WASHINGTON, Nov. 7, 2016 -- The National Cattlemen’s Beef
Association and the Public Lands Council are criticizing the Obama
administration for the way it’s handling the Dakota Access Pipeline protests.
The
groups say cases of damage to private property are increasing on land in Sioux
and Morton counties in North Dakota, near the pipeline protests, including
incidents of livestock being mutilated and killed. They accuse the
administration of being negligent and are calling for the restoration of law
and order.
According
to the Billings Gazette, authorities are investigating several incidents of
cattle, bison and horses that have been killed or injured, some even shot with
arrows and left to suffer.
LaDonna
(Brave Bull) Allard, a historian and genealogist for the Standing Rock Tribe,
which is protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline, said it’s preposterous to think
protesters encamped near the project killed the animals for food. Butchering
the animals would have been obvious and would have taken time for unskilled
protesters. Many are urbanites who are vegetarian. She says the area is under
constant surveillance from law enforcement.
"Most
of this is gossip and rumor," Allard says.
Meanwhile,
North Dakota Stockmen’s Association’s chief brand inspector Stan Misek says
authorities are not any closer to finding out who is responsible for the
incidents.
“We
haven’t received any information on who it might be. Every phone call we get,
we follow up and go from there. Producers should keep an eye on their cattle
and get them close to home if possible.”
The
Standing Rock Tribe and other Native American supporters are demanding that the
route of the 1,170-mile pipeline be shifted away from tribal lands, saying
construction is damaging culturally important sites and threatening the tribe’s
drinking water. The line is designed to carry as much as 570,000 barrels a day
of shale oil from North Dakota’s Bakken field to the pipeline networks and
refineries of Illinois.
President
Obama said recently that the Army Corps of Engineers was considering ways to
reroute the pipeline.“We’re going to let it play out for several more weeks and
determine whether or not this can be resolved in a way that I think is properly
attentive to the traditions of First Americans,” he said.
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