DAPL Protestors Get Unusually High Fines, Jury Finds Actions Had No Legitimate Purpose

A ruling in a Morton County, North Dakota courtroom shows how people in our nation live in very different worlds and how much work we have ahead to find common understandings of fairness and decency.

A Morton County jury found eight Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) protesters guilty of disorderly conduct, according to a story in the Bismarck Tribune. The court fined them between $1,250 and $1,685 each. Their crimes included such actions as “sitting on a gravel access road built by the company, pushing into law enforcement and standing in the road,” the story said.

Defense attorney Alex Reichert told the judge that a $1,000 fine was more than he’d seen imposed for this type of crime in his 20-year legal career. …

The fines came after a request from Ladd Erickson, a special prosecutor for Morton County, who contends the protesters wanted to inflict harm on the state, people and police.

A Day of Many Messages: DAPL’s Owners Vow to Fight On; Standing Rock Leader Says Time to Break Camp; Signs of Victory, Uncertainty, and Worry Abound

Moon rise at Oceti Sakowin earlier this fall.

Native rights and environmental groups are sending out congratulatory emails today on the Dakota Access Pipeline. They are celebrating the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to deny an easement to Energy Transfer Partners to drill the Dakota Access Pipeline under the Missouri River. The Corps said it would explore alternative routes.

The question now is, What’s next?

The companies which own the Dakota Access Pipeline have sent out a blistering media release vowing to push head with the current project.

Standing Rock Tribal Chair Dave Archambault is telling the Water Protectors to break camp and go home for the winter, according to reports. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also set today as the deadline for people at the Oceti Sakowin Camp — which is on federal property — to leave

Yet many people at the camp don’t trust that the project will stop and are going to stay anyway.

Further, key pipeline players will change soon, both the Governor of North Dakota and the president of the United States. That throws everything up in the air.

Obama Says DAPL Reroute is a Possibility; National Day of Action Nov. 15

President Obama is raising the option of rerouting the Dakota Access Pipeline away from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

Obama has been getting a lot of public pressure to take stronger action against the pipeline. A reroute might satisfy some, but probably wont satisfy those who oppose the pipeline because of the environmental damage it will create — no matter what path it takes.

Obama says that ” the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is examining whether the four-state project can be rerouted in southern North Dakota to alleviate the concerns of American Indians,” according to an MPR report.

Obama told the online news outlet NowThis that his administration is monitoring the situation closely but will “let it play out for several more weeks.” …

Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault welcomed Obama’s statement but said the administration and the Corps should go farther and stop work on the pipeline and do a full environmental impact study.