I live here , I ' ve seen the protests in person and from the air . When you see a group of protesters in the media , half of them are being paid to be here and are from out of state . They attend training on how to protest before they arrive . They ' re asked to up the stakes so to speak , which is where the protesters who incite violence and the subsequent law enforcement response comes from . We are generally negative toward the protesters in ND . All affected tribes were asked close to 10 times to attend meetings and weigh in during planning for the pipeline . They skipped the meetings , didn ' t return phonecalls , didn ' t return mail . I ' ve worked rural water projects in ND before , this is common among the tribes from my experience and the experiences of others . It gets old . Edit the protesters sprayed with water were yards from a heated camp . They got sprayed , got cold , warmed up at camp . The violence level is being hyped up . Don ' t be a bunch of media puppets .