Protesters gathered on Third Street and Lomas Boulevard in front of the Wells Fargo building to protest President Donald Trump’s executive order to reopen negotiations for the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Protesters held several different bearing messages like “I stand with Standing Rock,” and “All eyes on standing rock, water is life.”
David Maile, a rally organizer and member of The Red Nation, said he felt the turnout for the protest was solid.
“We’re excited for the turnout because we really wanted to pull people immediately to a platform to strategically attack the Dakota Access Pipeline, and one method of doing that is to defund,” Maile said.
Maile argued that the message being sent in the executive order is disrespectful towards Native American nations, as well as indigenous people all over the world, who disportionately experience having their resources taken away.
The choice in holding the protest in front of Wells Fargo was due to the large investment the bank has made into the pipeline, he said. The goal of the protest was to get the bank — and their clients — to withdraw their financials from the Dakota Access Pipeline.
“There are a lot of feelings of anger and questions of what to do in a productive matter to actually be involved in defunding the Dakota Access Pipeline,” Maile said.
Protest co-organizer Cheyenne Antonio said the protest was a direct response to Trump’s executive order, one of many he has signed in his first week in office.
“We’re gathering together because we know there is a lot of disappointment, a lot of disrespectful feelings that we’re feeling right now as indigenous people,” she said.
Protesters such as herself are looking for the government to respond to the protests by honoring the treaties put in place and paying attention to the world, where everyone survives off the same water and air, she said.
“We really need to pay attention to our communities,” Antonio said. “We really need to pay attention to our earth and to our people.”
Early in the afternoon, the protest started moving down Lomas as it grew in size, stopping at Second Street.
A stand was erected, and music could be heard as protesters played drums and sang during the rally.
Later, a large amount of protesters split off from the main group and tried to go inside Wells Fargo, but were denied entrance. They remained in the parking lot before rejoining the main group.
Multiple speakers addressed the crowd through microphones and, at one point, protesters were told, “We are not here to riot with the police.”
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Among the speakers was Father Frank Quintana from Blessed Oscar Romero Catholic Church.
“We must stand up and we lift our heads in prayer to God but we lift our fist to resist,” Quintana said to the crowd, before beginning a chant of “Lift your fist to resist,” which protesters echoed while raising their own fists.
Tyler Wade, a protester that participated in other Dakota Access protests in recent months, said protesters have to say “no more” to pipelines and Native American grounds being repossessed.
Wade said he believes the social media blackout with the major news stations is due to the government wanting citizens to believe what it wants them to believe, he said.
“They don’t want everyone standing up and coming together. As you can see, there’s nationalities from all over,” he said, referring to the diversity of protesters at the rally. “We have all kinds of different races coming together for the same thing.”
Nichole Harwood is a news reporter at the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Nolidoli1.
