Should the students of the University of Minnesota demand the Board of Regents divest from companies that are 1) complicit in Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights, 2) maintaining and establishing private prisons and immigrant detention centers, or 3) violating Indigenous sovereignty?
The University of Minnesota is on stolen land.
The University of Minnesota is a "land grant" institution which means it is on land stolen by the federal government.
Indigenous sovereignty is being violated globally and it is important to remember the Indigenous nations in North America are sovereign nations whose rights are violated constantly by the United States or Canadian government. These violations occur not only through granting contracts for environmentally disastrous projects such as pipelines or tarsands but through disrespecting Indigenous self-determination and violating Treaties. Another big part of the violation of Indigenous sovereignty is the funneling of Indigenous folks into the prison system. Despite making up 1.3% of the overall population of the US, Indigenous folks make up 2% of the prison population.
Indigenous sovereignty is being violated globally and it is important to remember the Indigenous nations in North America are sovereign nations whose rights are violated constantly by the United States or Canadian government. These violations occur not only through granting contracts for environmentally disastrous projects such as pipelines or tarsands but through disrespecting Indigenous self-determination and violating Treaties. Another big part of the violation of Indigenous sovereignty is the funneling of Indigenous folks into the prison system. Despite making up 1.3% of the overall population of the US, Indigenous folks make up 2% of the prison population.
Privatization is Colonization
Native American reservations cover just 2% of the United States, but they may contain about a fifth of the nation’s oil and gas, along with vast coal reserves.
UMN has investments in G4S, a private security company which not only operates in private prisons and youth detention facilities, but also provided security for the Dakota Access Pipeline, using dogs to attack water protectors.
G4S provides security to pipeline and mining projects on stolen Indigenous lands and security for environmentally destructive tar sands mega-projects.
UMN also has investments in Citigroup Inc which is the 2nd largest global financier of coal and a key financier in the Dakota Access Pipeline, the proposed Keystone XL, proposed Line 3 replacement, and TransCanada energy company. TransCanada is a leading energy infrastructure company and proposing various pipelines carrying some of the dirtiest oil in the world on Indigenous land in the United States. Citigroup has raised more than $5.8 billion for TransCanada and its related companies since 2007.
Citigroup has raised more than $5.8 billion for TransCanada (oil pipeline company) and its related companies since 2007. “Citi has no business lending money to a disreputable company like TransCanada,” said Moore. “TransCanada is proposing to pump some of the dirtiest oil on Earth through Americans’ backyards, risking spills along the way, and is bullying ordinary Americans who stand in its way.”
In 2010, Citi raised more than $34 billion for the coal and oil industries, but raised less than two percent of that amount for companies developing renewable energy like wind and solar.
Canada is the United States’ number one source of foreign oil, and the tar sands comprise about half of Canadian oil exports. Producing a barrel of tar sands oil emits up to 3 times as much climate-disrupting gas as producing conventional oil. Building Keystone XL would be the greenhouse gas equivalent of adding roughly 6.5 million cars to the road, or building 12 new coal-fired power plants . Tar sands extraction also uses huge amount of water, which ends up in massive toxic waste ponds that have never been successfully reclaimed.
Citibank invested $521,808,456 in the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). Citibank was also the main convener of the 17 banks that supplied the loan for DAPL. Citi is banking on pipeline infrastructure and keeping a stronghold on oil as a commodity by providing revolving credit to TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL Pipeline. Citibank finances the companies behind all of the proposed Alberta oil sands pipelines, including Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain and Enbridge’s Line 3 replacement pipeline, all of which face significant indigenous and grassroots opposition.
UMN has investments in G4S, a private security company which not only operates in private prisons and youth detention facilities, but also provided security for the Dakota Access Pipeline, using dogs to attack water protectors.
G4S provides security to pipeline and mining projects on stolen Indigenous lands and security for environmentally destructive tar sands mega-projects.
UMN also has investments in Citigroup Inc which is the 2nd largest global financier of coal and a key financier in the Dakota Access Pipeline, the proposed Keystone XL, proposed Line 3 replacement, and TransCanada energy company. TransCanada is a leading energy infrastructure company and proposing various pipelines carrying some of the dirtiest oil in the world on Indigenous land in the United States. Citigroup has raised more than $5.8 billion for TransCanada and its related companies since 2007.
Citigroup has raised more than $5.8 billion for TransCanada (oil pipeline company) and its related companies since 2007. “Citi has no business lending money to a disreputable company like TransCanada,” said Moore. “TransCanada is proposing to pump some of the dirtiest oil on Earth through Americans’ backyards, risking spills along the way, and is bullying ordinary Americans who stand in its way.”
In 2010, Citi raised more than $34 billion for the coal and oil industries, but raised less than two percent of that amount for companies developing renewable energy like wind and solar.
Canada is the United States’ number one source of foreign oil, and the tar sands comprise about half of Canadian oil exports. Producing a barrel of tar sands oil emits up to 3 times as much climate-disrupting gas as producing conventional oil. Building Keystone XL would be the greenhouse gas equivalent of adding roughly 6.5 million cars to the road, or building 12 new coal-fired power plants . Tar sands extraction also uses huge amount of water, which ends up in massive toxic waste ponds that have never been successfully reclaimed.
Citibank invested $521,808,456 in the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). Citibank was also the main convener of the 17 banks that supplied the loan for DAPL. Citi is banking on pipeline infrastructure and keeping a stronghold on oil as a commodity by providing revolving credit to TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL Pipeline. Citibank finances the companies behind all of the proposed Alberta oil sands pipelines, including Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain and Enbridge’s Line 3 replacement pipeline, all of which face significant indigenous and grassroots opposition.
Privatization has been the goal since colonization—to strip Native Nations of their sovereignty.”
Policing
In 2017, the Minneapolis Police Department stopped, searched, and arrested American Indian women much more frequently than other women, according to data the Minneapolis Police department has released on each police stop. American Indian women comprise 1.42% of the population of women in Minneapolis, but accounted for 6.57% of police stops of women taking place in Minneapolis
Resources
Keystone XL Pipeline Has Enough Oil Suppliers, Will Be Built, TransCanada Says
Texan Takes Fight Against Tar Sands Pipeline to Citigroup
NoDAPL Protectors Put Heat on Citibank Shareholders: Divest!
American Indian women were disproportionately stopped, searched and arrested by police in Minneapolis in 2017
Native Americans protest Bill Gates profiteering from private prisons
G4S, the world largest private police force, attacks protesters at Standing Rock.
Texan Takes Fight Against Tar Sands Pipeline to Citigroup
NoDAPL Protectors Put Heat on Citibank Shareholders: Divest!
American Indian women were disproportionately stopped, searched and arrested by police in Minneapolis in 2017
Native Americans protest Bill Gates profiteering from private prisons
G4S, the world largest private police force, attacks protesters at Standing Rock.