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16 Arrested at North Dakota Pipeline Protest

Police near Cannon Ball, N.D., on Sunday fired tear gas at protesters opposed to plans that would run the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.Credit...Stephanie Keith/Reuters

Tensions continued in North Dakota on Monday afternoon as law enforcement officials arrested 16 people at a demonstration, one day after hundreds clashed with the police over the Dakota Access Pipeline.

During a news conference on Monday, officials also defended their use of fire hoses against protesters the night before, despite the below-freezing weather.

“Some of the water was used to repel some of the protest activities that were occurring, and it was used at a time where they were aggressive towards the officers,” the Morton County sheriff, Kyle Kirchmeier, said at the news conference.

In a statement late on Sunday, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department characterized the demonstration as an “ongoing riot,” releasing photos that it said showed protesters “setting fires and using aggressive tactics” while trying to dismantle a police barricade on Backwater Bridge, which has for months been the site of a protest against the pipeline.

The statement did not address what dispersal methods the department had used against what it estimated to be a crowd of 400 protesters.

Rob Keller, a spokesman for the department, told The Bismarck Tribune that water was being used for crowd control, adding that water cannons had also been used to douse the fires.

The paper reported that protesters had started a dozen fires and that officers from the sheriff’s department had said that rocks and logs were being thrown at them. One officer was struck on the head, it said. The Associated Press reported that at least one person was arrested.

Dallas Goldtooth, a spokesman for the Indigenous Environmental Network, said in a phone interview on Monday that the Oceti Sakowin medical team, which had been working in tandem with medics from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, had reported that nearly 200 people were injured and 12 people were hospitalized for head injuries. One protester went into cardiac arrest and was revived by the medic team, he said.

The medical teams attributed many of the injuries to rubber bullets, pepper spray and shrapnel from concussion grenades, according to Mr. Goldtooth, and said that water sprayed from cannons caused early signs of hypothermia. The air temperature in the area was about 23 degrees at 10:15 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.

“I would love to emphasize here that this entire situation is ripe with irony,” Mr. Goldtooth said, adding that on Friday, Sheriff Kirchmeier had urged the protesters to leave their camps because they might be unfamiliar with the harshness of North Dakota winters.

Late last month, tensions boiled over at a protest camp near Backwater Bridge when law enforcement officials forced demonstrators out of the area. That confrontation led to the arrests of more than 140 protesters and resulted in the setting of multiple fires.

Reports coming out of the conflict have been highly contested, with law enforcement officials and protesters leveling substantive accusations of violence at each other.

Dave Archambault II, the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, said in a phone interview Monday that the measures law enforcement officials took on Sunday represented a clear escalation of violence.

“The use of water in freezing temperatures just goes to show that they’re being more aggressive and they’re actually trying to hurt people,” he said. “This is far more threatening to human life than any other time of confrontation with law enforcement.”

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Police officers near Cannon Ball, N.D., confronted protesters with rubber bullet guns on Sunday night near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.Credit...Stephanie Keith/Reuters

A live video of Sunday’s protests was posted by a demonstrator named Kevin Gilbertt, who identifies himself on Facebook as a poet and videographer. Early Monday morning, the often-grainy and unclear video had been viewed over three million times.

Senator Bernie Sanders shared Mr. Gilbertt’s video on his Facebook page and called for President Obama to “take all appropriate measures” to protect the protesters.

Senator Sanders also reposted a tweet that said that law enforcement officials were spraying Native Americans with water cannons in 26-degree weather.

The conflict over the $3.7 billion Dakota Access Pipeline has lasted for months, as Energy Transfer Partners, a Dallas-based company, attempts to finish construction of the 1,170-mile project

In an interview with The Associated Press published on Friday, Kelcy Warren, the company’s chief executive, said that the company had no alternative but to stick to the plan for construction.

“There’s not another way. We’re building at that location,” Mr. Warren said.

Native Americans, environmental activists and others have said that the pipeline, which would carry oil from North Dakota to Illinois, threatens the local water supply and would also harm sacred Native American grounds.

In an interview with NPR last month, Mr. Archambault, the tribal chairman, said that while protesters were asked to “remain prayerful and peaceful,” it was “hard to resist reacting” given the dual pressures coming from Energy Transfer Partners and law enforcement.

“Our purpose is to protect the water,” he said. “And no matter what we do, nobody cares. They’re going to force this down our throats again.”

Niraj Chokshi contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 14 of the New York edition with the headline: 16 Arrested at North Dakota Pipeline Protest as Tensions Continue. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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