Last weekend, Alex Red Bear hosted a protest via Facebook against the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and met in central Indiana. Since Trump resumed construction of DAPL on Jan. 24, 2017, thousands of protesters stood up against the pipeline construction.

“People need to know what’s going on. People are losing their lands and the environment is at risk,” Senior Sarah Sweeden said. “I feel kind of bad for the Standing Rock tribe, they are losing precious soil that was sacred to their ancestors.”

Protestors and tribe members argue that the environmental impact survey ordered on Dec. 4, by Assistant Secretary of the Army Jo-Ellen Darcy, can not be ignored and must be completed before the pipeline begins construction. Speaker Elliot Staircase discussed the problems on how camps set up by the protesters, are ordered to be removed for them to begin the construction.

For the past several weeks, DAPL protesters have been pressuring other to move out of the riverside camps. The thousands of people who have lived for more than six months in tents and semi-permanent structures on the banks of the river have left behind dumpsters full of garbage and other debris.