INDIANAPOLIS -- The group of demonstrators that defaced the Statehouse Saturday during a rally against the Interstate 69 expansion vows more protests.

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Slideshow: See Vandalism

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The group, which calls itself "Roadblock Earth First," said the protest was the first of a series of demonstrations scheduled for this summer.

The activists are against globalization and the proposed expansion of I-69 from Indianapolis to Evansville.

Twenty-four demonstrators were arrested Saturday after some of them spray-painted anti-I-69 graffiti on the Statehouse.

Sunday, Gov. Mitch Daniels and a group opposed to the extension of I-69 condemned the defacing of the Statehouse by demonstrators from Indiana and at least five other states.

Slogans such as "No I-69" and "I-69 is the enemy" were spray-painted Saturday on the limestone surrounding the north entrance and on marble colonnades just inside during a demonstration that attracted an estimated 40 people.

"It was sad," Daniels said Sunday. "Chances are the opponents of I-69 have lost sympathy."

Daniels supports the I-69 project. Eventually, I-69 would reach Texas and create a direct trucking route between Canada and Mexico.

One opposition group, Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads, or CARR, issued a statement Sunday evening denouncing the vandalism and calling for ongoing nonviolent activism against the project.

"We also know this was an aberration perpetrated by a few individuals. Most groups working on the I-69 issue are respectful and law-abiding and should not be judged by the destructive acts of the few," CARR's statement said.

State and local police arrested 24 people from at least six states and charged them with disorderly conduct. The arrestees included a woman who refused to identify herself to authorities. She was subdued with a Taser gun after she jumped on a Capitol Police officer, police said. She also was charged with battery on a police officer and resisting arrest.

Even an organizer of the demonstration seemed caught off-guard by what transpired.

"This has got everybody sideswiped," said Marie Mason, of Detroit, a member of a group called Roadblock Earth First. "It was intended as a legal protest to make it known to people at the state capitol that folks were still organizing and protesting against the construction of the highway."

Mason's group is affiliated with a movement calling itself Roadless Summer that promoted the demonstration on its Web site.

"We are resolute in this national push to block the highway in Indiana," Mason said.

Maintenance workers tried to scrub the spray paint off Saturday but eventually covered it with brown paper.

At least half of those arrested were Indiana residents, from Bloomington, Indianapolis, Goshen, Lafayette and other communities. Others arrested came from Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri and Pennsylvania. They ranged in age from 18 to 30.

"It's becoming clear that this was a group of 'protesters for hire' that likely don't have a specific interest in I-69," 1st Sgt. Dave Bursten of the Indiana State Police said in a statement. "We base that on spontaneous statements made by some of the arrested and the fact that of the known 23 people arrested today, only 12 are from Indiana."