Police sprayed North Dakota Access Pipeline protesters with a 'water cannon' in freezing weather

Stephanie Keith/REUTERS

After months of protest against the proposed North Dakota Access Pipeline, the clash between police and activists heated up Sunday night as temperatures cooled to dangerous levels.

Protesters, many of whom are from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, have been demonstrating against the oil pipeline that would pass through North Dakota's Lake Oahe, a sacred burial site and major source of drinking water for the Standing Rock Sioux.

Here's what happened on Sunday:

The Dakota Access Pipeline is a proposed 1,172-mile oil project that would shuttle half a million barrels of North Dakota-produced oil to refining markets in Illinois. The project is on hold while federal authorities reassess its potential environmental impacts.

REUTERS

Source: Reuters

On Sunday, protesters attempted to remove a barricade on the Backwater Bridge on Highway 1806, which the Indigenous Environmental Network said had been blocking emergency vehicles from reaching the Standing Rock Tribe. Police say the bridge isn't safe to cross.

Morton County Sheriff's Department

Source: Indigenous Environmental Network, Morton County Sheriff's Department

The clash quickly escalated.

Stephanie Keith/REUTERS

Source: Bismark Tribune

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