The move comes after Dalrymple gave an "emergency evacuation" order that will effectively expel protesters from the site. The Army Corps of Engineers, who have given demonstrators until December 5 to leave the camp, has said that it does not intend to remove the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and their supporters by force, but rather hopes to facilitate a "peaceful and orderly transition to a safer location."
He justified the order by claiming concern over the protester’s wellbeing during the area’s harsh winters, but Standing Rock Chairman Dave Archambault II accused the Governor of trying to "usurp and circumvent federal authority" by leveling what he described as a "menacing action meant to cause fear."
The Republican governor issued the order a week after law enforcement officers doused the "water protectors" with fire hoses in sub-freezing temperatures during a confrontation on what’s known as the Backwater Bridge, which authorities have blocked for weeks.
Indigenous Environmental Network organizer Dallas Longtooth said there were instances of "Hypothermia, a number of head injuries from being shot with rubber bullets [and] one individual had a heart attack."
Dallas remarked later that "We're in the heart of winter now. To even think of a forced removal is terrifying."
Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier defended the use of force on Monday saying the measures were implemented to protect officers. "We're just not going to let people or protesters in large groups come in and threaten officers. That's not happening," he said.
Speaking out against violence perpetrated upon protesters, songwriter and musician Neil Young posted an open letter to President Barack Obama on Facebook Monday asking him to "step in and end" what he described as the "outrageous, unnecessary and violent aggression on the part of militarized local and state law enforcement agencies and National Guard, who are seemingly acting to protect the interests of the Dakota Access Pipeline profiteers."
Young closed his post with a video of his silhouette singing with images of the encampment in the background.
The Standing Rock Sioux claim that the construction of the crude oil pipeline, designed to cross four states, will contaminate their water their water supply and desecrate their burial grounds.
Phyllis Young, Standing Rock Sioux spokeswoman, told a news conference Monday that "We have lived for generations in this setting. That is our camp. We will continue to provide for our people there…This is Lakota territory. This is treaty territory, and no one else has jurisdiction there."
