From Standing Rock to Switzerland, Native American women are putting pressure on banks to divest. Shannan Stoll speaks to Jackie Fielder about the delegation of Indigenous women who recently visited Europe, and the future of the movement to defund fossil fuel projects that threaten Indigenous peoples. Last year, calls to defund the Dakota Access pipeline and “Stand with Standing Rock” led individuals to divest millions of dollars from banks extending credit to that project. As cities and tribes got involved, that amount increased to now more than $4 billion. Seattle was the first, then more cities followed, and the movement to defund Big Oil is still growing. In May, Indigenous leaders launched a new campaign, the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion, targeting four proposed tar sands pipelines. The strategy is to stop banks’ financial commitment before ground is broken. One of these projects—TransCanada’s Energy East Pipeline—was terminated earlier this month. Now, the movement that began at Standing Rock has gone global, since much of the DAPL funding came from overseas banks. Some European banks such as BNP Paribas have taken steps to stop funding fossil fuel projects … Continue reading Why Native American women are going after Europe’s banks to divest from Big Oil