DAPL protest lines local streets

MARQUETTE — Protesters united in front of a local bank this morning in an attempt to put pressure on the corporation to withdraw its funding from the Dakota Access Pipeline.

And it was just one of hundreds happening worldwide.

“The reaction with the State of North Dakota and the pipeline company has made it so this is not just an environmental issue, but this is also a civil rights issue,” said Protest Organizer, Nathan Frischkorn. “We’ve seen excessive force used; we’ve seen peaceful protesters who are standing in prayer being beaten with clubs, being pepper sprayed, being shot with rubber bullets.”

The peaceful protests at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation near Cannon Ball, North Dakota are far from over as construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, or DAPL, continues.

The pipeline is slated to be laid underneath the Missouri River, which could lead to dire consequences for the 8 million people who utilize the river as a fresh water source.

“It’s very historic. There’s more than 4,000 people out in the middle of the country, geographically, in a space that has been just ripe with struggle over Native American issues, specifically the Sioux Nation,” said Water Protector, Tyler Dettloff.

But over 200 protests, including nearly two dozen in Europe, erupted across the world Tuesday to raise awareness of the financial backers of DAPL.

One protest was right here in Marquette in front of Wells Fargo. The corporation has $467 million invested in the pipeline.

“We want to let them know so they can make the decision whether to keep doing business with the bank or to support a bank that more that more closely aligns with their values and hopefully through putting pressure on Wells Fargo, convince them to remove their funding from the pipeline,” Frischkorn said.

“Wells Fargo, please do your part and pull your funding. You know we are the people that put our money in your hands so please, pull your funding from the pipeline because you can’t drink oil and we want to keep our water clean,” said Dettloff.