CANNON BALL, N.D. (AP)  Authorities this week cleared the last holdouts from a Dakota Access pipeline protest camp on federal land in North Dakota, but it will be a while before the region returns to normal.

There’s tons of debris to be cleared. There’s a highway bridge that remains closed. Pipeline drilling continues. There’s a court battle lingering. And hundreds of protesters remain in the area.

Many in the closed camp have gone to other camps nearby on the Standing Rock Reservation. But the status of those camps is unclear.

Protest leader Joye Braun says there’s a dispute over whether two camps are on private land or tribal land. And people haven’t been able to get into another camp established on private land by the Cheyenne River Sioux because of a Bureau of Indian Affairs roadblock.

2 dogs and 6 puppies have been rescued by Furry Friends Rockin Rescue of Bismarck after being abandoned at the camp, found as law enforcement was clearing the area.  The group plans additional trips to the camps if have enough volunteers and if able to enter areas for more rescues.

Earlier…

CANNON BALL, N.D. (AP) — Dozens of people have been arrested as authorities in North Dakota cleared a protest camp where opponents of the Dakota Access oil pipeline had gathered for the better part of a year.

About 220 officers and 18 National Guardsmen methodically searched protester tents and other temporary homes for more than three hours on Thursday. Authorities say 46 people were taken into custody, including a group of military veterans who had to be carried out.

The arrests occurred a day after the Army Corps of Engineers ordered protesters to clear the camp by a 2 p.m. Wednesday deadline.

Native Americans who oppose the $3.8 billion pipeline set up camp last April near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation the shed light on their concerns about the project that would carry oil through the Dakotas and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois.

 

Previously…

CANNON BALL, ND  The North Dakota Joint Information Center reports, that the main Dakota Access Pipeline protest camp was “officially completely cleared” by law enforcement just after 2 p.m. Thursday, February 23,  2017.

CANNON BALL, N.D. (AP) . North Dakota officials have shut down a transition center for people who had been staying in the now-closed Dakota Access pipeline protest camp.

State Emergency Services spokeswoman Cecily Fong says the center was shut down due to lack of use. An adviser to Gov. Doug Burgum says only nine people used the center Wednesday and no one used it Thursday.

Authorities closed the camp on federal land Wednesday, in advance of spring flooding. The state offered transportation to the Bismarck center to anyone who wanted it. Once there, they could get basic necessities, along with bus and hotel vouchers.

Two rooms at the Comfort Inn were damaged, but Fong says that wasn’t a factor in closing the transition center. The hotel didn’t immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

About two dozen Dakota Access pipeline opponents have been arrested so far for remaining in the protest camp.

An adviser to North Dakota’s governor, Levi Bachmeier (BAWK’-my-ur), also says no one in the camp has taken advantage of a bus offered by the state to transport protesters to a transition center in Bismarck. They can avoid criminal charges and get basic necessities there, along with hotel and bus vouchers.

Most protesters left peacefully Wednesday when authorities closed the camp on Army Corps of Engineers land in advance of spring flooding, but some remained overnight.

National Guard soldiers and dozens of officers entered the camp shortly before midday Thursday, shortly after police said Corps officials had met with camp leaders. They didn’t divulge the outcome of the talks.

 

Previously…

CANNON BALL, N.D. (AP) — Authorities are prepared for the possibility that they might have to use force to remove remaining protesters from the now-closed Dakota Access pipeline protest camp in North Dakota.

Highway Patrol Lt. Tom Iverson says American Indian elders have told police there are people willing to resort to drastic measures to stay in the camp that was shut down Wednesday ahead of spring flooding. And he says authorities have monitored similar sentiments expressed on social media.

Iverson says authorities are prepared for a worst-case “SWAT scenario” should anyone who is armed barricade themselves in a structure in the camp. A SWAT vehicle is at the scene.

Several Sioux tribes maintain the pipeline will harm the environment, a claim the project developer disputes.

Earlier

CANNON BALL, N.D. (AP) — Public officials in North Dakota are pleading with the remaining protesters at the Dakota Access oil pipeline camp to pack up and leave so authorities can resume cleaning up the premises without any further arrests.

Most of the campers marched out of the area ahead of a Wednesday deadline to get off the federal land, and authorities arrested 10 people who defied the order in a final show of dissent. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum says none of the law enforcement officers left the main highway outside the camp.

Burgum says between 25 and 50 people are left at the camp. He says they will “have every opportunity” to leave without getting arrested.

The governor says the ongoing cleanup at the camp is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. today.