Standing Rock Tribal Council Member to #NoDAPL Protesters: “I Am So Frustrated…Go Home”

Today the tribal council at Standing Rock held a meeting about the continued existence of #NoDAPL protest camps on and near their reservation.

These camps pose a problem going forward. Standing Rock Chairman David Archambault expressed concern about the condition of the camps last year and asked non-Sioux protesters to leave. But the camps are still very much active. So much so that Governor Doug Burgum, in his State of the State address earlier this week, said a major clean up effort would be needed to get garbage and abandoned cars out of the camps before spring flooding (at least one of the camps is in a flood plain).

At the council meeting, tribal leaders expressed some frustration. Here’s the full video:

Via Twitter, below are some selected quotes from Bill Grueskin, a professor of journalism from Columbia.

The message from #NoDAPL activists is that they’re in this for the long haul. They’re not leaving until the pipeline is derailed permanently, which seems unlikely under the incoming Trump administration.

The message from tribal leadership – up to and including Chairman David Archambault who was something of a figurehead for the #NoDAPL movement last year – want the camps closed and cleaned up.

Which isn’t to say that the tribe is giving up the fight against the pipeline (or, more specifically, the pipeline’s current route). “In no way are we selling out,” one tribal council member said during the meeting.

I think the tribe feels the usefulness of the camps is at an end. At least for now.

Governor Burgum, beginning with his State of the State address earlier this week, has said he wants a better relationship between the state and the tribes after the ugliness and violence of the #NoDAPL protests. He held a luncheon with tribal leaders this week as a good first step.

The tribal council taking the unruly and illegal #NoDAPL camps to task is a good first step on their side of the issue.