Task Force: 23 Pipeline Protesters Arrested in Northern Minnesota

BAGLEY -- Twenty-three protesters have been arrested up in northern Minnesota.

The Northern Lights Task Force says on Tuesday at about 6:00 a.m. the Clearwater County Sheriff's Office got a call that there appeared to be protesters on 470th Street blocking the road. An early estimate indicated between 75 and 100 people.

Law enforcement found that several items had been placed in the road and spread out for about a mile including a tripod, three 55-gallon barrels filled with concrete, an overturned car, a boat and a group of six people in chairs connected with sleeping dragon devices. A sleeping dragon is a maneuver used by protesters to hinder their removal from a protest site.

A total of 23 people were arrested after refusing to leave the area. Six people were attached to the barrels, four were attached to the tripod, seven were attached to the boat, and six were attached to the sleeping dragons. The process to remove the people from the objects took about seven hours.

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The people arrested were from Massachusetts, Oregon, Maine, Illinois, South Dakota, Washington D.C., New York and Texas. The Northern Lights Task Force is made up of a number of law enforcement agencies throughout northern Minnesota.