Dear Chase Bank. It’s Over.

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.

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16 thoughts on “Dear Chase Bank. It’s Over.”

  2. I have a Chase credit card and I am not finding Chase on any of the lists of banks that finance the DAPL. i would appreciate finding out where they are listed as one for the investors.

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  3. Inspiring and beautifully written. In the process of closing my Wells Fargo and TD Canada Trust account now.

    Yes! Magazine has done a wonderful job in reporting on the Standing Rock situation and providing action points for how we can lend support. Thank you!

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  5. After you close your account, there is a website, defunddapl that is tracking how much $$$ is being removed/taken out of circulation from the banks that funded the dapl. Go to the website and enter the amount of your closed acct. It was over $3M on 12/1/16.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. I admire your letter and just left a shorter but similar response to LL Bean. I carry and use their Visa card all the time…which is issued by Barclays…I hope to hear that LL Bean will apply pressure to Barclays to divest. Individual and corporate good guys DO exist…I think. It will hurt but I’m willing to cancel my card…will show my support in other ways, too. Thank you for your call to action.

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  8. Beautiful, heartfelt letter Sarah. I wrote my own to Wells Fargo (see http://tinyurl.com/j7g2m32) and am in the process of writing break up letters to the other financial institutions I have accounts with (credit cards and my retirement account with TD Ameritrade). Thanks for all you and the staff and Yes! Magazine have been doing for years to help create a more socially just and ecologically sustainable world. Proud to be a supporter for a number of years now.

    Liked by 1 person

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