And then there is Charles Rencountre, a sculptor living in Santa Fe, N.M., who arrived at the Sacred Stones camp last week to create his personal tribute to the tribes’ stand. He was not asked to come, he was simply moved to bring his tools and his heart to the work.

Rencountre turns off a generator and lifts the protective glass mask covering his face to explain his project. He first extends a pleasant greeting and comments on the beauty of working outside, on a golden late summer day, with no clock other than the sun to separate work from sleep.

On a high hill overlooking the original spirit camp, he is building a sculpture titled “Not Afraid to Look,” a large abstract form of a man sitting, arms crossed over his raised knees, while he gazes implacably forward. The direction he faces, this man is not afraid to look, is toward the Cannonball River and beyond, where pipeline equipment is visible on high bluffs a mile away.

Inspiration for the sitting figure comes from an old pipe, with a small figure of a Native American on the pipe stem facing toward the bowl carved into the shape of a white man.