HOLYOKE — Shortly after the sun rose over the Holyoke Mall parking lot Tuesday morning, Paki Wieland hopped out of her borrowed camper to greet an old friend, fellow activist Brian Kavanagh.

“The last time I saw Brian, he was behind me in court in New York,” Wieland, of Northampton, said.

Neither could remember exactly which act of resistance brought them in front of a judge, but Kavanagh, of Hartford, Connecticut, figured it was “something worthwhile.”

And on Tuesday, Weiland and Kavanagh, both 73, embarked on a journey to their next fight. They were among a group of area residents who set off on a 27-hour trip across the United States to the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota, where they’ll join hundreds of others protesting the planned Dakota Access pipeline.

For months now, opponents of the four-state, $3.8 billion pipeline have been camping in the area about 50 miles south of Bismarck. They worry the pipeline will disturb cultural artifacts and threaten drinking water sources on the Standing Rock Sioux’s nearby reservation and downstream.

The pipeline’s operator, Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, insists the project is safe. The tribe is fighting the pipeline’s permitting process in federal court.

“How many generations of exploitation, of genocide, the natives have survived,” Weiland said. “Maybe this is one small way we can tip the balance toward justice.”

Earlier Tuesday morning at Weiland’s Northampton home (which is owned by peace activist Frances Crowe), another friend, Tighe Barry, finished packing up the camper with blankets, woolen clothes, pots and pans and other necessities they’ll need for the trip, which Weiland said has an “open-ended” duration.

Many of the goods were donated by local well-wishers, including those at First Churches. Parishioners there also helped with cash contributions. And the 22-foot-long camper came from a friend in Vermont, Weiland said.

Barry, 55, of Washington, D.C., characterized the recent clashes between police and pipeline protesters as “brutalization” on the part of the officers.

Last week, more than 140 people were arrested after some 200 law enforcement officers in riot gear forced hundreds of protesters off an encampment on private property.

In response, some demonstrators torched three vehicles on a bridge, creating a blockade that effectively cut off easy access to the pipeline construction zone and made it far harder for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and nearby residents to get to Bismarck for errands and medical appointments.

But Barry said other demonstrators were arrested while acting in a peaceful manner, such as a woman he said was shown being taken into custody while filming police.

“When you’re not doing anything, you’re just standing there watching, that’s not cause for arrest,” he said.

Barry said he has protested in the Gaza Strip, Yemen and in Bahrain, where he was deported for protesting the royal family’s rule.

“In Bahrain the way they (police) do it, is they at least give you a chance to run away” before arresting demonstrators, he said.

In Holyoke, Barry and Weiland met Kavanagh and Jackie Allen-Doucot, also of Hartford, where they run the Catholic Worker House, which serves the homeless and supports other social justice initiatives.

They plan to make the drive to North Dakota in shifts and will make one stop in Syracuse, New York, to pick up two more protesters.

Once they arrive at one of the four encampment sites, Weiland said they’ll see how and where they are needed.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

Chris Lindahl can be reached at clindahl@gazettenet.com

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