On December 6, Marcus Mitchell, a Navajo tribal member who was subjected to excessive violence while peacefully protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline in January 2017, filed an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The MacArthur Justice Center is representing Mr. Mitchell in this lawsuit. 

This is the second time Mr. Mitchell’s case will be in front of the Eighth Circuit. Mr. Mitchell’s case was previously dismissed by a district court, but the Eighth Circuit reversed the district court’s decision, allowing Mr. Mitchell’s lawsuit to proceed. The Eighth Circuit also made clear that shooting an unarmed Mr. Mitchell in the face with a lead-filled beanbag round as he was peacefully praying could be a Fourth Amendment violation. The same issue is again in front of the Eighth Circuit.  

“I have always believed that this case is not just about one person or protest – it is about all indigenous people and our work to preserve and protect what we have left. I am more resolute than ever to continue this fight and hold those who committed violence against peaceful protesters that day accountable,” said Mr. Mitchell. 

In the fall of 2016, Mr. Mitchell, then 21-years old, traveled from Arizona to North Dakota to join the peaceful “water protectors”, in their demonstration against the construction of the DAPL. As a Diné from the Navajo Nation, he was answering the Great Sioux Nation’s call to peacefully stand in support of the Nation’s sovereignty and to help them protect their ancestral land and burial sites, as well as the threat to the environment and water posed by the construction of the pipeline. 

On the evening of January 18th, roughly 200 water protectors were gathered in peaceful protest, such as praying, chanting, and playing drums. A group of law enforcement officers, including Bismarck police, Morton County sheriffs, and North Dakota Highway Patrol troopers, were dispatched to the scene with 12 gauge “less lethal” shotguns loaded with drag-stabilizing beanbag rounds. They were commanded to, and proceeded to, fire on the crowd. 

Mr. Mitchell, observing the shootings, placed himself in front of women and elders in the crowd. Despite being peaceful and unarmed, without any justifications, officers identified him as an “agitator,” and then at least two different officers shot at him – hitting him in the face, leg, and back of the head. Mr. Mitchell was gravely injured and hospitalized as a result.  

Mr. Mitchell still suffers from loss of vision, hearing, and smell, in addition to suffering from chronic and debilitating pain on the left side of his face.  He has undergone several medical procedures to treat his injuries. 

Mr. Mitchell’s lawsuit argues that North Dakota law enforcement officers violated his constitutional rights to defend indigenous sacred land and resources recognized in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the United National Declaration of Human Rights Defenders.