Federal Government to Pay North Dakota $28M for DAPL Protest Costs

The federal government will pay North Dakota nearly $28 million to settle a lawsuit over the costs of policing massive protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline nearly a decade ago, the state’s attorney general announced Thursday. According to the Associated Press, the final settlement agreement’s sum matches the amount a federal judge determined last year after trial.

Republican Attorney General Drew Wrigley said the state is now “made financially whole,” with the settlement money finalizing the debts of loans taken from the state-owned Bank of North Dakota. The lawsuit, filed in 2019, concerned demonstrations against the construction of the crude oil pipeline, also known as DAPL, that took place in rural south-central North Dakota in 2016 and 2017.

North Dakota alleged that the federal government caused the protests to grow in size and intensity by unlawfully allowing demonstrators to camp on federal land. For months, thousands of people camped and protested on and around federally managed land near the pipeline’s Missouri River crossing upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation.

As part of the agreement, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a statement acknowledging that, under the Obama Administration, the federal government "could have done more to reduce the impacts to the people of North Dakota" from the protests, which included "unlawfulness and confrontational violence" at times. The department said it chose not to forcibly remove protesters from federal property to avoid further escalation, but recognizes "that this difficult choice had painful consequences for North Dakota and many of its residents."

Wrigley said the settlement prevents both parties from spending more public money litigating the nearly seven-year-old lawsuit. The U.S. had initially appealed the 2025 judgment by U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor to the 8th Circuit but agreed to dismiss that appeal as part of the settlement. Judge Traynor had found the federal government liable on all claims, including negligence, gross negligence, civil trespass and public nuisance.

Republican Gov. Kelly Armstrong welcomed the settlement as “long overdue,” thanking Wrigley’s office for reaching a settlement “that removes the financial burden from North Dakota taxpayers and places it on the shoulders of the federal government where it belongs.” The Dakota Access Pipeline is a critical piece of infrastructure for moving Bakken formation crude oil to market, and the years-long legal disputes surrounding its construction and operation have been a significant backdrop for North Dakota's oil industry.

The settlement provides financial closure for the state regarding a contentious period that saw intense opposition to fossil fuel infrastructure. Wrigley stated, "An important chapter in our state’s history has been rendered indisputable and closed."