SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Oct. 31, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — Chanting “Water is sacred,” demonstrators gathered Monday morning in the Wells Fargo Center to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline.
Before it was over, eight people were taken into police custody in what the group described as a peaceful demonstration.
The morning event, called a Standing Rock Solidarity Prayer & Action, drew about 100 people. They sang and they chanted. Some sat on the floor inside the Wells Fargo Center. Others stood outside, rhythmically knocking or patting on the glass.
The demonstration targeted Wells Fargo, according to the event Facebook page, because “Wells Fargo Bank has been one of the largest funders of DAPL (Dakota Access Pipeline), funneling $467 million into the project.
“Bottom line: Our brothers and sisters on the front lines are sacrificing their livelihoods, personal safety and family to protect OUR shared home,” said a description on the Facebook page. “It’s time we do our part and call out the financial institutions bankrolling destructive developments.”
“In North Dakota the water protectors are risking their lives for us,” said activist Carl Moore, a member of Utah-based Native rights group PANDOS.
Detective Cody Lougy, of the Salt Lake City Police Department, said the nine protesters taken into custody were given the choice of being arrested or accepting citations. Eight chose to be arrested and one chose the citation. The charges were trespassing and failure to disperse, Lougy said.
The proposed pipeline would run from western North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields to Southern Illinois, crossing beneath the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, and part of Lake Oahe, which is near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.
The Sioux tribe’s concern, one shared by the U.S. Department of Interior, is that a pipeline spill or leak would make the water undrinkable and unusable for those on the reservation, who have no other source of water.
To see dramatic video of the protest held Monday in Salt Lake City, click on the video player above.
