Hundreds in Seattle protest North Dakota oil pipeline

Hundreds of protesters gathered at Seattle's Ballard Locks Tuesday night to urge the federal government to block construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline. It was one of 200 rallies planned nationwide Tuesday to support the Standing Rock Sioux tribe's fight against the pipeline.

TRANSCRIPT

The theme of the evening was Water is Life. Some people said it in Lakota, others in English.

Speaker: "Mni wiconi."

Crowd: "Water is life."

Ken Workman says it in Lushootseed.

Workman: [speaks Lushootseed].

Workman is on the Duwamish Tribal Council. His great-great-great-great-grandfather is Chief Seattle.

Workman: "How is it fair that the Native people have this pipeline in their backyard when, in fact, it was supposed to go north of Bismarck. It's just not fair."

Some of the ralliers say they want the pipeline relocated.

Morris: "So that it wouldn't be in someone's drinking water."

Margie Morris lives in Edmonds. She's a Tlingit from Alaska.

Morris: "I'm really proud that everyone's pulling together."

Others want the pipeline--and projects like it--stopped dead in their tracks.

Matt Remle is a Standing Rock Sioux. He lives in Seattle.

Remle: "It's beyond time to move away from an economy based on fossil fuels, things that are dead, right, change our climate and create death, right."

On Monday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced it needed full consultation with the Standing Rock Sioux before allowing the pipeline to pass beneath the Missouri River. The company drilling the pipeline is fighting that decision. Energy Transfer Partners say they've played by all the rules and that the tribe has refused to consult on the project.

The company's CEO has given more than $100,000 to President-elect Donald Trump and his Victory Fund this year.