BEDMINSTER TOWNSHIP, NJ – NOVEMBER 20: President-elect Donald Trump steps outside the clubhouse to greet Jonathan Gray, member of the Board of Directors at Blackstone, before their meeting at Trump International Golf Club, November 20, 2016 in Bedminster Township, New Jersey. Trump and his transition team are in the process of filling cabinet and other high level positions for the new administration. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has ordered Dakota Access Pipeline protesters to leave the federal land they’ve been protesting on by December 5. The Army Corps manages the federal land where the main camp protesting the pipeline is located.  The Army Corps, citing increased violence between protesters and law enforcement personnel and increasingly harsh winter conditions, decided to close its land to the protesters who have been there since early April.  In a letter, the Army Corp’s district commander, Col. John Henderson, asked Standing Rock Sioux Tribal leader Dave Archambault to move from the property north of the Cannonball River. Henderson added that there are smaller camps on land not subject to the planned restrictions, including an area south of the Cannonball River where he said the Corps was establishing a free-speech zone. If activists remain they could face prosecution for trespassing.  Despite the warning, protesters are vowing to stay.  Archambault and other protesters said on Saturday they planned to stay in the Oceti Sakowin camp, one of three camps near the construction site, which would have been shut down by the encampment. The camp currently has about 5,000 activists. Protesters added that the order would only increase tensions.  Archambault said the best thing the federal government could do for safety is deny the easement for the pipeline. “We have an escalating situation where safety is a concern for everybody,” he said. He added that the tribe would remain and exercise its First Amendment freedom of speech rights. Protesters claim the proposed pipeline poses a threat to water resources and sacred Native American sites.  At stake is the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, owned by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP.
Activists of the Dakota Access Pipeline say they will deny a federal order to leave the land they are protesting on. The $3.8 billion pipeline is earmarked to transport 470,000 barrels per day of crude from Bakken oil fields to refineries and markets in the Midwest, East Coast and Gulf Coast. But there's a wrinkle for Donald Trump. The president-elect has financial holdings in the pipeline and will likely be forced to make a decision over its fate after he becomes president in January.