Hundreds of clergy gather in North Dakota to support indigenous people blocking pipeline

When John Floberg, an Episcopal priest on the Standing Rock reservation, called for clergy to join him in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, to show support for the Standing Rock Sioux Nation, he thought 100 might come.

Instead, more than 500 clergy from around the world came to support the  Sioux Nation’s efforts to protect land and resources they say are at risk from construction of the Dakota Access pipeline. They gathered November 2 and 3 at the Oceti Sakowin camp on the shores of the Cannonball River, one of several camps the Standing Rock Sioux and supporters have set up.

“The invitation of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe—the people who have been here for weeks and months—that’s how it came to be that God called us together,” Floberg said at the introductory gathering.