BIA to provide more officers to assist Standing Rock Sioux tribe in closing protest camps on tribe's land

After pressing the administration for federal support for law enforcement on the ground in North Dakota, U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp announced Friday that the Bureau of Indian Affairs will provide BIA law enforcement support to assist the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in closing protest camps on the tribe’s land.

The announcement comes just a week after Heitkamp urged President Donald Trump to provide federal funds to support North Dakota law enforcement that have been working at the protest.

Heitkamp made her formal request after the president announced in January that he supported the completion of the pipeline.

Heitkamp says she will continue to push the president to look at paying the state back for costs incurred during the DAPL protests. North Dakota has spent more than $22 million on law enforcement in relation to the protests.