USU students protest Wells Fargo, Dakota Access Pipeline on behalf of Sioux Standing Rock tribe

USU students protested against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) at the Wells Fargo building in Logan Friday evening.

The protest was organized by Darren Bingham, a senior in environmental studies, and targeted at Wells Fargo, a financer of the DAPL project.

Bingham was a Wells Fargo customer, but closed his account because he felt his money could be supporting the DAPL project.

“If we’re going to have corporate interests matter more than individual humans, I would just hope they would treat those people with some dignity and respect,” Bingham said, referring to police clashes at the Standing Rock DAPL site.

Students, faculty and former faculty were all present at the rally.

“I think it’s important to stand up for what you believe in,” said Casey Trout, a sophomore in environmental studies and statistics.

Trout said she hoped that the protest would “promote public support of Native American tribes and listening to people that we should be listening to and that we haven’t been listening to for so many years.”

“Protests are a valuable part of democracy,” said Star Coulbrooke, an attendee and the director of the USU Writing Center. Coulbrooke participated in similar democratic action to protest the damming of the Oneida River over a 14-year time span, and believes her actions successfully swayed decision makers.

“We can help these things happen no matter how strong the opposition is,” she said.

Members of the USU community protest Wells Fargo for their stance on the Dakota Access Pipeline on Nov. 11, 2016. (Sydney Oliver).

Public reaction to the protestors consisted mainly of cars honking in support, pedestrians asking questions, and occasional polite disagreements.

The Standing Rock Sioux tribe has opposed DAPL since 2014 and tribe members have established a camp named the Sacred Stone Camp to non-violently protest DAPL, according to tribal government.

Standing Rock Sioux say that the pipeline trespasses on historically cultural Native American sites located outside of the Standing Rock Reservation. The tribe is also concerned that DAPL threatens their only drinking water source by crossing the Missouri River near the reservation’s drinking water intake.

Planning documents showed that DAPL was previously rerouted to its current location because of concern from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that DAPL could threaten Bismarck’s drinking water supply, reported the Bismarck Tribune.

Energy Transfer Partners, L.P., the parent company backing DAPL, said that pipelines are the safest method to transport oil.

“DAPL has incorporated protection of sensitive resources from the very start of the process to route, design, build, and eventually operate a pipeline,” Energy Transfer has said.  “During construction and planning, DAPL will take extreme caution when crossing sensitive environmental, wetland or resource areas.”

DAPL, when completed, will carry 470,000-570,000 barrels of oil per day from North Dakota to Illinois.

Bingham said the pipeline was an “overall bad idea” because of the way the tribe and protesters have been treated and the continued reliance on fossil fuels DAPL promotes.

“For this event, I hope that one person gets educated. I don’t know everyone here, so at least one person here has become educated. I hope one person driving by gets educated. One person takes their money out of Wells Fargo,” Bingham said. “Use your money to speak. Get involved, people. Your voice matters.”

-joshua.hortin@aggiemail.usu.edu