Money pours in for pipeline protest

Associated Press

CANNON BALL, N.D.

The crowdsourcing goal was modest: $5,000, enough to help a few dozen people camping in North Dakota to protest the nearby construction of the four-state Dakota Access oil pipeline. The fund has since topped a staggering $1 million.

The fund is among several cash streams that have provided at least $3 million to help with legal costs, food and other supplies to those opposing the nearly 1,200-mile pipeline. It may also give protesters the ability to prolong their months-long encampments that have attracted thousands of supporters, as the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe pursues the fight in court.

And as the number of protest-related arrests increased last week, so did contributions – the funds raked in more than $200,000 between Thursday and Friday alone.

But demonstrators are quick to note that the amount of money raised and what they have left isn’t the same.

“It still feels unreal sometimes because it is such an astronomical figure to me,” said Ho Waste Wakiya Wicasa, the protester who set up the GoFundMe account that has raised more than $1 million mostly for operating expenses at the camp, which took root in April.

Meanwhile, authorities are investigating an overnight fire that may have burned hundreds of acres near the protest camp in North Dakota.

Morton County sheriff’s spokeswoman Donnell Preskey says the fire was reported early Sunday but quickly extinguished.

Also, a North Dakota sheriff said Sunday officials are searching for a missing person after a canoeing incident in the Cannonball River near the protest camp.