Native American water protectors at the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota burned their riverside encampments in ceremonial fires as police and sheriffs moved in Wednesday to enforce an eviction order against the camp. The move comes after months of Indigenous resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Violent "snatch-and-grab" arrests of water protectors and journalists accompanied dramatic scenes of the Oceti Sakowin camp's Navajo-style structures being consumed by flames.

In an interview with Indigenous Rising media, water protector and organizer Darren Begay noted that elders determined that past patterns of abuse by law enforcement typically entailed reckless disregard for sacred objects and dwellings. In a sign of respect, the elders determined, it would be best to show respect for the sacrifices of past months that the structures represented — as well as the prayers and unity they engendered — by setting them alight, "send(ing) their smoke up like prayers ... ensur(ing) these structures go out in dignity."

Water protectors have faced repression from authorities several times since last August, with over 700 arrests tallied.

Chase Iron Eyes, a Standing Rock Sioux member, said that the camp's closure could never diminish the resolve of anti-DAPL resisters.

"You can't arrest a movement. You can't arrest a spiritual revolution," he said.

teleSUR takes a look at the latest violation of Native sovereignty for the sake of extractivist policies in the U.S. in a struggle that — despite the eviction of water protectors from Oceti Sakowin — by no means has reached its end.