Dear Chase Bank,
Thank you for your kind offer of a new savings and checking account.
I understand you are funding the DAPL pipeline, being constructed by Energy Transfer Partners from North Dakota to Illinois. Because of that, I will not be taking you up on your kind offer, and I will instead be closing my one existing account. I don’t want to do business with a bank that supports a project that threatens the drinking water and way of life of Native Americans, and that is being forced on them in spite of their repeated, nonviolent insistence that they don’t want it. I have sent in my last payment, and will close my account as soon as I have confirmed that you received it.
Meanwhile, I hope you will check your conscience and consider what it means to continue a legacy of discounting Native peoples and their concerns. This pipeline was moved from the Bismarck area because of threats to drinking water. Why is it OK, then, to threaten Native people’s water? Why is it OK for pipeline construction to desecrate graveyards and other sacred sites?
I am also concerned about the Iowa farmers who are likewise being forced by eminent domain to allow this corporation to cut through their lands with a risky pipeline.
If you withdraw support from DAPL, of course I will reconsider closing my account. And you might sleep better, knowing you have moved over to the right side of history.
Sincerely,
Sarah van Gelder
Sarah van Gelder is Co-Founder and Editor at Large of YES! Magazine, and author of The Revolution Where You Live: Stories from a 12,000 Mile Journey Through a New America (Berrett-Koehler, 2017). Follow her on Twitter and at her blog.
