North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple's successor will be elected Tuesday. As the end looms to a long career in political office, one that includes stints as a legislator and lieutenant governor, Dalrymple is surely reviewing his accomplishments and weighing his service to his home state.

Dalrymple, the scion of a wealthy wheat-farming family, presided over a booming economy, economic diversification and robust investments in education. But rising tensions with regional American Indian nations stemming from oil pipeline protests near the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe reservation may cast a long shadow over the Republican governor's legacy.

Despite his good work, Dalrymple, 68, may be best remembered for what recently occurred on his watch: law enforcement agents in riot gear, looking more like an invading army than peace officers, using pepper spray and rubber bullets to arrest protesters.

Members of the Standing Rock Nation fear that the Dakota Access Pipeline, which is slated to cross a nearby Missouri River reservoir, could contaminate their drinking water. They also are concerned that construction will destroy ancient burial grounds and artifacts. The pipeline's route is on privately owned land but is considered part of the tribe's ancestral homeland.

There are legitimate points to be made about the protesters trespassing on private property and barricading a highway. Protesters should not have strayed from the main encampment on adjacent federal land, where they have been allowed for months. Protesters purposefully escalated tensions in expanding and, in doing so, dug a deep hole in the moral high ground they've occupied.

But reacting with calm and deliberation is inherent in state leaders' responsibilities. The law enforcement response, which occurred after daily briefings with Dalrymple, was also a decision to escalate tensions. Rather than continue talks with tribal leadership to move the protesters back to federal land, or wait for North Dakota's inevitable brutal winter to chase off the protesters, officers forcibly intervened about a week ago.

The chaotic images from the scene were shocking. Heightening these concerns: News that the heavily armed militia members affiliated with the Cliven Bundy family had been acquitted after taking over an Oregon wildlife refuge. Federal officials handled the Bundy family's first standoff in Nevada and then another in Oregon with kid gloves to reduce the risk of violence. Officials returned Bundy's seized cattle, for example, and patiently negotiated even as residents in nearby towns complained about the armed zealots the Bundys attracted to the areas.

That defuse-the-situation approach offered a strong, preferable precedent for handling the Standing Rock protesters. It also appears that there was time for state officials to continue diplomatic efforts. Protesters hadn't stopped construction, the company building the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, said this week. The company also had not asked the state to remove the protesters from its land. The reason for the urgency behind the state's use of force is unclear, though a spokesman for Dalrymple said this week that the blockaded road was a safety concern.

A peaceful resolution to this ongoing dispute is desperately needed. Federal officials have underscored the Standing Rock nation's cultural and environmental concerns. There is also a need for a pipeline to move oil safely to market. There ought to be a way to balance tribal concerns and energy infrastructure demands, as President Obama said this week.

Dalrymple may be in his final days in office, but he should lead in forging compromise. Doing so would only burnish the governor's long, distinguished record of public service.