PORT TOWNSEND — Stand with Standing Rock Jefferson County will host a march Friday in Port Townsend to protest the Dakota Access pipeline that will cut through part of a Sioux reservation in North Dakota.

According to Carmen Bitzer, one of the march organizers, the march will start at 2 p.m. at the corner of Lawrence and Walker streets next to the fire station, then proceed down Lawrence Street toward Pope Marine Park on Water Street.

The rally is a sister march of one in Washington, D.C., led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the Indigenous Environmental Network and the Native Organizers Alliance, all organizations that have been protesting the pipeline for nearly four years.

The pipeline was halted by the Obama administration in December but was green-lighted again in January by an executive order from President Donald Trump.

“This is a time when we need to band together more than ever,” said Bitzer on the event’s Facebook page. “We need to stop this! Through prayerful civil disobedience and song we will be victorious.”

Currently, 26 people have said they are attending, according to the group’s Facebook page. More information is on the Stand with Standing Rock Olympic Peninsula Facebook page.

The group held fundraisers and marches for Standing Rock back in September, and since January, protesters have become a staple outside the Chase and Wells Fargo bank locations in Port Townsend. Those protests have been mainly organized to urge people to divest from those banks, which have invested in the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline.

Currently, the Standing Rock Sioux are hoping to halt the pipeline using the courts; however on Tuesday, a federal judge denied a preliminary injunction by the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

Both the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux tribes are awaiting a decision on a joint lawsuit they filed. A ruling is expected in April.

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Jefferson County Editor/Reporter Cydney McFarland can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 55052, or at [email protected].