North Dakota to Receive $28M Federal Settlement for DAPL Protest Costs

North Dakota will receive approximately $28 million from the federal government to compensate for costs incurred during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, according to a settlement announced Thursday. The settlement closes a nearly seven-year-old lawsuit and prevents further litigation expenses, state Attorney General Drew Wrigley said.

The amount matches a 2025 judgment awarded to the state by U.S. District Court Judge Dan Traynor. The federal government had appealed that ruling but agreed to dismiss the appeal as part of the settlement, according to a report from the North Dakota Monitor.

The lawsuit, filed in 2019, centered on demonstrations against the construction of the crude oil pipeline in rural south-central North Dakota in 2016 and 2017. The state alleged the federal government allowed the protests to grow by unlawfully permitting demonstrators to camp on federal land managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

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 Dakota Access Pipeline protests." The DOJ maintained it disagreed with Traynor's legal findings but recognized the choice not to forcibly remove protesters from federal property had "painful consequences for North Dakota and many of its residents."

Attorney General Wrigley stated that North Dakota sought the formal DOJ statement as a public acknowledgement of federal wrongdoing. “An important chapter in our state’s history has been rendered indisputable and closed,” Wrigley said at a Capitol press conference. The DOJ statement also noted that some protesters engaged in unlawful and violent behavior during the demonstrations.

The resolution provides financial closure for North Dakota taxpayers related to the significant law enforcement and public safety costs borne by the state during the prolonged pipeline protests. The Dakota Access Pipeline is a critical piece of infrastructure for moving Bakken crude oil to market.