If anything, the tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets they had to endure in sub-freezing temperatures not far from the Canadian border strengthened their will. They didn’t diminish or extinguish their passion, rather, they somehow energized their spirit — an enlivened spirit to spur change they want to see happen in their country.

For now, the military veteran protesters who stood up for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota and against an oil pipeline that would destroy the sanctity of their native land, as well as potentially taint their drinking water, say they have a new mission in mind.

Flint, Michigan.

It’s in the once-vibrant Midwestern manufacturing city where, over the past year, a lead water crisis has devastated the community, poisoning the residents within it.

Wes Clark, Jr., a U.S. Army veteran and one of the leaders of its Dakota protest contingent, said the people of Flint have been mistreated for way too long.

This from the Huffington Post:

Federal authorities halted construction of the pipeline on Sunday, denying the final easement that would cross under Lake Oahe. In the meantime, the Department of the Army is conducting an environmental impact statement to assess risks and explore alternative paths.

The announcement came after months of demonstrations against the pipeline. However, Arthur Woodson, an Army veteran and Flint resident who traveled to North Dakota this month, believes the veterans’ final push may have helped tip the scales in activists’ favor.

“All the media attention that was there brought more attention to Standing Rock,” he told Michigan Live. “The government had a change of heart.”

He and George Grundy II — a Marine Corps veteran from Flint — told ABC News that they noticed many similarities between the Standing Rock situation and the crisis in Flint. Namely, both involve marginalized groups fighting people in power for the right to clean water.

It’s unclear how many veterans may ultimately travel to Flint, or how long any veterans will remain at the Standing Rock protest camps. Severe winter weather is bringing new risks for demonstrators. Standing Rock Sioux chairman Dave Archambault III has thanked non-Sioux protesters and asked them to leave the camps for the winter.

There’s also this: the fight against the Dakota pipeline is far from over. Despite the Army Corps’ decision, the parent company of Dakota Access, Energy Transfer Partners LP and Sunoco Logistics Partners LP, just asked a federal judge to let them go ahead with drilling anyway.

As for Flint, it’s been estimated that more than 102,000 have ingested the contaminated water. As a result, citizens of the Michigan town have reported losing their hair, weight loss, rashes, and even contraction of deadly Legionnaire’s disease. Perhaps most frightening, however, is the catastrophic effect lead poisoning can have on children’s development and brain function