A total of 83 people were arrested yesterday at protest against the construction of a major North Dakota pipeline.
The Morton County Sheriff’s Department confirmed the figure. The local police force said 300 people has trespassed on private property as part of the protest and “engaged in escalated unlawful tactics and behaviour”.
The protest was held three miles west of State Highway 1806, beside the pipeline right-of-way. The 83 protesters were charged with criminal trespass and engaging in a riot.
In comes days after Hollywood starlet Shailene Woody, who starred in Divergent, was arrested on October 10 in the same area.
The $3.8billion pipeline will stretch across the Dakotas into Illinois.
Hundreds of people have joined the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s bid to stop construction work from interfering with sacred sites.
The tribe has filed court papers stating it had found several sites of ‘significant cultural and historic value’ on the planned route, including burial rock piles.
A group of firms led by Energy Transfers Partners is building the 1,100 mile pipeline.
The firms later agreed to halt construction of an oil pipeline temporarily in some, but not all parts of North Dakota where the tribe has sacred sites.
The pipeline would shuttle 470,000 barrels of crude oil a day.