Confrontations between local police and activists have left many injured, as the winter continues to turn frigid at a protest encampment on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.
A Native American Eugene resident has just returned from the North Dakota pipeline site.
Daphne Singingtree says there’s been instances of tear gas, rubber bullets, and other crowd control measures used against hundreds of “water protectors”, straining available medical staff.
“…Physicians, nurses, paramedics and integrative healers," describes Sittingtree. "Police continually assaulted demonstrators with up to three water cannons, in subfreezing temperatures, dipping to 22 degrees.”
Singingtree – herself a member of the Standing Rock Sioux – says more than two dozen people went to hospitals. She says activists are motivated to stay put to help protect the water and earth.