The Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho plans to file a lawsuit today over a controversial megaload shipment that went through the reservation.

Tribal officials led three nights of protests over the shipment, which entered the northwestern part of the reservation on Monday night. They were unable to stop the truck but opposition and outrage grew every day.

The truck has since completed its journey across the reservation. It traveled approximately 72 miles along US Highway 12, all without tribal consent.

“We can’t hold off our people unless there’s some definitive action,” Chairman Silas Whitman told The Spokesman Review. He was among those arrested for trying to stop the truck.

The truck is now parked in Syringa, Idaho, about 10 miles outside of the reservation, The Lewiston Tribune reported. That's within the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, an area where the tribe retains hunting, gathering and other treaty-based rights.

Another protest is planned tonight and is expected to draw environmentalists and other groups. The truck will be traveling along a protected river corridor, the paper said.

The U.S. Forest Service is considering "future" legal action, the paper reported. The state of Idaho, not the federal government, granted permission for the shipment.

The truck is carrying a 225-foot-long water purification unit and has been given permission to go through Montana. The equipment is headed to the tar sands oil development area in Alberta, Canada.

A second truck has been approved for travel as well.

Get the Story:
Megaload enters protected river corridor; tribe plans legal action today (The Lewiston Tribune 8/8)
Tribe megaload protest still on (The Spokesman Review 8/8)
Megaload draws Idaho protesters for 3rd night (AP 8/8)

Related Stories:
Nez Perce Tribe makes second attempt to stop megaload truck (8/7)
Nez Perce Tribe attempts to block megaload from reservation (8/6)
Nez Perce Tribe opposes megaload shipments on highways (8/5)