First Group of Water Protectors Head to Trial in North Dakota Today

As reported by Democracy Now! in its news headlines:

In North Dakota, prosecutor Ladd Erickson is petitioning a judge in Morton County to exclude information about the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, as well as issues of Native American sovereignty, from the courtroom when the first group of water protectors goes on trial today on charges of disorderly conduct. The 10 water protectors are the first to go to trial amid the months-long resistance to the pipeline, led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and members of 200 other indigenous nations from across the Americas. About 500 people have been arrested in total.