Vanessa Dietz/Daily Mining Gazette A group of protesters at Houghton’s Wells Fargo Bank Thursday want the bank to withdraw its support of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

HOUGHTON – Demonstrators outside Wells Fargo Bank Thursday in Houghton braved our first wave of brisk weather, carrying signs saying, Wells Fargo Divest, Stand With Standing Rock, Water Is Life and No DAPL, the acronym for the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The dozen or more who silently carried signs for nearly three hours in the cold outside the bank Thursday said they had positive and negative feedback from passersby, but prayed for them all, inspired by thousands at Standing Rock.

Opposition to the pipeline begun in spring with elders from Standing Rock Sioux reservation gathering near the pipeline construction site on the edge of their reservation outside of Bismarck, North Dakota, over concern the pipeline will leak and contaminate drinking water on the reservation and elsewhere.

“We stood together for Mother Earth,” said Rodney Loonsfoot, a Keweenaw Bay Indian Community member and one of organizers of Thursday’s protest who conducted a traditional tobacco prayer circle, singing traditional prayers and drumming after the demonstration. “There were so many miracles out there today. More importantly, we stood together in prayer. We believe in the power of prayer. It works.”

Women surrounded the men who circled the drum, while all took turns offering individual prayers. Some KBIC members prayed in Ojibwe, including Jerry Jondreau, who missed the demonstration due to his job at Michigan Tech.

“This might be something small but damn it, you got it done,” Jondreau said in English. “Thank you guys.”

Growing support for the Natives’ stance has inspired many to do what they can to help, be it donating money or other items, or finding ways to undermine the pipeline project, including putting pressure on the banks involved.

Wells Fargo is just one of several financial institutions involved with the Dakota Access oil pipeline, but it is the only one with a local branch. A Norway bank recently pulled out of the pipeline deal due to pressure over the controversy.

Bob Langseth, of Calumet, not only thinks Wells Fargo has made mistakes, he’s also concerned about how America has historically handled its first people.

“I’m disappointed we’re breaking the treaties,” Langseth said, adding the government allotted the Sioux 15 million acres in 1868, then turned around and took the Black Hills out of the parcel in 1877. “My word is ‘repent’ on both of those issues.”

A couple people at the post-protest prayer service down the road at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church shared stories from the time they spent with the movement at Standing Rock.

“The largest gathering of indigenous people in modern history are gathered with allies from around the world,” said Regina Alleman, of Atlantic Mine, who put her nursing skills to work when she visited the protest site. “What I saw while I was there in October was an emotional juxtaposition of the best and worst of humanity. Peaceful people of all ages, all faiths and cultures praying, singing and working toward protecting our water, in stark contrast to militarized police using brutal force at times. Native people were dragged out of sweat lodges at one point, which is equivocal to dragging people out of church.”

Bill Thompson, of Hubbell, said the doors of the portable toilets at Standing Rock list court dates according to people’s arrest dates to ensure the hundreds ticketed during the protest make it to court on their appointed days.

“People were being arrested in such numbers, they had to keep track somehow,” he said.

Thompson witnessed 1,000 women take the front lines at Standing Rock one night when he was there. They were the water protectors, most of whom were clad in white skirts as they knelt and prayed in the face of armed police in full riot gear.

“The police actually looked confused,” he said. “It’s a place of peace. If you’re peaceful and nonviolent, they do not know what to do with you.

“You think you understand love until you go there,” Thompson said. “My heart stayed there a long time. It’s a powerful place; really, really powerful.”