Demonstrators across the nation today rallied against the Dakota Access Pipeline. About 100 people gathered in a circle on the University of Montana campus Tuesday afternoon to protest.
"This is history right now. This is civil rights history repeating itself in 2016," says University of Montana senior Lauren Small Rodriguez, who just returned from North Dakota’s Standing Rock Reservation.
She says protesters there have been intimidated and, in some cases, assaulted by law enforcement.
DAPL protesters want the Army Corps of Engineers to revoke the permit for the $4 billion pipeline project. They say its construction has already desecrated sacred tribal sites, and that completing the pipeline could pollute local water supplies.
President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t publicly commented on the Dakota Access Pipeline. He is, though, an investor in the company building it.
When asked if that concerns her, Small Rodriguez strikes a defiant tone.
"We are resilient people. We have done this for hundreds of years. His four years will come to pass. We will still be here. We will still fight. We will not give up," says Small Rodriguez.
Other rallies Tuesday included ones at the Missoula Army Corps of Engineers office, and one in Bozeman that drew more than 100 people. Protesters also planned events in Helena, Great Falls and Billings.