Haida Nation Sends Support to Standing Rock DAPL Protest Camp

The Council of the Haida Nation is sending cash and personnel to support the protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) in southern North Dakota, according to a CBC News report. Haida business owner Erica Ryan-Gagne drove 30 hours from Haida Gwaii, B.C., with her two young children to join the Standing Rock camp.

Ryan-Gagne stated that the fight against DAPL is connected to pipeline battles in British Columbia. "Whether it's Lelu Island, Flora Banks, a liquified natural gas plant proposed at the mouth of the Skeena [River], Enbridge Northern Gateway or the Dakota Access pipeline, it's all connected. It's all big oil," she said. The Council of the Haida Nation supports her trip and sent several thousand dollars for the Sioux Nation's legal defense fund.

The $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline is designed to transport light sweet crude oil from the Bakken formation to Illinois, with its route passing close to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Energy Transfer Partners leads the project, and Enbridge is spending $1.5 billion to be a part of it, according to the source.

The protest has seen escalating tensions. The report states equipment has been vandalized, guards have used pepper spray and dogs against protesters, and the National Guard has been called in. Ryan-Gagne described herself as a peaceful protester, bringing traditional songs and prayers to the camp. "This is what I'm teaching my children," she said. "You don't talk about it. You do it. We've come so far. and we're standing with them."

She also brought material support for the camp, packing her car with jars of fish, dried medicine, cedar, sweaters, laundry soap, and batteries, and collecting American money from people on Haida Gwaii to give to camp organizers.

The involvement of an Indigenous nation from Canada underscores the broad, inter-regional opposition facing key Bakken midstream infrastructure. For operators relying on the pipeline to move Bakken crude to market, the sustained and widening protest movement represents a significant risk to the project's timeline and stability. The ongoing volatility, including vandalism and law enforcement responses, continues to cast uncertainty over this critical piece of North Dakota's oil transportation network.