SEATTLE — On a narrow central Idaho highway coursing through thickets of ponderosa pines and along a winding river, members of the Nez Perce tribe made their stand.

Hundreds gathered along U.S. Highway 12 on Monday and Tuesday and formed a human blockade in an attempt to stop a controversial megaload of equipment bound for the oil tar sands of Alberta, Canada — a load reportedly weighing about 644,000 pounds and stretching over 200 feet. They intended on continuing their protests Wednesday and Thursday nights.

The protesters — tribal elders, mothers with young children, and activists from elsewhere — slowed but did not stop the convoy carrying a giant water evaporator. After about 20 arrests for allegedly disturbing the peace by blocking the road, the load continued.

But the protest served as another point of focus among environmentalists and Native Americans who want to stop the giant shipments that they say clog roadways, disturb tourists and threaten a delicate, pristine landscape.

The picturesque terrain is home to white-tail deer, cougars, black bears and mountain goats, with rivers teeming with salmon and trout.

“Everything is in there,” said Silas Whitman, chairman of the Nez Perce tribal executive committee and among those arrested. “Yet they want to make it an industrial corridor.” By allowing the loads, he said, the tribe would “be a party to the destruction to those areas.”

The load this week has raised questions about who has the authority to approve such convoys. Omega Morgan, the Oregon contractor transporting a General Electric water evaporator, said it was operating under an oversized load permit approved by the Idaho Department of Transportation.

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