As reported by Democracy Now!:
In news from North Dakota, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has announced it plans to close public access to the site of the Standing Rock protest camp on December 5. For months, indigenous water protectors have camped out in the area to fight the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, which would carry crude from the Bakken oilfields of North Dakota through South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois. In a statement Sunday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it had "no plans for forcible removal" of protesters, but the agency said anyone who remained would be considered unauthorized and could be subject to various citations. Dave Archambault II, the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said in a statement that the tribe was "deeply disappointed" by the decision.