U.S. to Pay North Dakota $28M for DAPL Protest Costs

North Dakota will receive approximately $28 million from the federal government to cover costs incurred by the state during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, according to a settlement announced Thursday. The U.S. Department of Justice agreed to the payment, matching a 2025 judgment awarded to the state by U.S. District Court Judge Dan Traynor.

Attorney General Drew Wrigley announced the settlement at the state Capitol on June 11, 2026, stating it would prevent both parties from spending more public money litigating the nearly seven-year-old lawsuit. "An important chapter in our state’s history has been rendered indisputable and closed," Wrigley said, according to the North Dakota Monitor.

The lawsuit, filed in 2019, alleged that the federal government under the Obama administration caused the protests to grow by unlawfully allowing demonstrators to camp on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-managed land in rural south-central North Dakota. The Department of Justice, in a statement issued as part of the settlement, acknowledged that "the federal government could have done more to reduce the impacts to the people of North Dakota" during the protests, according to the Monitor.

Governor Kelly Armstrong said the settlement was "long overdue" and would help make the state whole. "The Obama administration not only enabled but in fact encouraged these unlawful protests by failing to evict protestors from Army Corps of Engineers’ land – instead playing politics with a legally permitted pipeline that has now been operating for almost a decade without incident," Armstrong stated, according to NewsDakota.com. He noted the settlement comes "on top of the $10 million previously paid by the DOJ to the state for protest-related costs."

The financial impact on North Dakota was substantial. Trial testimony revealed the state's emergency response lasted over 230 days, involved 178 response agencies, and spanned Morton, Sioux, Burleigh, and Emmons counties. Law enforcement made 761 arrests, 709 of which were out-of-state residents. The cleanup of protest camps required over 600 dumpsters for 9.8 million pounds of garbage and hazardous materials, NewsDakota.com reported.

For Bakken operators and the state's oil industry, the settlement represents a final resolution to a costly period of disruption targeting critical infrastructure. The Dakota Access Pipeline has been a major conduit for Bakken crude oil since it began operating in 2017. The state's argument centered on the federal government's failure to act on a legally permitted energy project, a point underscored by Governor Armstrong's statement.

The Department of Justice maintained in its statement that the decision not to forcibly remove protesters was made for safety reasons "to avoid further escalation of unlawful behaviors," but recognized that "this difficult choice had painful consequences for North Dakota and many of its residents," according to the North Dakota Monitor. The federal government dismissed its appeal of Judge Traynor's ruling as part of the settlement agreement.