Marc Haggarty sat on the cold concrete floor of a basketball court in the Cannonball Community Center. The night before, he slept with Navajo veterans.
For months, people have gathered at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to protest the construction of a 1,172-mile pipeline, which would deliver oil from North Dakota to Illinois.
The protesters said it threatens drinking water around where the pipeline would be placed and disrupt sacred sites.
The Dakota Access LLC, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Crude Oil Company LLC, said the pipeline will meet or exceed state and federal safety requirements and at a minimum will be designed in accordance with 49 Code of Federal Regulations Part 195.
Haggarty, a 68-year-old Bloomington resident and veteran, drove to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation about a week ago and is now spending his time at the Cannonball Community Center.
He said there are thousands of veterans at the camp. Many of the veterans are members of various tribes.
“We’ve met up here and are trying to make sure the police don’t hurt anybody,” Haggarty said. “We think the police will be more reluctant to hurt us veterans than they would brown-skinned people.”
He said he has not seen anyone directly hurt by the police. He said this may be because the police have put barbed wire around areas of the camp.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe won a victory Sunday to block the pipeline when the Department of the Army announced it will not approve an easement that would allow the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe in North Dakota.
“Although we have had continuing discussion and exchanges of new information with the Standing Rock Sioux and Dakota Access, it’s clear that there’s more work to do,” Haggarty said. “The best way to complete that work responsibly and expeditiously is to explore alternate routes for the pipeline crossing.”
Haggarty said the drilling is not going to be halted. He said the lights are still going.
“It’s going to be so cold in January that they’re hoping to drive everyone out,” he said.
He said the wind chill at the camp has been subzero for two days. Winds are at 60 mph, and 12,000 people are stranded and camping.
“Half women, a lot of elders and white people in their early twenties trying to make it through this blizzard.” Haggarty said.
The center has four-wheel-drive cars going back and forth to take hypothermia patients to get medical attention.
“Everybody is just trying to escape the blizzard,” Haggarty said.
Standing Rock Sioux’s tribal chairman, Dave Archambault II, is encouraging the people supporting the tribe to dismantle the camp and return to their homes. He said if the camp stays, there is risk of further provocation from local law enforcement.
“If the camp stays where it is currently located, people are risking their lives,” Archambault said in a press release on the Stand with Standing Rock website. “I don’t want anyone to be living in an unsafe environment. We need to stay in prayer, believe in our prayer and begin our journey home in prayer.”
He said it is now time to pivot to the next phase of the struggle.
Haggarty said the government is still armed. He said the veterans are not armed and are all committed to peace.
“We are sworn to protect from all enemies, foreign and domestic,” Haggarty said. “If Indians are being water cannoned in sub-freezing temperatures and the people up here are being hurt, we’ve got some domestic enemies.”
