A federal judge in Washington, DC ordered a temporary halt in construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which is opposed by Native American activists in the north-central United States because of the threat it poses to a reservation's water supply.

Judge James Boasberg brokered a temporary agreement between the all parties involved.  No construction will take place on the east side of a highway in the state of North Dakota where indigenous and environmental activists want to block the pipeline that would carry crude from the state across the Midwest to Illinois, where it would link up with another pipeline. 

But the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and their allies wanted to stop work to the west of the highway as well.  They asked for the emergency injunction after pipeline crews deliberately bulldozed burial grounds, and agents affiliated with the security company G4S were caught on video siccing attack dogs on protesters.  The Sioux say the action was deliberate, because lawyers submitted evidence of the graveyard on Friday, and within 24 hours the pipeline's developer, Energy Transfer Partners, had sent out the 'dozers.

"We saw things happening out at Standing Rock, dogs being put on protesters that haven't been seen in America for 40-50 years," said attorney Jan Hassleman of the group Earthjustice.  "Temperatures are too hot out there right now.  We asked the court to get everybody to stand down.  We also asked him for a temporary restraining order on the land on the other side of Route 1806 and that was what was denied.  That's where the sites were found on Friday."

The judge in the case on Friday is expected to make another ruling on whether the pipeline can go on.