The protests concern me because it ' s another instance of militarized police abusing peaceful protesters . However , the Indians don ' t have a strong legal basis to justify their actions . The Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1851 has been inconsistently enforced and violated by just about everyone including tribes against other tribes since its writing . It also gives the Indians vast swaths of Midwest land which they ' ve never claimed or defended . At this point claiming it ' s Indian land is about as legitimate as saying California belongs to Mexico . These are battles that have long since been won . There are also some legal questions remaining to be resolved about whether proper approvals are in place for environment impact , etc . However , they don ' t have an injunction to stop construction at this point . While I ' m sympathetic to the protesters , they aren ' t necessarily in the right . The response to them has been inappropriately disproportionate , but it ' s unclear what exactly the appropriate response is to people who won ' t stop trespassing .