Hundreds of protesters congregated outside San Francisco City Hall and blocked Market Street for about two hours Tuesday for a demonstration against the Dakota Access Pipeline, calling the planned 1,172-mile crude oil conduit a potential disaster for sacred Native American land.
Holding signs reading “Water is life” and “We are here to protect,” the protesters formed a circle in Civic Center Plaza and burned sage in a peaceful sunrise prayer service before hitting Market Street.
Just before 9 a.m., the demonstrators began marching up Market Street, blocking traffic in both directions.
The protesters marched to the Army Corps of Engineers offices on Market Street, between 10th and 11th streets, where they locked arms and blocked access to the building, including the back doors on Mission Street.
The protest was also caused headaches for Muni riders as trains and buses on Market Street were being rerouted and the Muni 14 bus on Mission Street was being turned around at 18th Street, said Paul Rose, a spokesman for the agency.
About 11 a.m., the protesters marched back to Civic Center Plaza, where they said another prayer and sang a Native American song before ending the demonstration.
Energy Access Partners, developer of the pipeline, says the project would tap into 7.4 billion barrels of crude oil and make the United States less dependent on foreign oil.
[...] the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe sued the Army Corps, saying the project “threatens the Tribe’s environmental and economic well-being and would damage and destroy sites of great historic, religious and cultural significance to the Tribe.”
Protester Judy Grether, 73, said it was important for people to take a stand against the pipeline, particularly in the wake of Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States.
