Editor's note: This story has been updated with more details about the deployment.
National Park Service law enforcement rangers are being called to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota, where protesters of the Dakota Access Pipeline have been given until February 22 to leave the area. After that deadline, police are expected to forcibly remove them.
Park Service officials in Washington, D.C., would not confirm the call-up, with chief spokesman Thomas Crosson telling the Traveler on Wednesday afternoon that, "I have nothing to provide at this time."
Three different sources within the agency, speaking on the condition that they not be identified as they were not authorized to discuss the call-up, confirmed the deployment to the Traveler. A deployment order obtained by the Traveler notes that the rangers are set to arrive in North Dakota on Sunday, February 19, and depart on March 6. They will assist the Department of the Interior "in a humanitarian effort to maintain public safety, protection of property, peace and order as it relates to encampments located on Reservation land," the order states. It says personnel should bring available riot gear, including gas masks, as well as "night vision, thermal scopes, and any other useful items."
One source, however, said the rangers were to help clear the protesters out of camps along the Missouri River.
Chase Ironeyes of the Lakota People's Law Project could not immediately be reached for comment, though his staff said Traveler's request had been forwarded to him.
Exactly how many protesters remain at Standing Rock is hard to say, though it's thought to be considerably less than the thousands that once headed there to protest the pipeline.
President Trump earlier this year signed an executive order to restart construction of the pipeline, which tribes oppose.
Comments
So what? Are any threatening permanent destructon of a water source? Are you ready to live without any of the benefits of petroleum products?
Tin foil.
Are you an LE? Is this true?
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/23/us/dakota-access-pipeline...
This impacts more than just the Dakota Natives. Name one pipeline that HASN'T leaked at some point?
"Bring a vest" seriously, you think that guy with the post following yours is an LE? What's he threatening? This is a federal law enforcement ranger or a troll?
Amen! Of all the gall. Money sucks the feeling out of everyone. How can so many souls hate so much?
#IStandWithStandingRock
Sheeple. Pipelines occassionally leak. None that I am aware of (and noone has shown) had a permant impairment to a municipal water source. On the other hand, 99+% of oil & gas shipped in pipelines doesn't leak and the benefits we obtain from that oil and gas are massive from heating our homes to providing transportation for goods and people.
We have car accidents, we don't shut down the highway system. We have train accidents, we don't shut down the trains. We have airplane accidents, we don't shut down the skies. We have medical accidents, we don't shut down the operating rooms. We accidentally send water through lead pipes, we don't shut down the water distribution systems. All of these must be looked at in context, the risks versus the benefits. The risks from the pipelines are relatively small, and correctable (unlike many car, train, plane, medical accidents that result in immediate death) and the benefits of oil & gas are massive as proven by your use of them every day as do hundreds of other Americans.
Rather than play endless word games that depend upon the meaning of a single word, let's just keep in mind that "permanent" is entirely relative depending upon the viewpoint of the person using it.
I'd venture to suggest that the family of the man who was incinerated recently in a pipeline explosion in the Southeast believe the damage is permanent.
Now it's time to allow intelligent readers to decide for themselves what kind of danger pipelines pose and dump the merry go round of repetitious trolling. Pipelines are needed, but good sense also needs to prevail.