PASADENA – Several hundred people protesting the Dakota Access oil pipeline trailed the Rose Parade on Monday morning with a human-powered float and 150-foot-long black pipeline to raise awareness about water protection issues.

Local water activists, Native American tribes and veterans pushed the float adorned with a “Water is Sacred” teepee and carried the plastic black pipeline as they marched down Colorado Boulevard chanting “Water is life” and “We are water protectors,” among other things.

The protest was organized by the Bernie Sanders Brigade, which marched in support of the then-presidential candidate at last year’s parade.

“It was important to take over the end of the Rose Parade to unify people to get the message out and most importantly to get people to defund the (pipeline),” said Lydia Ponce, a representative from the American Indian Movement of Southern California.

For months, thousands of people have camped out on federal land in southern North Dakota near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to protest the construction of a 1,200-mile pipeline that they say threatens drinking water and cultural sites in the area.

In December, the Army Corps of Engineers denied a permit for the pipeline to cross under the Missouri River but protesters have remained on the site as they wait to see whether President-elect Donald Trump will do anything to reverse the agency’s decision.

Ponce, 55, of Venice, said their protest at the annual Pasadena parade was not just about the Dakota Access pipeline, but about all oil pipelines that threaten drinking water.

“When they break they’re going to compromise the water for all the people not just the indigenous,” she said.

For more than a century, the parade, organized by the Tournament of Roses, has acted as the centerpiece to the country’s New Year’s Day celebrations, drawing hundreds of thousands of spectators along the 5.5-mile route through Pasadena and millions of viewers on television.

It is not uncommon for groups unaffiliated with the parade to bring their message to parade-goers at the close of the annual event. Bernie Sanders supporters, Occupy Wall Street protesters and other groups have marched at the end of the parade in the past.