This past weekend, Cyndy Coppola was arrested on her family farm after she was protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline construction that was taking place on that same land.
Cyndy lives in Calhoun County, Iowa and has been actively protesting the pipeline construction which is taking place on her own family land, without her permission.
With her friend and well known Iowan Ed Fallon, who is a peace activist and former Iowa state lawmaker, the two were arrested Saturday for attempting to block trucks carrying pipeline across her farmland. Bold Iowa, an environmental alliance, was also present.
Coppola and her family are part of a lawsuit brought by nine Iowa farms against Dakota Access for using eminent domain to gain easements, which they say is against Iowa state law.
Cyndy said:
“It was very frustrating, and when I first saw that topsoil piled up when they started digging, my first reaction was to cry, because we’ve tried everything.”
In addition to unlawful land-grabs taking place in Calhoun County, video footage of a pipeline worker has been released in which he said to peaceful water protectors:
“How much for the little girl?”