zone and made it far harder for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and nearby residents to get to Bismarck for errands and medical appointments.

Many other protesters insist their cause cannot resort to lawbreaking, and they support the threat of eviction that the main camp has issued against people who would cause problems.

“We don’t want people instigating things that are going to get out of hand. We don’t need them,” said Don Cuny, chief of security for the large camp near the confluence of the Missouri and Cannonball rivers.

With the potential for more violence, tribal elders have asked that children be removed from the camp.

“They want the kids out of here if things get ugly,” said Emmett White Temple, a 55-year-old member of the Standing Rock Sioux.

A Denver woman was charged Monday with attempted murder by authorities who said she fired three shots at law officers during Thursday’s operation.

The sprawling encampment known as Oceti Sakowin, or Seven Council Fires camp, is on Army Corps of Engineers land. Residents are hesitant about singling out the group or groups that set the vehicles on fire, but they overwhelmingly point to a young crowd of campers.

For months now, opponents of the four-state, $3.8 billion pipeline have been camping in this area about 50 miles south of Bismarck. They worry the pipeline will disturb cultural artifacts and threaten drinking water sources on the Standing Rock Sioux’s nearby reservation and downstream.

Tribal elders condemned the destruction of the vehicles, White Temple said.

“We have to keep on with prayer, but those people are still digging that pipeline,” he said. Others believe “violence gets action.”