On Sunday afternoon nearly a hundred people gathered in front of the Wells Fargo Tower to support the Water Protectors in Standing Rock. People have moved almost $14-million dollars out of the dozens of banks funding the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). Two of those banks, Wells Fargo and USB have offices inside the Wells Fargo Tower. DefundDAPL.org has a complete list of the banks funding the pipeline.
The group honored the request from Standing Rock to host a prayerful and peaceful protest.
Bear Redstar a member of the Lakota and Dakota tribes and has family at Standing Rock began the event with a prayer. He spoke about his experiences as a welder on the Alaska pipeline and how he was standing next to it when it exploded. The pipeline broke along the seam and not where the pieces had been welded together. He described how sick in his heart he felt cleaning up the oil spill and finding dead eagles.
Over the last 20 years more than 9,000 significant pipeline-related incidents have taken place nationwide, according to data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The accidents have resulted in 548 deaths, 2,576 injuries, and over $8.5 billion in financial damages. (Not counted in this total are thousands of less “significant” pipeline-related malfunctions.)
Freeda Cathcart represented the General Federation of Women’s Clubs’ resolutions to support clean water, sustainable energy and oppose eminent domain seizures. She pledged to use her influence as a stockholder of Berkshire Hathaway, one of the owners of Wells Fargo, to encourage them to divest in the DAPL.
“We know it works when people speak up”, she commented. The DNB bank has already divested their funding of the DAPL. People are powerful when we speak up together to denounce injustice.”
Angela Yarbrough, founder of the Roanoke Represent US Chapter, told the crowd that her family was moving their money out of Suntrust because of Suntrust’s funding of the DAPL. About a dozen people joined her on stage because they had already moved their money or were going to in order to support the #BankExit to #DefundDAPL.
Mera Babineaux spoke about the hardship the Water Protectors were facing due to bitter cold conditions and the harsh treatment by the D. She said thousands of veterans had arrived in Standing Rock wearing body armor to make a human shield for the Water Protectors. She is collecting funds to take supplies for building shelters as well as collecting fuel and food to support Standing Rock
The event concluded with the Red Feather Sisters singing a Native American heart-opening song. The crowd followed with signing, “I get by with a little help from my friends.” The Red Feather Sisters kept singing and drumming as the crowd dispersed.
