Columbia veteran joins thousands in North Dakota pipeline protest

A mid-Missouri veteran will join thousands of other former service members this weekend at a North Dakota pipeline protest.

Russell Boyt doesn’t consider himself an “activist,” nor did he give the Dakota Access Pipeline much attention until recently. The Army veteran and Columbia native considers himself an outdoorsman, and became “incensed” the more he read about the project.

“When you go hiking and enjoy the streams and the mountain air, you never want to see any of that polluted,” Boyt told ABC 17 News.

The standoff near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota continues, as Energy Transfer Partners seeks to finish its Dakota Access Pipeline. The oil-pumping pipe will run underneath a portion of the Missouri River there, and runs though land the government gave the Sioux tribe.

North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple has ordered protestors off the land, now owned by the Army Corps of Engineers, citing health concerns as temperatures fall and snow rises in that state. He later clarified they would not be forcibly removing people from the camp.

Boyt is joining with more than 2,000 others in the “Veterans Stand for Standing Rock” group heading to Morton County this weekend. The group’s Facebook page said veterans will head there to support protestors “in the spirit of peace and unity.” Boyt echoed the message of nonviolence, saying he was prepared to protect those that have been at the construction site for months.

“We are not there to do any type of military action, to storm the hill, to take the pipeline, absolutely not,” Boyt said. “It’s simply to support and be brothers in peace, and basically be a human shield.”

Boyt said images of police dogs and private security attacking protestors first caught his attention. He also took issue with the pipeline’s piecemeal approval process, and feared what environmental impacts an oil spill in the Missouri River could have on Columbia, which sits downstream of the pipe’s crossing.

A veteran group in North Dakota addressed the incoming servicemen Thursday, distancing themselves from the group. The North Dakota Vets Coordinating Council called the VSSR action “disgraceful,” pointing to its overlap of the Pearl Harbor attack anniversary.

“If they do come, they will be respectful,” Russ Stabler with the North Dakota Vets Coordinating Council said. “If not, we want it understood these are not North Dakota veterans and they do not represent the veterans of North Dakota.”

Boyt, though, remains unfazed. He will bring numerous donations for the camp, and stay until about Wednesday or Thursday. He hopes the large group of veterans will also bring new attention to the project.