“When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor.”
~ John Lennon
Earlier this month, Reuters reported that DNB was “reconsidering its participation” in the financing of the pipeline if “concerns raised by Native American tribes against its construction are not addressed.”
“We have initiated an independent review of how indigenous rights are safeguarded in this process,” Even Westerveld of DNB said. “In addition, we have intensified the dialogue with our customers to use our position as a bank to influence a solution to the conflict.”
“It is great that DNB has sold its assets in the disputed pipeline, and it is a clear signal that it is important that people speak out when injustice is committed,” Martin Norman, Greenpeace Norway sustainable finance campaigner, said. “We now expect DNB to also terminate its loans for the project immediately.”
This news follows the delivery of 120,000 signatures gathered by SumOfUs.org to DNB by Greenpeace Norway and others urging the bank and other financial institutions to pull finances for the project. “The writing’s on the wall for the Dakota Access pipeline. People power is winning,” Norman continued. “The news that DNB has sold its assets and is considering terminating its loans is a victory for the water protectors who are fighting to stop this disaster of a project. All financial institutions with a stake in the pipeline must quickly realize that financing this project is toxic. It would be smart for them to get out ahead of the growing movement of customers looking to divest from banks that finance the destruction of our planet and ignore Indigenous rights and sovereignty. Citigroup, TD Securities, Wells Fargo, SunTrust, and the other banks backing this project should see this as a sign to get on the right side of history.”
Source: EcoWatch
Street Art by Tyler Read, “How The Protectors Defeated The Black Snake” -Art Alley, Rapid City, SD
Rod Brueske, of La Joyia Farm and Mark Guttridge, of Ollin Farms, both in Longmont, have joined forces with other local farmers to provide fresh produce to the water protectors in Standing Rock in North Dakota.
Guttridge “A lot of the farmers down here were talking and I think we can definitely understand the motivation that the protectors have up there to lead these sort of gatherings and we just want to show support and what better way than to send up some of the good food that came from us, tending the earth in Boulder County and given our effort down here to have the healthiest soils and healthiest water possibility and so we just want to show support.”
Over 100lbs of winter squash along with winter radishes and carrots and pie pumpkins were loaded onto Brueske’s truck at Ollin Farms to deliver to Standing Rock. Guttridge says that throughout the week, customers at the farm have donated blankets, batteries and gas money as well.
Before setting off for North Dakota, Brueske stopped by the farmers market at Union Station in Denver on the last day of the season and loaded even more fresh produce from 10 farmers for the Standing Rock protectors. “Mark got us a good start but my objective is to at least take…I’d like to see 2,000 lbs of food to go up to support our protectors.”
In all, close to 1,000 lbs of food was delivered to Standing Rock. Brueske says that he hopes to continue to deliver food throughout the winter.
In a show of kindness and solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux, actor Mark Ruffalo and Native Renewables founder Wahleah Johns presented Sioux tribal elders with mobile trailers equipped with solar collection arrays. The trailers provide a clean energy source for the protest encampment where over 500 Native American tribes have taken a stand against the Dakota Access Pipeline in the largest gathering of American Indians in modern history.
“This pipeline is a black snake that traverses four states and 200 waterways with fracked Bakken oil,” said Ruffalo, co-founder of The Solutions Project, a venture that works to transition society to clean and renewable energy.
“We know from experience that pipelines leak, explode, pollute and poison land and water. But it doesn’t have to be that way.”
The solar trailers will allow for medical tents and numerous other critical facilities to be powered with clean energy, and represent exactly the healthy/abundant future of energy for which the Standing Rock Sioux are currently fighting.
“Water is life,” said Johns, a Navajo leader. “By leading a transition to energy that is powered by the sun, the wind and water, we ensure a better future for all of our people and for future generations.”
The reality of the situation is that the Standing Rock tribe is fighting to protect their source of clean water. The Dakota Access Pipeline puts the tribe’s clean water supply, as well as that of millions of others, in danger, as the pipeline is scheduled to go directly under the Missouri River.
Source: thefreethoughtproject.com
Another Avatar moment at Standing Rock. This is a Golden Eagle that landed for about an hour. Natives gathered around it and were able to touch it. Scott Bunn American Indians see the eagle as a sacred messenger that carries prayers to the Creator and returns with gifts and visions.Freedom is vital to the survival […]
Love and sanity prevail. Yay!
IMAGE CREDIT: IGOR VOLSKY/THINKPROGRESS
Always inspiring to hear about the fearless, powerful women who came before us.
Susan B. Anthony was a badass!
Partial Source: A Mighty Girl
Source: Hiraeth
Thanks to A Mighty Girl for this post.
Under The Blue Door 