For those that care--we are currently, right now, getting one of the badder early winter blizzards in recent memory right smack on top of the protest area!
It's about the money. As stated above, the tribe tried to shake down the company for permitting access across the reservation. Instead of taking the easy $10 million, they went for either $30 or 50 million, depending on who you believe.
The company played that game a little bit better, and simply re-routed the pipeline a mile north of the reservation on federal and private land, for which they were granted all necessary permitting.
The tribe is very upset that they could not blackmail the company for more money, so now they are trying to extort the process. Even they do not know what they want now, except that they love the worldwide attention it brings.
