Two weeks after he began speaking out against an oil pipeline that could threaten sacred tribal land in North Dakota, college basketball’s most renowned Native American player decided Twitter and Instagram posts were no longer enough.

He wants to stand side-by-side with his people.

Wisconsin point guard Bronson Koenig, older brother Miles and trainer Clint Parks intend to leave Madison on Friday afternoon and drive about 11 hours until they reach one of several protest camps 30 to 45 minutes south of Bismarck. They’ll set up camp there for the weekend alongside thousands of other Native Americans whose colorful tribal flags line the dirt access roads and whose teepees, tents and RVs cover the prairie.

View photos Bronson Koenig (AP) More

Koenig and Parks are also hoping to organize a free three-hour basketball clinic for Native American kids on Saturday evening. They’re in the process of seeking out a gym close enough to the protest site but big enough to accommodate a potential large turnout.

“I hope to bring awareness to the cause and give everyone there a little bit of joy and a little bit of hope,” Koenig told Yahoo Sports. “I want to take time out of my schedule to pray with them and protest with them and show them that I’m right alongside them. They’ve always had my back whether I have an awful game or a great game, and this is my way of repaying the favor.”

While the Dakota Access Pipeline would run through four states and transport about half a million barrels of oil each day, protesters insist the proposed route’s risks outweigh the benefits. The Standing Rock Sioux have argued construction of the pipeline could damage sacred sites and burial places and potential leaks could pollute the drinking water used by residents of the nearby reservation and millions further downstream.

Opponents of the pipeline won a surprising but significant victory last Friday when a federal order temporarily halted construction near the reservation and called for “serious discussion” whether tribes should be more involved in future infrastructure projects. Nonetheless, throngs of protesters from tribes across the country continue to converge on the North Dakota prairie in hopes of obtaining a permanent construction stoppage.

Koenig joining the fight is significant because of his stature in a Native American community largely devoid of prominent basketball players. Only about a dozen players in men’s college basketball each year are of native descent, and few are as revered as Koenig.

When Wisconsin plays at other Big Ten programs, Native American families with no other ties to the Badgers show up wearing his jersey and waving posters with his picture on them. Anytime Wisconsin has a big game coming up, he can expect a flood of well wishes from Native American fans on social media. Among the dozens of autograph seekers who approached Koenig at the Ho-Chunk Nation’s annual powwow earlier this month was a floppy-haired boy who handed him a black Sharpie and asked him to sign his forehead.

“In the native American community, I would compare his platform to a LeBron or Carmelo,” Parks said. “For his community, that’s what he is to them. I’ve had the opportunity to work a couple different camps at reservations with Native American kids this summer, and these kids are not saying they want to be LeBron or Steph. They’re saying they want to be Bronson Koenig. They can’t really identify with LeBron or Steph. But they see Bronson, and they think, ‘That’s me. If he can do it, I can do it.'”

View photos Bronson Koenig signs a young fan’s forehead at the Ho-Chunk Powwow earlier this month (via Clint Parks) More

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