“This is how it’s done. When people are sitting on shit you want, you make them your enemy. Then you’re justified in taking it.” – Jake Sully (Avatar)

The leader of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe called on President Barack Obama to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline today, after a clash last night that protest organizers say left 17 people hospitalized and scores more injured after law enforcement unleashed water, rubber bullets and tear gas on demonstrators in below-freezing temperatures near Cannon Ball, North Dakota.

“The easement to build the unsafe Dakota Access Pipeline has not been granted. But under the cover of darkness, North Dakota law enforcement continues to engage in unlawful and dehumanizing tactics to subdue peaceful water protectors with tear gas and water cannons,” Dave Archambault II, the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said in a statement today. “Live video footage on Facebook this Sunday night (Nov. 20) clearly document that North Dakota’s law enforcement and government officials have sanctioned aggressive acts in failed attempts to disperse water protectors who have the right to demonstrate against and report on this failing project. It’s time for President Obama to condemn these tactics and this pipeline.

“Our culture, our children and our homelands have repeatedly been stolen from us,” Archambault added. “We are deeply saddened that despite the millions of Americans and allies around the world who are standing with us at Standing Rock, a single corporate bully — backed by U.S. government taxpayer dollars through a militarized law enforcement — continue[s] to be sanctioned by aggressive, unlawful acts. President Obama, this cannot be your legacy.”

The clash on Sunday took place after demonstrators gathered on the Backwater Bridge, north of a protest camp in Morton County, according to authorities. About 400 people attempted to breach a law enforcement blockade on the bridge to go north on Highway 1806. The Morton County Sheriff’s Department described it as a “riot.”

The standoff at the bridge comes after months of tension between law enforcement and demonstrators who are pushing to block construction of the four-state Dakota Access Pipeline, which the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe says threatens its water supply and traverses sacred sites. The company building the pipeline has argued that these claims are unfounded.

Read the entire November 21, 2016 ABC News story at http://abcnews.go.com/US/leader-standing-rock-sioux-tribe-calls-obama-halt/story?id=43690859