Their deployment as a nonviolent, unarmed citizens’ militia, as Veterans Stand for Standing Rock calls it, comes as the governor of the state of North Dakota has ordered mandatory evacuation of a protesters’ camp near the pipeline construction site in Cannon Ball, N.D., south of Bismarck. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith

Veterans volunteering to be human shields have been arriving at the Oceti Sakowin camp near the small town of Cannon Ball, where they will work with protesters who have spent months demonstrating against plans to route the Dakota Access Pipeline beneath a lake near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, organizers said. Demonstrators insist they will stay for as long as it takes to divert the $3.8 billion pipeline, which the Standing Rock Sioux tribe believes threatens sacred sites and a river that provides drinking water for millions of people. “This weekend I'm joining thousands of veterans from across the country at Standing Rock to stand in solidarity with our Native American brothers and sisters,” Gabbard said on the House floor Thursday. Thane Maxwell, a 32-year-old Minneapolis native who has been living at the camp since July, said North Dakota’s bitter cold will not deter protesters committed to fighting the pipeline, or “black snake” as they call it. “This inaction has inflamed tensions, strained state and local resources, and, most importantly, is needlessly putting people at risk, including tribal members, protesters, law enforcement officers, construction workers and area residents.”

He also called for federal law enforcement agencies to augment state and local law enforcement. The number of inhabitants has ranged from several hundred to several thousand. It coincides with a deadline set by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for oil pipeline protesters to leave some of the land around the construction site, and it comes just after the governor ordered protesters to evacuate. “There is an element there of people protesting who are frightening,” North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said on Thursday. However, the county sheriff will likely not be using any more officers from outside the state, according to Cecily Fong in the Sheriff’s Department, in part because of “political pushback in some of the states that have provided law enforcement,” she wrote in an email to The Seattle Times. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Thursday he supported the completion of the pipeline and his transition team also said he supported peaceful protests. Jack Dalrymple issued a “mandatory evacuation” for the camp “to safeguard against harsh winter conditions.” But he said Wednesday that the state has no intention of blocking food and supplies from coming into the camp. State officials never contemplated forcibly removing protesters and his evacuation order was mainly due to concerns about inclement weather endangering people, Dalrymple said. Slideshow (14 Images)

The temperature in Cannon Ball is expected to fall to 4 degrees Fahrenheit (-16 Celsius) by the middle of next week, according to Weather.com forecasts. The 1,172-mile (1,885-km) pipeline project, owned by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP ETP.N, is mostly complete, except for a segment planned to run under Lake Oahe, a reservoir formed by a dam on the Missouri River. Protesters, who refer to themselves as “water protectors,” have been gearing up for the winter while they await the Army Corps decision on whether to allow Energy Transfer Partners to tunnel under the river. That decision has been delayed twice by the Army Corps.
Groups of U.S. military veterans join the protest as human shields against possible clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement when the United States Army Corps of Engineers' eviction deadline expires on Monday. They are building barracks for shelter in North Dakota's winter weather.