Indigenous Protesters Call on Feds to Intervene Against Military-Style Crackdown at Standing Rock

‘Military-style checkpoints. Low-flying surveillance planes. Invasive strip searches. These are just some of the repression tactics that have targeted the thousands of Indigenous people and supporters who, heeding the call of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, mobilized to North Dakota to stop the proposed $3.8 billion crude-oil Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).
Now, those people—who call themselves water protectors—are demanding that the Department of Justice intervene to halt the state violence. “I am seeking a Justice Department investigation because I am concerned about the safety of the people,” Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault, II said in a statement released on Tuesday. “Too often these kinds of investigations take place only after some use of excessive force by the police creates a tragedy.”’
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