Our history is the future Standing Rock versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the long tradition of indigenous resistance

Nick Estes

Book - 2019

"In 2016, a small protest encampment at the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota, initially established to block construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, grew to be the largest Indigenous protest movement in the twenty-first century, attracting tens of thousands of Indigenous and non-Native allies from around the world. Its slogan "Mni Wiconi"--Water is Life--was about more than just a pipeline. Water Protectors knew this battle for Native sovereignty had already been fought many times before, and that, even after the encampment was gone, their anti-colonial struggle would continue. In Our History is the Future, Nick Estes traces traditions of Indigenous resistance leading to the #NoDAPL movement from the days of ...the Missouri River trading forts through the Indian Wars, the Pick-Sloan dams, the American Indian Movement, and the campaign for Indigenous rights at the United Nations. While a historian by trade, Estes also draws on observations from the encampments and from growing up as a citizen of the Oceti Sakowin (the Nation of the Seven Council Fires), making Our History is the Future at once a work of history, a personal story, and a manifesto"--

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  • Maps
  • Prologue: Prophets
  • 1. Siege
  • 2. Origins
  • 3. War
  • 4. Flood
  • 5. Red Power
  • 6. Internationalism
  • 7. Liberation
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Booklist Review

For Estes, a Native American historian, the 2016-2017 protests against the construction of the North Dakota Access Pipeline, which would have cut through sacred land and under the Missouri River near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, were personal. The protest encampment grew to house over 3,000 people from 300 Native American tribes as well as non-native allies, who withstood bitter winter weather and violent actions by law enforcement agents. The plight of the Water Protectors, as the protesters are known, highlights the deep, reverential relationship that Native Americans have to the earth, its resources, and to one another. As the saying goes, what's past is prologue. Estes' excellent accounting of two centuries of disruptive land use under treaties and policies of the U.S. government puts today's native-rights movement into context. An important addition to American history and politics collections.--Dan Kaplan Copyright 2019 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

"The resistance camps [protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline] may have been temporary, but the struggle for Native liberation continues, and the fort is falling," declares Estes, American studies professor and enrolled member of the Lower Brule tribe, in this scorching indictment of American settler colonialism, which resulted in the near-genocide of the continent's indigenous peoples. With scrupulous research and urgent prose, he declares the DAPL protest a flowering of indigenous resistance with roots deep in history and Native sacred land. Focusing primarily on the Oceti Sakowin (the "Seven Council Fires"), also known as the Sioux Nation, Estes transports the reader from the Oceti Sakowin camp of the DAPL protest, filled with tear gas, police dogs, and water cannons, back to the bloody Indian wars culminating in the forced reservation system, the apocalyptic flooding of tribal lands along the Missouri River for Army Corps of Engineers damming projects, the American Indian Movement standoff at Wounded Knee, and the as-yet-unsuccessful fight for international recognitions at the United Nations. According to Estes, it is despite these losses, or perhaps because of them, that indigenous resistance has manifested a vision "of a future without settler colonialism." In this powerful work, Estes's condemnation of the United States government is clear and resonant. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Activist, scholar, and Lower Brule Sioux citizen Estes (American studies, Univ. of New Mexico) challenges the power systems that have attacked and disenfranchised Indigenous peoples for centuries with both the story of northern Plains peoples as well as a political philosophy of Indigenous empowerment. The author catalogs the long history of government and corporate oppression against the Plains peoples, providing long-term context for contemporary struggles against the Keystone XL and the Dakota Access pipelines. For instance, Estes details how the pipeline was rerouted away from white cities to locations near Native homes. Inspiring moments include a ceremony in which U.S. military veterans arrived at the 2016 Standing Rock protest and asked forgiveness for past crimes against the Plains peoples. His affection for the Missouri River region, its residents and ecosystem, pulses through every page. Along with David Treuer's Heartbeat of Wounded Knee and Clyde Bellecourt's The Thunder Before the Storm, this is part of a growing library of works by Native American scholars. VERDICT An honest and passionate voice of Indigenous power that needs to be included in contemporary political discourse.-Jeffrey Meyer, Mt. Pleasant P.L., IA © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A touching and necessary manifesto and history featuring firsthand accounts of the recent Indigenous uprising against powerful oil companies.In this carefully researched and much-needed history of settler colonialism in the United States, Estes (American Studies/Univ. of New Mexico)a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and co-founder of the Red Nation, "an organization dedicated to Native liberation"is particularly focused on the resistance efforts of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota nations. The narrative is particularly interesting for the way it connects current environmental effortsnamely, the "Water is Life" movement at Standing Rock, North Dakota, in 2016with the earliest attempts by Indigenous nations to protect their homeland, as well as with international politics. The author takes readers back to early U.S.-Indian wars in order to examine two competing value systems: the epic disagreement between Native-Americans and Europeans on how to use and respect America's land. Exploring a wide variety of historical touchpoints, including the damming of the Missouri River, issues of eminent domain, the massacre at Wounded Knee and its later occupation, the American Indian Movement, and Indigenous recognition at the United Nations, Estes elucidates how and why the Dakota Access Pipeline protest emerged. He explains why Indigenous resistance never dies and what energized it in recent years. The author's account is especially impressive as he criticizes his own tribe for attempting to ease the way for oil companies. "Now," he writes, "Lower Brule had crossed a picket line, betraying not only their relativesbut also frontline communities around the world being devastated by climate change and extractivism." With an urgent voice, Estes reminds us that the greed of private corporations must never be allowed to endanger the health of the majority.An important read about Indigenous protesters fighting to protect their ancestral land and uphold their historic values of clean land and water for all humans. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.