The Latest: 17 protesters arrested at North Dakota Capitol
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Latest on protests and other developments surrounding the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline in North Dakota (all times local):
6:30 p.m.
Authorities in North Dakota say they've arrested three more people in a demonstration at the Capitol in Bismarck over the Dakota Access pipeline.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Highway Patrol Lt. Tom Iverson says the people refused orders to leave the governor's residence on the Capitol grounds. The arrests follow those earlier Thursday of 14 protesters who were sitting, chanting and singing in a wing of the Capitol and refused orders to leave.
Iverson says the 17 individuals face criminal trespass charges in Burleigh County. He says at one point about 100 demonstrators were massed on a residential street near the Capitol.
Their protest followed an interfaith day of prayer in the southern part of the state near the small town of Cannon Ball. Hundreds of clergy sang hymns and marched near the route of the pipeline.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Members of the Standing Rock Sioux have demonstrated against the pipeline for months, saying they fear it could harm drinking water and construction could damage sacred sites.
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6 p.m.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Authorities in North Dakota say a small portion of a deer hunting unit near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation will be closed because of the Dakota Access oil pipeline protest.
Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier says the protest site is making it "unsafe for hunters to enter" the area generally east of state Highway 1806 and County Road 135 in a unit designated 3C.
All other areas in that unit will remain accessible to hunters. Kirchmeier says residents may be asked to show a valid hunting license at traffic control points in the area.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Opponents of the pipeline project have been camped in south-central North Dakota for months in an effort to stop construction.
The deer gun hunting season opens at noon Friday.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}5:15 p.m.
Authorities in North Dakota have arrested 14 protesters of the Dakota Access pipeline whom they said refused to leave a wing of the Capitol in Bismarck.
The demonstrators were singing hymns Thursday afternoon in the judicial wing of the Capitol. Highway Patrol Lt. Tom Iverson says they face disorderly conduct charges for refusing to leave when asked.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Their protest followed an interfaith day of prayer in the southern part of the state near the small town of Cannon Ball. Hundreds of clergy sang hymns and marched near the route of the pipeline.
Members of the Standing Rock Sioux have demonstrated against the pipeline for months, saying they fear it could harm drinking water and construction could damage sacred sites.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}11:23 a.m.
Hundreds of clergy of various faiths joined protests Thursday against the Dakota Access oil pipeline in southern North Dakota, singing hymns, marching and ceremonially burning a copy of a 600-year-old document.
The interfaith event was organized to draw attention to the concerns of the Standing Rock Sioux and push elected officials to call for a halt to construction of the $3.8 billion pipeline that's to carry North Dakota oil through South Dakota and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois. The tribe believes the pipeline that will skirt its reservation threatens its drinking water and cultural sites.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Clergy and protesters gathered at a campfire at the main protest camp to burn a copy of a religious document from the 1400s that attempted to justify the taking of land from indigenous peoples. Hundreds then sang songs while they marched to a bridge that was the site of a recent clash between protesters and officers.
Officers monitored Thursday's ceremony but didn't intervene.