Dine' Michelle Cook: Divestment in a Time of Monsters

Speaking on divestment and the oppression of Indigenous women, Michelle Cook, Dine', said, "Now is a time of Monsters -- but it is also a time of Monster Slayers." Screenshot Censored News.

Today's presentation featured a video of an Indigenous women's delegation to Europe, confronting Credit Suisse, during resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock. Screenshot Censored News.

Dine' Michelle Cook Speaks on Global Women's Assembly for Climate Justice

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, June 26, 2025

Dr. Michelle Cook, Dine', founder of Divest Invest Protect, spoke on divestment and transitioning away from fossil fuels, during the Global Women's Assembly for Climate Justice, featuring 125 women during six days.

Indigenous women are finally being brought to the center of these places of power, Cook said.

"We're still in this moment of crisis -- right now."

Speaking on the importance of divestment, she said, "We are on the brink of collapse."

Cook said there are extinctions, accelerated corporate development, live-streamed genocide, and children are crying out for help, and for accountability to make the harm stop.

In the past two years, there has been epic and historic flooding in southwestern Virginia, swaths of communities were taken down by devastating floods. Despite the promises of centuries that coal mining will bring progress, there are still people who do not have homes, who are still breaking their backs to carry out the mud, with no relief coming.

"They're still living like this in the so-called most advanced nation in the world."

"Yet we cannot send aid to the people who are living and enduring on the frontlines of climate change."

"In Arizona, we see the violence against women in the recent and tragic murder of Emily Pike," Cook said of 14-year-old Emily Pike, Apache, who was murdered.

Indigenous women and girls continue to go missing and are murdered. Indigenous leadership is disappeared and murdered -- and the attacks are personal to discredit them.

With the victories, there is the rise of repression. In the social movements, there is the rise of criminalization. There is the swing back of the pendulum in the fight against racism, with the new DEI, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiative that has been federally-mandated.

"The reaction does not need to put fear into us."

"The reaction is proof that what we are doing is striking the heart of capital, what we are doing is striking the heart of that colonialism, striking the heart of that inequality, so much so, that it has to restructure itself. It has to make laws to stop it. That's how powerful we are and they know it."

"We have to believe in our own power."

Cook said it is important to invest in projects that are life-affirming. It will be the grassroots communities own organizing that will bring us through.

"Now is a time of Monsters -- but it is also a time of Monster Slayers."

Dr. Cook, Dine' lawyer, organized the Indigenous women's divestment delegations in Europe, confronting Credit Suisse and funders of the Dakota Access Pipeline during the resistance to the pipeline at Standing Rock in North Dakota. She organized the Indigenous women's panel on militarization at Standing Rock and on the Tohono O'odham border that testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica. Currently her efforts include a school in India where fifty young girls are being educated. She is a Fulbright scholar, and has lived and traveled in New Zealand with Maori and traveled to Iran. She participated in the Mother Earth Conference in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

A great moment in history: During the Global Women's Assembly for Climate Justice on Thursday, this video shows Dr. Sara Jumping Eagle of Standing Rock confronting Credit Suisse at its general stockholder meeting in Switzerland. Dr. Jumping Eagle said, "The decisions that you make as Credit Suisse, and the Swiss people, affect those of us downstream from your actions. You sit here comfortably in your privilege while our communities bear the risks of your investments with our very health and our lives, we face the future without clean water as you reap your dividends and returns. What do you as Swiss people hold sacred? To us Water is Life, to all of us." Credit Suisse collapsed in 2023.

https://www.facebook.com/WECAN.Intl/videos/2139723286056243/

An Indigenous women's delegation confronts Credit Suisse in Switzerland in 2018, for funding the Dakota Access Pipeline. This video shown on Thursday, during the Global Women's Assembly for Climate Change, shows Dr. Michelle Cook, Dine', and Dr. Sara Jumping Eagle, Lakota, confronting Credit Suisse with the message that 'Water is Life.' During the recent trial in Mandan, North Dakota, the pipeline falsely asserted that it was Greenpeace, and not Indigenous Peoples, that led the resistance to the pipeline. In that trial, the jury ruled against Greenpeace and awarded Energy Transfer more than $600 million. -- Censored News.

Waste Win Young, Lakota of Standing Rock, confronts Credit Suisse in Switzerland in 2018 for funding Dakota Access Pipeline. Waste said, "I ask that the Swiss people stand with us. I ask that you hold Credit Suisse accountable, and say, 'No, no we will not fund these projects that are hurting people and committing human and Indigenous rights abuses.'" Credit Suisse collapsed in 2023. The video was shown on Thursday during the Global Women's Assembly on Climate Change during the panel on divestment.

Watch on WECAN International's YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFLHwvvlPbE

Global Women's Assembly for Climate Justice

DAY 4 - THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 2025

1:00 PM - OPENING COMMENTS and WELCOME
Moderation and daily opening comments by Osprey Orielle Lake, Assembly Convener, Executive Director, Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), Turtle Island/USA

1:15 PM - WELL BEING ECONOMIES FOR PEOPLE AND PLANET
Majo Andrade Cerda (Kichwa), Member of the Council of CONFENIAE, Leader of the Economy and Community Development area, Member of the Kichwa peoples of Serena, Federation of Napo Indigenous Organizations (FOIN), Ecuador​

Dr. Jemilah Mahmood, Executive Director, Sunway Centre for Planetary Health, Malaysia

Dr. Maliha Khan, President and Chief Executive Officer, Women Deliver, Pakistan/United Kingdom

Rauna Kuokkanen (Sápmi), Research Professor of Arctic Indigenous Studies at the University of Lapland, Finland

Sandrine Dixson-Declève, Honorary President of The Club of Rome & Executive Chair of Earth4All, Belgium

Memory Kachambwa, Executive Director, African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), Kenya

2:25 PM - DIVESTMENT MOVEMENTS & TRANSITIONING AWAY FROM FOSSIL FUELS
Heffa Schücking, Founder, Management & Campaign Strategist, Urgewald, Germany

Michelle Cook (Diné), Founder, Divest Invest Protect, Turtle Island

Ayumi Fukakusa, Executive Director / Climate change and energy campaigner at Friends of the Earth Japan, Japan

Roishetta Sibley-Ozane M.S., Founder of Vessel Project of Louisiana and Co-Coordinator of the Gulf South Fossil Finance Hub, Turtle Island

Olivia Bisa Tirko (Chapra), President, Autonomous Territorial Government of the Chapra Nation (GTANCH), Peru

3:25 PM - ON FIRE! YOUTH LEADING THE WAY
Judy Kipkenda (Ogiek), Founder of Koibatek Ogiek Women and Youth Network (KOWYN), Kenya

Maria Reyes, Climate and Human Rights Activist and Fundraising Coordinator of the Alliance of Non Governmental Radical Youth (ANGRY), Mexico

Mitzi Jonelle Tan, Convenor, Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines (YACAP), Senior Advisory, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, Philippines

Pema Wangmo Lama (Mugum Indigenous), Vice-Chair and Founder, WE-Women from Indigenous Nationalities (WE-WIN), Nepal

Samaï Malaïca Gualinga (Kichwa), Vice President of the Kichwa Sarayaku Indigenous People, Defender of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Nature, Ecuador

Xiye Bastida (Otomi-Toltec), Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Re-Earth Initiative, Mexico/USA

Moderation and comments by: Niria Alicia Garcia (Xicana), Indígena community organizer, educator, storykeeper and human rights advocate, UN Young Champion of the Earth 2020, Run4Salmon Prayer, Turtle Island/USA

4:35 PM - REGENERATIVE AND JUST ENERGY FOR ALL
Bénédicte Larissa, Partner, ENAGRI-CI, Ivory Coast

Erika Martínez Lizarraga, President, GoiEner, Spain

Karabo Mokgonyana, Renewable Energy Campaigner, Power Shift Africa, South Africa

Natalie Isaacs, Founder, One Million Women, Australia

Wahleah Johns (Diné), Former Director, U.S. DOE Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs, Co-Founder of Native Renewables, Turtle Island/USA

The Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International organized  the virtual Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice: Path to COP30 and Beyond.

The global convening addresses solutions for the protection and defense of human rights and nature at this critical time. This event is a free, public forum to take place virtually from June 23 - 28, 2025, daily from 1:00 - 6:00 pm ET (New York time.)

The Global Women’s Assembly brings together grassroots and frontline women leaders in all of their diversity, global advocates, thought leaders, and policy-makers to showcase a diverse array of visions, projects, policy frameworks, campaigns, and movement strategies with which we can accelerate a bold and transformative path to a healthy and just world.

This collective work is paramount as we face a growing polycrisis. The challenges are ever-increasing, but so are our power, hearts, and leadership when we gather together.

The Assembly features over 125 speakers from 50 countries presenting on 25 panels across 6 days! This is a free, virtual forum—open to all—with interpretation available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French.

Translations: To access interpretation and full audience engagement, please register for the Assembly on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_JnYKM7zjSgCx7e8iWpGy6A#/registration