Dan Nanamkin of the Colville Nez Percé tribe in Nespelem, Wash., right, drums with a procession through the Oceti Sakowin camp after it was announced in December that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would not grant easement for the Dakota Access oil pipeline. (AP Photo/David Goldman)The federal government announced Friday that it was dispatching Bureau of Indian Affairs agents to help clear Dakota Access Pipeline protesters from the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. But some protesters have remained on the site, even as the weather has become harsher and tribal officials have said they will fight any federal permit in court. Corps officials have said that the extended protests have contributed to soil erosion that could make any potential spring flooding worse. “In these past few weeks at camp, I see no reflection of our earlier unity, and without unity we lose,” the tribe’s chairman, David Archambault II, said in a statement.

Source: Washington Post February 04, 2017 02:12 UTC