Sierra Club Maui Group and various other activists will hold a solidarity rally tomorrow for those protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), according to a Sierra Club Maui news release. “The protest rally, which is organized by the Sierra Club Maui Group and its allies, is part of an international day of action that is targeting decision makers and stakeholders who have the power to stop the construction,” states the news release. “The Maui rally will be held in front of the First Hawaiian Bank’s Kahului Branch on Ka’ahumanu Avenue to highlight First Hawaiian Bank’s involvement in the building of the pipeline. First Hawaiian Bank is 80% owned by the French multinational bank BNP Paribas, which has loaned over $400 million to the companies building the pipeline.”
The protest against the oil pipeline has drawn international headlines since the spring, mostly for the often brutal means used by law enforcement and security forces against the largely Native American protesters, who say they’re tired of the federal government’s endless practice of taking from them what they want.
“The only reason that projects like the Dakota Access pipeline are able to be built is because banks provide the funding,” said Adriane Raff Corwin, Sierra Club Maui Group Coordinator, in the news release she sent out today. “We shouldn’t be building new infrastructure that is both environmentally and culturally devastating, and banks have the power to put the brakes on these bad projects. If banks invest in projects that increase our reliance on fossil fuels, have the potential to contaminate precious water resources, and utterly disregard native peoples’ culture and history, then they are going to hear from us.”
The protest is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016 from 3:30-5:30pm next to First Hawaiian Bank in Kahului (20 Ka`ahumanu Ave.).
Photo of “Happi” American Horse from the Sicangu Nation, hailing from Rosebud, locked to construction equipment in August: Desiree Kane/Wikimedia Commons
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