The Environmental Club and Young Democrats Club have teamed up to spread awareness about the Dakota Access Pipeline and raise funds to help arrested protesters with legal aid. The pipeline was proposed by Energy Transfer Partners in 2014 and The New York Times reported that the underground pipeline was created to transport 470,000 barrels of crude oil a day across five states more efficiently than using trains. Since the initial proposal, the pipeline has been the center of much controversy.

Opponents of the pipeline say that it violates the land of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and that its proximity to the tribe’s main source of water, the Missouri River, could be hazardous. In December 2016, President Obama’s administration stated that the pipeline needs to find an alternate route, further away from the Sioux reservation. A year later however, President Trump signed an executive action allowing the pipeline construction to advance.

Both the Environmental Club and Young Democrats Club feel strongly about this issue and wanted to help the Standing Rock Sioux.

Senior Atticus VonHolten, a member of the Environmental Club, emphasized that clean water is a human right.

“[Access to safe drinking water is] something that we shouldn’t take any risks with especially if the risk is only for profit,” VonHolten said.

Many groups around the country feel the same way and have sent coats and supplies to the protesters camping out, but the two clubs decided that a financial contribution would be more beneficial and would help the group fight Trump’s decision in court.

Sophomore Ambrosia Naramore-Winfrey, President of the Young Democrat’s Club, said that the club wanted to help in any way they could.

“[The club’s goal is to] help the protestors take legal action and we thought that raising funds for them would do a lot of good for protesting the North Dakota Access Pipeline,” Naramore-Winfrey said.

To raise funds, the clubs are selling buttons and t-shirts with prints on them designed by VonHolten. T-shirts can be pre-ordered in science teacher and Environmental Club sponsor Julie Schwarting’s classroom, room 412, from March 6-28. Students can bring in a blank t-shirt and pay $5 to get the design printed on it, or they can pay $10 for a shirt provided by the club. T-shirts can also be bought for $10 at lunch on March 13 and 14 and after the return from spring break.