Tribal members say the camp and protests pose no threat to anyone.

On a stroll through the camp, visitors meet young men on horseback, children playing in the grass and grandparents in camping chairs, some of whom have traveled from as far as California, Florida and New York.

But there appear to be few faces from neighboring towns like Mandan and St. Anthony. Residents from Morton County — population 30,000, about 92 percent white — often pass by the camp, cellphone cameras out. Few make the turnoff to head in.

“We don’t know our neighbors,” said Jana Gipp, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux who lives on 130 acres along the Missouri River here. “They don’t know that we’re hard workers. We don’t all drink. We have jobs. We have to support our families.”

The main camp sits on federal land managed by the Army Corps of Engineers and is run by a group of volunteers and members from the Standing Rock Sioux. People line up for communal breakfasts, dance and sing around campfires, and march a mile up the highway to the privately owned ranch land where construction on the pipeline has halted for the moment.

Tribal officials say they have applied for a camping permit from the corps, but law enforcement officials say they do not appear to have one. The corps did not respond to emails asking about the legality or status of the camp. On Tuesday, the chief executive of Energy Transfer Partners, the company developing the pipeline, sent a memo to employees saying it is committed to the project.

There are many ties between Indian and non-Indian residents here. Every weekend, people drive down to the Prairie Knights Casino and Resort on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation to gamble and see concerts. Plenty of friendships straddle reservation boundaries.