(CNN) The protesters fighting to block the Dakota Access Pipeline have vowed to stand their ground in opposition despite growing calls for them to move out of the way.

Since late summer, protesters have stood beside members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota who believe the $3.7 billion pipeline project, which would move 470,000 barrels of crude oil a day across four states, would affect its supply of drinking water and place downstream communities at risk of contamination from potential oil spills.

In an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo, Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault said they would continue the protest even thought they've been ordered to vacate an area where they have set up camp by December 5.

"We are in for the long haul," said Chase Iron Eyes, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

This past Friday, the US Army Corps of Engineers warned that activists who refuse to leave could face arrest. Since the statement's release, however, officials have backtracked, saying they have no plans to forcibly remove those who stay.

Now, a week before the deadline, North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple has ordered protesters to clear out immediately for a different reason other than trespassing: harsh winter conditions.

In a statement, he said the protesters' temporary dwellings have yet to be inspected and approved -- failure to do so posed serious public safety and concerns. He added that first responders would no longer be responsible for providing emergency services to those who remained.

For Iron Eyes, the initial threats of arrest have brought back memories of the government's past treatment of Native Americans.

"You have a government agency trying to declare us trespassers on our own treaty land and threatening to penalize us, criminally charge us and possibly forcibly round us up if we don't return to the reservation," he said.

The pipeline was originally slated to lie north of Bismarck, North Dakota, in an area that did not cross Native American reservations. The current proposed route, however, would take it through four states, stretching 1,172 miles to connect areas with oil in North Dakota to southern Illinois.

It would cut through the Sioux Tribe's reservation, and the tribe says it could potentially destroy sacred lands and prevent access to clean drinking water.

"We're trying to stay strong through all of this," he said.

Over the months of protest, the tribe has been joined by multiple groups and activists. They maintain that they have been peaceful, but at times violence has erupted.

Archambault said the accusations against the protesters are false, and that it's police who are being violent.

"They are the ones who are bringing the aggression," he said. "They're the ones who are using weapons."

He said the letter from the Army Corps will only make things worse.

"By sending out a letter saying you have until December 5," he said. " ... It just escalates and causes more concern for safety for everybody." </s> The executive order from Governor Jack Dalrymple came two days after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it would close public access to the main protest encampment, about 30 miles south of Bismark, setting a Dec. 5 deadline for demonstrators opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline to leave the area.

Demonstrators have protested for months against plans to run the Dakota Access Pipeline beneath Lake Oahe near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, saying it poses a threat to water resources and to sacred Native American sites.

"Winter conditions have the potential to endanger human life, especially when they are exposed to these conditions without proper shelter, dwellings or sanitation for prolonged periods of time," the governor's order stated.

It added that the area around the protest camp, just north of the Cannonball River, is "not zoned for dwellings suitable for living in winter conditions."

A spokeswoman for the tribe did not have an immediate comment.

Last week local law enforcement sought to disperse demonstrators opposed to the pipeline, many of whom are members of the Standing Rock tribe, by spraying protesters with water in sub-freezing temperatures.

Activists protesting the pipeline have vowed to continue their resistance.

Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier added to the pressure on Monday by issuing a video statement urging protesters to avoid subjecting themselves to "life-threatening conditions" by remaining exposed to the elements with little shelter.

The National Weather Service has posted a winter storm warning for most of western and central North Dakota, forecasting the possibility of heavy snow through Wednesday.

Protest leaders suggested that a forced evacuation of the camp could prove even more dangerous to the activists.

"We're in the heart of winter now. To even think of a forced removal is terrifying," said Dallas Goldtooth, an organizer with Indigenous Environmental Network, who estimated there were around 5,000 people in the camp.

Demonstrators have protested for months against plans to run the $3.8 billion pipeline, owned by Energy Transfer Partners LP, beneath Lake Oahe, formed by a dam on the Missouri River, about a half mile (0.8 km) from the Standing Rock Sioux reservation.

The companies say the pipeline would carry Bakken shale oil more cheaply and safely from North Dakota to Illinois en route to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries than it could be shipped by railroad or tanker trucks.

The 1,172-mile (1,885-km) project is mostly complete except for the segment planned to run under Lake Oahe.

The Obama administration in September postponed final approval of an Army Corps permit required to allow tunneling beneath the lake, a move intended to give federal officials more time to consult with tribal leaders. The delay also led to escalating tensions over the project.

Police drew condemnation from the American Civil Liberties Union and others last week when they used water hoses in below-freezing weather in an attempt to disperse about 400 activists near the proposed tunnel excavation site.

"They don't need to be worried about us in the winter," said Kandi Mossett, from the Indigenous Environmental Network. "We're perfectly capable of being self-sufficient. So using this as an excuse is insulting." </s> The last activists at the Dakota Access Pipeline protest camp torched their tents and the entrance to the site Wednesday in the final hours leading up to an Army-ordered evacuation deadline — one last act of defiance to end the 10-month-long protest at Standing Rock.

The final protesters occupying the North Dakota land of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe were forced to disperse Wednesday afternoon ahead of impending spring floods.

The group — which has demanded an end to the Dakota Access Pipeline, an under-construction North Dakota–to–Illinois oil line they say poses environmental threats — had more than 1,000 occupiers at the peak of the protests, but that number had been whittled down to between 200 and 300 by Wednesday.

The demonstrators set their teepees, tents, and other campsite structures on fire Wednesday morning, calling the blazes a “ceremonial act.” Most of them walked out of the camp at 1 p.m., an hour ahead of the deadline to leave.

At least one person was burned in the fire, police said, although the extent of the female victim’s injuries was not immediately clear.

The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers ordered the evacuation, saying the area would soon become flooded by melting winter snow. They also warned that the camp could pose an environmental threat if the floodwaters washed garbage and other debris into nearby rivers.

Hundreds of arrests and $2 million in destroyed equipment

Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) first asked the government for permission to build the pipeline through North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois in December 2014. While there was some immediate backlash, the first organized protests didn’t come until April 2016, after Iowa approved construction, becoming the last of the four states to approve the pipeline.

Over the past 10 months, hundreds of protesters have set up camp in North Dakota. Many were Native Americans who argued that the pipeline would dirty their tribes’ water and disrupt sacred lands.

In July, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which greenlit pipe construction work on federal waterways, a move that prompted more demonstrators — Native Americans, environmentalists and other allies alike — to flock to the camp in support of the tribe. A second tribe, the Cheyenne River Sioux, signed on to the suit in August.

As more people converged on the campsite protest, the once-peaceful demonstrations turned violent. In August, protesters set fire to construction sitting along the Iowa stretch of the pipeline route, causing some $2 million in damages.

Over the 10-month course of the protests, more than 700 people were arrested, including Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and actress Shailene Woodley.

In December, the Standing Rock Sioux asked the protesters to evacuate the camp, insisting they’d continue to fight the pipeline in court instead of on the ground. Nevertheless, about 300 protesters stayed behind.

As the protesters disperse, the legal battle over the pipeline is ongoing.

After President Donald Trump signed a January executive order approving work on the final stretch of the pipeline, the Standing Rock Sioux and the Cheyenne tribes filed an emergency request to halt construction, maintaining that the pipe will damage their waters and land.

Since oil will not begin to flow through the still-under construction pipe until spring at the earliest, a judge denied the motion on Feb. 13, arguing that as long as there isn’t oil in the pipe, there’s no damage done. He promised to reevaluate his decision in another hearing set for Monday.

If the second hearing to block construction fails, the tribes’ hope their original lawsuit can still stop the pipeline from ferrying oil below their land. ETP CEO Kelcy Warren said the pipeline could be ready to use in three months, meaning that the tribes have that much time left to fight the pipeline in court to block the oil from flowing.

Alongside the construction, there will also be a massive cleanup effort to remove debris from the protest campsite.

The activists themselves began tidying up and removing debris from the area several weeks ago, and now Army officials will join in. The goal is to remove all trash and debris before the melted-snow floodwaters hit, potentially sending the litter into the rivers the campers fought to protect from the pipeline. </s> CANNON BALL, N.D. (Reuters) - Activists protesting plans to run an oil pipeline beneath a lake near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota said on Saturday they have no intention of leaving a protest camp after U.S. authorities warned it must be vacated by Dec. 5.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the federal land where the main camp protesting the Dakota Access pipeline is located, said it would close public access to the area north of the Cannonball River, including to protesters. It said this was partly to protect the general public from violent confrontations between protesters and law enforcement that have occurred in the area.

Those who stay could face prosecution for trespassing, the Corps said in a letter to tribal leaders on Friday.

Organizers told a news conference on Saturday at the main protest site where about 5,000 people are camped that they had no intention of moving.

"We are staying here committed to our prayer," said Dallas Goldtooth, an organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network. "Forced removal and state oppression? This is nothing new to us as native people."

There are smaller camps on land not subject to the planned restrictions, including an area south of the Cannonball River where the Corps said it was establishing a free-speech zone.

North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple, a Republican, on Saturday said he supported the decision and the federal government, which allowed the protesters to become entrenched, must lead in the camp's peaceful closure.

Standing Rock Chairman Dave Archambault said he received notice on Friday about the decision in a letter from Colonel John Henderson, an Army Corps district commander.

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."

Archambault said he did not see the letter as a forced eviction and the tribe would continue to exercise its First Amendment rights to free speech. The tribe is working on a location on reservation land should people choose to go there, he said.

"I don't think it will ever be an eviction where forces just come in and push people out," Archambault said.

Demonstrators have protested for months against the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, owned by Energy Transfer Partners LP , saying it poses a threat to water resources and sacred Native American sites. The companies say the pipeline would carry Bakken shale oil more cheaply and safely from North Dakota to Illinois en route to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries.

The 1,172-mile (1,885-km) project is mostly complete except for the segment planned to run under Lake Oahe less than half a mile north of Standing Rock.

The Obama administration in September postponed final approval of a permit required to allow tunneling beneath the lake, a move intended to give federal officials more time to consult with tribal leaders. But the delay also led to escalating tensions over the project.

Last weekend, police used water hoses in subfreezing weather in an attempt to disperse about 400 activists near the proposed tunnel excavation site.

Demonstrators plan a march at noon Sunday in Washington, from the Department of Justice to the Washington Monument. </s> Protesters Leave Dakota Access Pipeline Area; Some Stay And Are Arrested

Local law enforcement officers have arrested some people who chose not to evacuate federal land near part of the Dakota Access Pipeline north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Most protesters had left earlier. At dusk, police moved back, and said they would not enter the camp at that time.

The governor of North Dakota had set Wednesday as the evacuation deadline for the largest protest camp, which is on a flat area north of the Cannonball River. He cited flooding concerns.

Protesters supporting members of the Standing Rock Sioux, many of whom believe the pipeline's route under a section of the Missouri River known as Lake Oahe will endanger drinking water, have been living on the land for six months or more. They have erected shelters and organized supply systems for food and water, even as winter brought freezing temperatures and feet of snow.

As the 3 p.m. ET deadline approached, some demonstrators prayed while others took down some shelters and set fire to things they were not carrying out. Rain falling on law enforcement and demonstrators turned to fat snowflakes.

"It looks like a trash pile. But it's getting picked up and every spot is starting to look better and better as we work together," Dotty Agard of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe told Amy Sisk of Inside Energy while sorting through abandoned goods.

"One man used a four-wheeler to help get a car out of the deep mud, and another person rode a snowmobile through the dirt," The New York Times reported from the area. "Some semipermanent structures had been burned, apparently an effort to demolish them ahead of the deadline. A fire burned, black smoke rising in the cold air, while some people roamed the area."

The newspaper reported that "state officials have offered meals, lodging, a medical exam and a bus ticket to anywhere in the 48 contiguous states for protesters who left by Wednesday afternoon but needed help getting home."

According to live video posted to the Lakota People's Law Project Facebook page, a group from the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, which borders the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, leased land a few miles away and were welcoming people who left the evacuated area.

Not far from the area being evacuated, crews for the company Energy Transfer Partners are drilling a hole for the pipeline to carry oil under the Missouri River. Construction had been stalled for months, as lawsuits challenging the permitting process for the pipeline made their way through the courts.

In December, the Obama administration announced it would not allow construction to go forward until the Army Corps conducted a full environmental review of the route. It was a win for the protest movement.

The Corps officially began the review process in January, opening up the pipeline route plan to public comments, but that process ground to a halt when President Trump signed an executive memorandum directing the Corps to expedite the permitting consideration.

The Corps subsequently approved the river crossing on Feb. 7, and suspended its environmental review.

Even as protest camps clear out, the Standing Rock Sioux and their allies have doubled down on their legal fight against the pipeline. Since the president's executive action, numerous lawsuits have been filed seeking to halt construction or block oil from flowing through the pipeline should it be completed.

In an amicus brief filed in U.S. District Court earlier this month, the leadership of the 16 federally recognized Indian tribes located in North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska — a group known as The Great Plains Tribal Chairmen's Association — wrote in opposition to the pipeline.

The Dakota Access Pipeline, they argued, cannot be understood without considering the history of the federal government abusing tribal sovereignty: </s> Activists have spent months protesting plans to route the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline beneath a lake near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, saying the project poses a threat to water resources and sacred Native American sites.

Supplies, including food and building materials, will be blocked from entering the main camp following Governor Jack Dalrymple's signing of an "emergency evacuation" order on Monday, said Maxine Herr, a spokeswoman from the Morton County Sheriff's Department.

"They have deliveries, retailers that are delivering to them - we will turn around any of those services," she said.

The order was effective immediately. As of Tuesday morning, however, no vehicles carrying supplies had been turned back, said Cecily Fong, a spokeswoman for the North DakotaDepartment of Emergency Services.

The building materials intended for the site are a top priority because the camp is not zoned for permanent structures, Fong said. Propane tanks also will be blocked because they have been used in attacks against law enforcement, she said.

A spokeswoman from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe was not immediately available for comment.

The 1,172-mile (1,885 km) pipeline project, owned by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP <ETP.N>, is mostly complete except for a segment planned to run under Lake Oahe, a reservoir formed by a dam on the Missouri River.

Thousands of people are protesting at camps located on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land,north of the Cannonball River in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. The Sacred Stone camp, which was the original camp established in April, is south of the river on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation.

Opposition to the pipeline has galvanized numerous Native American tribes as well as environmental activists. The movement has been bolstered by social media campaigns and the support of celebrities including actors Mark Ruffalo and Shailene Woodley.

North Dakota officials have issued several requests for additional help from federal law enforcement in light of the demonstrators. However, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said on Monday that its order to evacuate the primary protest camp - known as Oceti Sakowin - by Dec. 5 would not include forcibly removing people from the land.

"Those who remain will be considered unauthorized and may be subject to citation under federal, state, or local laws," the Army Corps said, adding that enforcement of the order was up to local authorities. </s> Protesters demonstrate against the Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in Cannon Ball, North Dakota on Sept. 9, 2016.

ANDREW CULLEN / Reuters </s> Local law enforcement officers are arresting people who chose not to evacuate federal land near part of the Dakota Access Pipeline north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

The governor of North Dakota had set Wednesday as the evacuation deadline for the largest protest camp, which is on a flat area north of the Cannonball River. He cited flooding concerns.

Protesters supporting members of the Standing Rock Sioux, many of whom believe the pipeline's route under a section of the Missouri River known as Lake Oahe will endanger drinking water, have been living on the land for six months or more. They have erected shelters and organized supply systems for food and water, even as winter brought freezing temperatures and feet of snow.

As the 3 p.m. ET deadline approached, some demonstrators prayed while others took down some shelters and set fire to things they were not carrying out. Rain falling on law enforcement and demonstrators turned to fat snowflakes.

"It looks like a trash pile. But it's getting picked up and every spot is starting to look better and better as we work together," Dotty Agard of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe told Amy Sisk of Inside Energy while sorting through abandoned goods.



"One man used a four-wheeler to help get a car out of the deep mud, and another person rode a snowmobile through the dirt," The New York Times reported from the area. "Some semipermanent structures had been burned, apparently an effort to demolish them ahead of the deadline. A fire burned, black smoke rising in the cold air, while some people roamed the area."

The newspaper reported that "state officials have offered meals, lodging, a medical exam and a bus ticket to anywhere in the 48 contiguous states for protesters who left by Wednesday afternoon but needed help getting home."

According to live video posted to the Lakota People's Law Project Facebook page, a group from the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, which borders the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, leased land a few miles away and were welcoming people who left the evacuated area.

Not far from the area being evacuated, crews for the company Energy Transfer Partners are drilling a hole for the pipeline to carry oil under the Missouri River. Construction had been stalled for months, as lawsuits challenging the permitting process for the pipeline made their way through the courts.

In December, the Obama administration announced it would not allow construction to go forward until the Army Corps conducted a full environmental review of the route. It was a win for the protest movement.

The Corps officially began the review process in January, opening up the pipeline route plan to public comments, but that process ground to a halt when President Trump signed an executive memorandum directing the Corps to expedite the permitting consideration.

The Corps subsequently approved the river crossing on Feb. 7, and suspended its environmental review.

Even as protest camps clear out, the Standing Rock Sioux and their allies have doubled down on their legal fight against the pipeline. Since the president's executive action, numerous lawsuits have been filed seeking to halt construction or block oil from flowing through the pipeline should it be completed.

In an amicus brief filed in U.S. District Court earlier this month, the leadership of the 16 federally recognized Indian tribes located in North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska — a group known as The Great Plains Tribal Chairmen's Association — wrote in opposition to the pipeline.

The Dakota Access Pipeline, they argued, cannot be understood without considering the history of the federal government abusing tribal sovereignty:



"From this history, a pattern emerges wherein the United States consistently utilizes the legal narrative of the time to segregate, take from, and discriminate against Indian tribes. [The Dakota Access Pipeline] is simply the latest example of Native peoples of the Great Plains being subjected to varying legal standards and shifting political winds to justify the subordination of Indian treaty rights to non-Indian pecuniary interests. "... In addition to the irreparable harm to the free exercise of Native religious beliefs ... there is also irreparable harm in the form of historical trauma and psychological distress which stems from the consistent failure of the United States to live up to its obligations under its Treaties with Indian tribes generally, and under its Treaties with the Great Sioux Nation here specifically. Treaties matter." </s> On the eve of the deadline for anti-Dakota Access Pipeline protesters to vacate camps in North Dakota, the company in charge of construction said in a court filing on Tuesday that oil could start flowing in as early as two weeks, beating previous estimates.

Texas-based developer Energy Transfer Partners, the builder of the pipeline whose construction has sparked protests since last August over its location, said in the filing to the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., that the company “estimates and targets that the pipeline will be complete and ready to flow oil anywhere between the week of March 6, 2017 and April 1, 2017.”

The court filing was required as part of an ongoing legal battle that is challenging the construction at the site by Lake Oahe.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum last week called for the Oceti Sakowin protest camp — located on the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation — to be evacuated by Wednesday, Feb. 23., claiming ecological damage at the camp and rising post-winter floodwaters.

The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, which is part of the Great Sioux Nation, has joined the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit against the pipeline, filing a motion at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Feb. 9 seeking a temporary restraining order “to halt construction and drilling” under and on either side of the land surrounding the lake.

The tribe argued that the pipeline “will desecrate the waters upon which Cheyenne River Sioux tribal members rely for their most important religious practices and therefore substantially burden the free exercise of their religion,” according to a court document obtained by ABC News.

Last Monday, the court denied that motion seeking a temporary restraining order. On Tuesday, the pipeline company said that the Cheyenne River Sioux legal claim under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act “has no chance of success on the merits.”

The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe filed a separate motion seeking a preliminary injunction directing the Army Corps to withdraw the easement issued to the pipeline company on Feb. 8. The tribe alleges that the easement granted is “entirely unlawful,” according to court documents. A further hearing on the Cheyenne River Sioux’s motion for a preliminary injunction against the pipeline is set for Feb. 27 in Washington, D.C.

After receiving the easement to build the pipeline across land on both sides of Lake Oahe, Energy Transfer Partners announced it would resume construction immediately, and indeed work has resumed.

The Dakota Access Pipeline, which would connect oil production areas in North Dakota to an existing crude oil terminal near Patoka, Illinois.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has been at the forefront of massive and prolonged protests over the four-state crude oil pipeline. The demonstrations have drawn thousands of Native Americans, environmental activists and their allies to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe reservation.

Kelcy Warren, the CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, has said that “concerns about the pipeline’s impact on local water supply are unfounded” and “multiple archaeological studies conducted with state historic preservation offices found no sacred items along the route.”

In the final days of President Barack Obama’s administration, Jo-Ellen Darcy, the assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, announced on Dec. 4 that an easement would not be granted for the pipeline to cross under the large reservoir on the Missouri River.

The move to deny the easement was hailed by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other pipeline opponents as a major victory. But on his second weekday in office, President Trump signed a memorandum aimed at advancing the Dakota Access Pipeline, as well as one directed at the Keystone XL pipeline.

ABC News’ Luis Martinez, Darren Reynolds, Evan Simon and Catherine Thorbecke contributed to this report.
The protestors in the area of the Dakota Access Pipeline are evicted, clearing the way for the oil pipeline through Canada and the United States to be built.