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Tempers Flare During Protest Against the Dakota Access Pipeline (23 photos)

In south central North Dakota, members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have been joined by hundreds of other Native Americans and supporters in a protest against the ongoing construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), a $3.8 billion oil pipeline meant to carry crude oil from the Bakken oil fields through the Dakotas and Iowa, to Illinois.  Over the weekend, protesters were attacked by dogs and sprayed with pepper spray after clashing with private security contractors at a site being bulldozed for the DAPL, which—according tribal officials—was damaging burial and cultural sites. The tribe and its allies have been battling the pipeline construction on the ground and in the courts, fearing not only destruction of sacred cultural sites, but the endangerment of their water supply should an oil spill ever occur.