Police Remove Last Standing Rock Protesters

National guard officials and law enforcement authorities marched onto the Oceti Sakowin camp on Thursday, where the last Dakota Access Pipeline protesters remained, and cleared the site in a military-style takeover, according to The Guardian. Most of the last protesters left voluntarily on Wednesday, setting fire to their structures as they left. At least 33 holdouts were arrested, according to the Morton County sheriff's department. The area was cleared just over 24 hours after the deadline for the emergency evacuation of the site. Since August, the camp—located on federal land—has been home to thousands of environmental and indigenous activists who object to the pipeline's construction just north of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. “I honestly thought the camp would always be there,” said Linda Black Elk, a member of the Catawba Nation. “I thought that people would be able to make their lives there. We would make a treaty claim and it would be back in the hands of the Lakota people.”