Sami, Indigenous People of Northern Europe, Played Role in DAPL Divestment

Sápmi is the name of the cultural region traditionally inhabited by the Sami people. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

A second Norwegian bank has pulled its funding from the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), according to a Nov. 25 story in EcoWatch. Odin Fund Management, one of Norway’s leading fund managers, said it sold $23.8 million worth of shares in companies involved with the pipeline.

We blogged earlier that DNB, Norway’s largest bank, had decided to divest its assets from DAPL (though it still has a line of credit to the project).

Why Norway?

Norway is an ocean and a half-continent away from Standing Rock. Is it that Norway is simply a more  socially-minded country? Perhaps. But there also is a fascinating backstory that could be part of the explanation. The Sámi people, indigenous people of northern Europe, seem to have played an important role in pressuring DNB to divest.

It’s a story of cross Atlantic indigenous connections and a bit of serendipity.

International Native News Wrap: Doctrine of Discovery Protest; LaDuke on Protecting Rivers; Europe’s Indigenous People

Indigenous People Demand the Pope Revoke the Doctrine of Discovery, This Time in Mexico

Today and Wednesday, “a delegation of Indigenous Peoples from the United States, Mexico and other Latin American countries, will be in Chiapas, Mexico to deliver a message to Pope Francis, in the form of a call to conscience petitioning him to take action and issue an official denunciation directed towards the dismantling of the “Doctrine of Discovery of Christendom,” according to an announcement from the Continental Commission Abya Yala.

This continues the work of two previous events, one in Columbia (2013) and the other in Pennsylvania (2015) when the Pope visited the United States.

Mexico has its own version of how the Doctrine of Discovery has affected government policies and indigenous peoples, as the Abya Yala announcement explains: