CANNON BALL, N.D. -- Demonstrators protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline say if the courts don't prevent construction, they have another card to play.
Akicitawin, or Warrior Woman, is written on the handcuff Julie Richards used to chain herself to a piece of heavy machinery to prevent work on the pipeline near Cannon Ball, North Dakota.
"We're making a statement that our ancestors fought so that we shall remain. It's up to us to do the same for our future generations," Richards says.
Situated under a Warrior Woman flag on a graffiti covered excavator activists say disturbed sacred sites on Saturday, Richards fears how further oil development will affect Native women.
"We're going to protect our water and we're going to protect our native women from these man camps, the drugs, the sex trafficking," she adds.
