Two horses were wounded and three went missing last Friday, Oct. 28 during a particularly restless day at the Dakota Access Pipeline protests in Cannonball, North Dakota. Of the two horses wounded, one was euthanized where he fell due to the extensive nature of the injuries.
Greg Grey Cloud, a protest organizer and member of the Crow Creek Tribe, stated that the wounds were caused by rubber bullets and bean bags directed towards them by officers with the Morton County Sheriff’s Department, who were chasing the horses on all-terrain vehicles (ATVs).
Rising Tensions Ignite During Camp Eviction
The escalation in incidents and arrests comes after several months of protest by local and distant American Indian tribes, as well as environmentalists and concerned citizens regarding construction of an underground oil pipeline that crosses several states and thousands of miles.
This particular parcel of land near the confluence of the Missouri and Cannonball rivers is considered sacred to the tribes and believed to contain historic dwellings and artifacts underground. There are also concerns that the pipeline will contaminate the river water.
Tensions between law enforcement and protestors boiled over late last week as the Morton County Sheriff’s Department forcibly removed protesters from a camp, which was established on private land owned by the Dakota Access Pipeline.
The complication arises in that while the land is privately owned now, in 1851 it was part of a larger treaty between the Standing Rock tribe and the U.S. government and is considered ancestral tribal land. (This fact-based overview of the issue offers more background.)
The forcible removal began on Thursday, Oct. 27, and 144 protestors were arrested. The Morton County Sheriff’s Department claims that protesters turned violent, throwing “rocks, logs and molotov cocktails at officers,” in addition to starting tire fires and vandalizing DAPL property and machinery.
Protesters claim they were beaten, maced at close range, and upon their arrest were kept in “dog kennels” and numbers were drawn on their arms to identify them. Those 144 individuals have since been released from the county detention facility.
Crow Creek Riders and Horses Among Wounded
The riders and horses reportedly became separated during a chase, as the Crow Creek riders were being pursued by sheriff’s deputies riding ATVs on DAPL land. Some of the riders fell from their horses and were arrested, and four horses remained behind the north camp barricade. Two other riders and horses were able to retreat safely to another camp. One horse was severely wounded and immediately euthanized.
According to Greg Grey Cloud, the loose horses were fully tacked up, but when one horse made its way back to the front lines on its own the next day, he had no tack and had a tranquilizer dart in his hindquarter. With the assistance of his owner, the horse was able to jump the barricade and return safely to the Oceti Sakowin Camp, the base camp of the protests, leaving three horses still missing on the DAPL land.
Chief Arvol Looking Horse, a Cheyenne River Hunkpapa, sat with protestors on Oct. 29 and then met with the Morton County Sherrif’s Department to negotiate a peaceful resolution and return the missing horses to the camp.
“He asked if they would back up, and everyone agreed to disperse peacefully on our end and their end,” Greg Grey Cloud, who met with the chief Saturday morning, said. “They’re going to be taking down the barrier at the bridge and pulling it open, and we’ll be able to have access up to the north camp again. That way we’ll be able to go back up there and search for our three missing horses in the pasture where the buffalo roam.”
In a separate incident from the same day, a horse and rider standing between a line of fully armed law enforcement officers and protestors were shot at close range, with the rider falling from the horse and the horse nearly falling himself before fleeing off-camera. (There is footage of this incident, but please note that it could be disturbing to some viewers.)
Tribes Seek Peaceful Transfer of Horse Relatives
The three horses still roaming the north camp were a chestnut appaloosa gelding named Red Clouds, a black Quarter Horse mare with white socks named Beauty, and a palomino mare named Sunshine. There were some accounts that one of the horses may have been killed. In the following days, the owners worked with the protestors’ legal team and county officials to ensure they would get the horses back without risking being arrested and charged with a crime.
On Nov. 1, Morton County Sheriff’s Department informed the Crow Creek tribe that the horses had been caught by their officers and taken to a vet, who was treating them for dehydration. At last update, the tribe had brought the two mares back to the Oceti Sakowin camp and will be going back for Red Clouds as soon as possible, but all were expected to survive the ordeal.
The tribe’s next priority is to provide ongoing treatment to the surviving horses and retrieve the body of the horse that was euthanized at the north camp due to the severity of his injuries during the chase.
“When you lose a relative — that’s what our horses are, they’re our relatives — it’s hard to go about facilitating that kind of dialogue with somebody who has lost a relative or ask about that loss,” Greg Grey Cloud shared in a Facebook Live update. “Horse Nation is a very proud nation. Anyone that owns horses knows the connection with us and them is a bond like no other.”
It is the goal of the tribe to provide a ceremonial burial and rites for the horse at their own camp.
Crow Creek Tribe and Others in Camps Request Horse Provisions
Mason Redwing, also of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, has stated that in the bedlam of the north camp eviction, much of their horse equipment was lost or compromised, and they’re now accepting donations of equipment, including saddles, bridles, halters, lead ropes and blankets.
Donations of in-kind goods or funds can be sent to: Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Attention: Horse Donations, P.O. Box D, Building #1, North Standing Rock Avenue, Fort Yates, ND 58538. Checks can be sent to the same address with “Standing Rock Sioux Tribe – Horse Donations” in the memo, or you can make a donation on PayPal at this link.
Since the Oct. 27 incident, both the United Nations and Amnesty International have gotten involved, promising to send a delegation of observers to the protest site to ensure that protestor’s rights are upheld and best practices are being used in allowing peaceful free speech to continue.
The Morton County Sheriff’s Department has not returned HorseNation.com‘s request for comment.
For further reading, we recommend this chronologically updated piece being maintained by The Seattle Times, this previously mentioned piece by EE Publishing that includes a map for context of the camps and waterways, and you can follow Greg Grey Cloud for more hour-by-hour updates at the camp on Facebook.
As for the pipeline construction, work continues this week on a drilling platform near the river bank.
