For weeks, protesters in the thousands have been have been playing a tense waiting game with police on the banks of the Missouri River an hour south of Bismarck, North Dakota. The protesters gained a partial victory on Sunday, when Jo-Ellen Darcy, the Army’s assistant secretary for civil works, announced that the Corps had decided not to grant the Dakota Access Pipeline company an easement to dig under the Missouri River.

In her statement, Darcy explained that her decision was “based… on a need to explore alternate routes for the Dakota Access Pipeline crossing.” The decision on the easement had been delayed in mid-November in order to allow for additional meetings with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.