Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier of Morton County has been largely responsible for law enforcement at the site and he has accused protesters of shooting guns, carrying weapons and even threatening to use pipe bombs against his officers. But tribal members told The New York Times that the "bombs" were mistaken for sacred Chanunpa pipes used in ceremonies.
“This is our homeland,” Phyllis Young, a Standing Rock Sioux citizen, told The Times. “We are Dakota. Dakota means friend or ally. Dakota Access has taken our name.”

Local law enforcement cited safety concerns.

"We have had incidents and reports of weapons, of pipe bombs, of some shots fired," Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said.

Eagle thinks law enforcement misinterpreted what people were saying on social media. He said they were talking about sacred pipes, not pipe bombs: "When we say we're loading our pipes, that's our chanupa. That's a sacred object that we carry to communicate with everything within creation. It's not a weapon."