Baltimore Stood with Standing Rock. I took pictures.

Multiple organizations came out and stood in front of the Baltimore City Crescent Center, which houses the offices of the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Army Corps fast-tracked the Dakota Access Pipeline without proper consultation.

A small group of people gather. Workers on their way home stare puzzled.

An array of cameras looms over the small crowd. Kenny G plays over the speakers, in a strange soundtrack for a protest.

Just inside the glass of the Crescent Building where the Army Corps of Engineers have their offices, security guards laugh and talk with each other. A few of them came outside, and I went up to them. “What do you think of all this?” I asked. “It’s peaceful.” said one. “Gotta do what you gotta do. Change needs to happen.” said the other.

Some onlookers stop and join the crowd, which is now at around 40 people.

As the sun sets, people waiting for the light rail squint at the protesters signs, trying to make them out.

The light rail rumbles by, honking at protesters too close to the edge.

Realizing they have a captive audience stuck in traffic, protestors hold up signs and cheer as people honk.

The crowd, mostly elderly, mostly white, peers hopefully at cars, and asks them to honk.

A photographer, trying to get a photo of a kid, nearly gets hit by a train before Jill Whitlock pulls her back.

A man listening to headphones peers at the signs, nods approvingly, and then begins livestreaming.

Arion is asked to hold a sign, but replies “I’m not holding anything unless you tell me what it’s for”. After being explained it, he grabbed the sign. “Yeah, I’ll hold it!”

I quiz Nya on why we’re here. “Native Americans don’t want their water polluted by oil pipes. We’re here for them.”

A homeless man sits talking to himself near the protest. Protestors hand him money. Someone buys him a burrito and a soda.

A group of teens from over west come by. “Y’all gonna protest with us when we do it?” they ask. The protestors shout yes, they will.

The teens start chanting “Fuck Donald Trump! Fuck Donald Trump! I gotta chopper in my trunk!”, quoting a song that went viral from a local rap stars Tlow, Lor Roger, and Dooley.

“They fightin’ for they water?” a man asks. “That’s a good thing.” He starts filming with his phone.

A group of older young men begin to talk: “These young dudes BETTER say ‘Fuck Trump’, it’s gonna be worse for them than it was for us.”

I ask them what they mean. “Man, Obama didn’t stop it. You know how damn hard it would be to stop a oil pipe under TRUMP?”

A young lady reads through a flyer handed to her from the protesters, then starts passing them out at stopped cars.

Seeing their friend hand hers out, the young men ask an olderlady to explain #StandingRock further.

They get excited. “Well, give us a stack then. We’ll pass em out.”

hey filter into the stopped cars, tapping on windows, shouting above the din: “They’re just trying to save their water!”

They rapidly run out of flyers, passing them to cars the older protesters are afraid to.

Coincidentally, as soon as the young men get involved, a group of 15–20 officers show up.

The crowd grows to around 150, split by the light rail, but chanting in unison.

Women take the stage to talk about their experiences at #StandingRock.

Shaivaughn Crawley shows up. “I was just passing through,” he says, “I heard cries for justice, so I walked down.”

Puzzled, the protesters ask the police why they‘ve come. The police state there here to “keep people in line.”

The leader of the protest takes the megaphone; asks for donations for #StandingRock.

Using a hat borrowed from Shaivaughn, donations rapidly pour in. In a matter of minutes, over $350 is raised, and a representative from the Baltimore Stands with Standing Rock takes it to distribute the funds to the Standing Rock tribe.

Numbering somewhere past 200, the crowd is jubilant but ordered.

If you also want to be involved in donating to the Standing Rock tribe, you can do so here on the official tribal webpage.

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Benjamin Jancewicz is creating Vector Art | Patreon