BANGOR, Maine — A Penobscot Nation member was among dozens of Native American protesters and supporters arrested Thursday during a standoff with police over a proposed oil pipeline in North Dakota, according to his mother, who resides in Old Town.
“He’s fine. He’s back at the camp. He’s in ceremony,” June Sapiel said of her son, David Demo, 25, who lives in Deering, New Hampshire, and is an arborist.
“They got him on engaging in a riot, disorderly conduct and conspiracy to start a fire,” she said in a Facebook post shortly after her son’s arrest. She said that his bail was set at $1,500 cash.
On Saturday evening, Sapiel said that her son had been released from jail that morning and that he was not harmed while there.
Sapiel said that Demo has been in North Dakota since September, when he accompanied Sapiel on her first trip to the protest site.
Sapiel said Saturday that $1,000 had been donated locally toward her son’s bail but that the full amount was covered by a fund that was established specifically for that purpose.
While she had not yet been able to speak to her son by phone as of Saturday evening, she has been in contact through social media and plans to see him when she heads back to North Dakota this week. It will be her third such visit since the pipeline protest began.
“They have a lot more people going out there,” Sapiel said Saturday evening, adding that she had recently seen a live feed of the protest posted online by a friend.
“I think it’s important for everybody to know what’s going on there,” Sapiel said.
Members of Maine’s tribes have been taking part in the North Dakota pipeline protests as a show of solidarity, she said.
“We have our own issues going on with water here, which is the state of Maine, the Penobscot River,” Sapiel said.
“We’re water people and the water is very important to us, so us being out there is standing in solidarity with the Lakotas and showing them that we’re in the fight with them,” she said.
Like the Standing Rock Sioux, Maine’s tribes have had conflicts with government and industry. The relationship between Maine’s state government and its tribes has become increasingly tumultuous over the years, largely because of conflicts over sovereignty, fishing rights, water quality and other environmental matters.
Tensions spiked in the spring of 2015, when the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes withdrew their delegates to the Maine Legislature.
Demo’s arrest prompted a candlelight prayer vigil at the Bangor Waterfront Saturday that was expected to draw about 100 people, according to the event invitation that the Bangor Social and Economic Justice Coalition posted on its Facebook page.
Two other vigils are planned for next month, one at the University of Maine at Orono
According to Reuters, 141 Native Americans and other protesters in North Dakota were arrested in a tense standoff that spilled into Friday morning between law enforcement and demonstrators seeking to halt construction of a disputed oil pipeline.
Police in riot gear used pepper spray and armored vehicles in an effort to disperse an estimated 330 protesters and clear a camp on private property in the path of the proposed $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, according to photos and statements released by the Morton County Sheriff’s Department.
Police said that some protesters responded by throwing rocks, bottles and Molotov cocktails at them, attaching themselves to vehicles and starting fires.
Those who were arrested face various charges including conspiracy to endanger by fire or explosion, engaging in a riot and maintaining a public nuisance, the Mercer County Sheriff’s Department said.
Sapiel said that her oldest son, Bradley Demo, also went to North Dakota in September but since has returned home and that a friend, Winona Nicola, has been at the protests whenever she has been able.
The 1,172-mile pipeline being built by a group of companies led by Energy Transfer Partners LP would offer the fastest and most direct route to bring Bakken shale oil from North Dakota to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries, Reuters reported.
Supporters say it would be safer and more cost-effective than transporting the oil by road or rail.
But the pipeline has drawn the ire of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and environmental activists who say it threatens the water supply and sacred tribal sites. They have been protesting for several months, and dozens have been arrested.
Sapiel said that two more vigils are planned in solidarity with Standing Rock.
A vigil, likely at the University of Southern Maine in Portland, is scheduled for Nov. 17. Though details are still being firmed up, Sapiel said the plan is to begin that one at 5 p.m.
The second is set for the University of Maine in Orono beginning at noon Saturday, Nov. 19, she said.
Reuters contributed to this report.