"If (veterans) come to this area and they want to protest peacefully, if that's what they want to do and have their voice heard, then there's absolutely no issues with that," Kyle Kirchmeier, sheriff for Morton County, North Dakota, where the pipeline is routed, said in an interview Saturday. Some veterans groups are unhappy with those coming to support the protesters, saying they are standing up for illegal behavior. Hundreds of people at the Oceti Sakowin, or Seven Council Fires, encampment cheered and chanted “mni wichoni” — “water is life” in Lakota Sioux — after the Army Corps of Engineers refused Sunday to grant the company permission to extend the pipeline beneath a Missouri River reservoir. The bridge blockade is something that Standing Rock Sioux tribal chairman Dave Archambault has been asking to be removed, the Bismarck Tribune reports , and something he said he would to talk to Gov. "The question was asked if we would consider pulling back from the Backwater Bridge," Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney said in a Saturday news release after a conversation between law enforcement and the group's organizers, "and the answer is yes! Veterans Stand for Standing Rock members aim to form a human barrier in front of police to assist thousands of activists who have spent months demonstrating against plans to route the Dakota Access Pipeline beneath a lake near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.
The United States Army Corps of Engineers denies a permit for Energy Transfer Partners planned Dakota Access Pipeline running through North Dakota and will begin exploring alternative routes for the pipeline following weeks of protests.