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

The federal government will pay North Dakota approximately $28 million to settle a lawsuit over costs incurred during the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) protests, state officials announced. The settlement, announced on June 11, 2026, closes a nearly seven-year legal battle.

North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley said the agreement prevents both parties from spending more public money litigating the case. The state had alleged that the federal government, under the Obama administration, allowed protests to grow by unlawfully permitting demonstrators to camp on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-managed land in 2016 and 2017.

The $28 million figure matches the amount awarded to the state in 2025 by U.S. District Court Judge Dan Traynor. According to Gov. Kelly Armstrong, this settlement is "long overdue and goes a long way toward making North Dakota whole, on top of the $10 million previously paid by the DOJ to the state for protest-related costs."

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." The DOJ maintained its stance that not forcibly removing protesters was a safety choice to avoid escalation, but recognized the decision "had painful consequences for North Dakota and many of its residents."

Wrigley stated North Dakota sought the formal statement as a public acknowledgement of federal wrongdoing. “An important chapter in our state’s history has been rendered indisputable and closed,” he said.

The state's costs stemmed from a massive emergency response. According to trial testimony cited in the sources, the response lasted over 230 days, involved 178 agencies, and spanned Morton, Sioux, Burleigh, and Emmons counties. Law enforcement made 761 arrests, 709 of whom were out-of-state residents. The subsequent cleanup required over 600 dumpsters to remove 9.8 million pounds of garbage and hazardous materials.

Gov. Armstrong framed the settlement as a victory for the state's energy infrastructure, stating the Obama administration had played "politics with a legally permitted pipeline that has now been operating for almost a decade without incident." He said the settlement removes the financial burden from North Dakota taxpayers and places it on the federal government.

The settlement resolves the state's 2019 lawsuit. The United States had initially appealed Judge Traynor's 2025 judgment but agreed to dismiss that appeal as part of this final agreement.