Shailene Woodley arrested at Dakota Access Pipeline protest
This may be a first in celebrity activism: “The Fault in Our Stars” actress Shailene Woodley live-streamed her arrest Monday while protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Woodley and 26 other individuals were arrested during a peaceful protest at a pipeline construction site in Sioux County, North Dakota. Woodley and the others were arrested for criminal trespassing, the Morton County sheriff’s office confirmed.
Woodley was able to capture much of the encounter on video, as she was streaming the protest via Facebook Live at the time. In the last few minutes of the two-hour-long video, Woodley was seen being escorted away while her mother continued taping.
“I was walking back to my RV -- which is right there -- so that we can go back to camp peacefully, and they grabbed me by my jacket and said that I was not allowed to continue,” Woodley reported. “They had giant guns and batons and zip-ties and they’re not letting me go.”
The controversial four-state, $3.8 billion oil pipeline has been the source of protesting -- sometimes turning violent -- for months, as local Native American residents fears the project will disturb sacred sites and impact drinking water for thousands of tribal members on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and millions farther downstream.
The protest encampment has been called the largest gathering of Native American tribes in a century, and some protests have expanded to other construction sites along the proposed route.
On Sunday, a federal appeals court rejected a bid by the tribe to halt construction on part of the pipeline.