Veterans Assemble Near Dakota Access Protest Camp

Veterans Assemble Near Dakota Access Protest Camp
Veterans get off a bus from South Dakota after arriving at the Oceti Sakowin camp where people have gathered to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline in Cannon Ball, N.D., Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016. Tribal elders have asked the military veterans joining the large Dakota Access pipeline protest encampment not to have confrontations with law enforcement officials, an organizer with Veterans Stand for Standing Rock said Sunday, adding the group is there to help out those who've dug in against the four-state, $3.8 billion project. AP Photo/David Goldman
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Military veterans started to gather Sunday near the main Dakota Access pipeline protest camp, where they'll join the several hundred people who are against the four-state, $3.8 billion project that’s largely complete.

Already, a few hundred of the group Veterans Stand for Standing Rock have arrived at the Oceti Sakowin, or Seven Council Fires, camp and the group’s GoFundMe.com page had raised more than $1 million of its $1.2 million goal by Sunday—money due to go toward food, transportation and supplies.

Navy veteran and Harvard graduate student Art Grayson came to the camp because he “couldn’t stand by and watch people being abused,” a reference to contentious and debated clashes between protesters and law enforcement.

“People are fighting for something, and I thought they could use my help,” said the 29-year-old from Cambridge, Massachusetts, who flew the first leg of the journey, then met up with other veterans and rode from Bismarck in the back of a pickup truck.

David Swallow, an Oglala Native American, holds an eagle fan as he speaks during an interfaith ceremony at the Oceti Sakowin camp where people have gathered to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline in Cannon Ball, N.D., Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016.  (AP Photo/David Goldman)
David Swallow, an Oglala Native American, holds an eagle fan as he speaks during an interfaith ceremony at the Oceti Sakowin camp where people have gathered to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline in Cannon Ball, N.D., Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016.  AP Photo/David Goldman