Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance

Estes opens the book by discussing the history of Thanksgiving, a day incorrectly attributed to celebrating peace between Indigenous peoples and colonizing settlers. The opening serves as a reminder of the narrative and counternarratives that perpetuate in US history. Estes closes his first paragraph with a bold statement: “Peace on stolen land is born of genocide” (1). This statement introduces the theme Capitalism and Colonialism as Forces of Evil. Settler narratives glorify white settlers, heralding them as heroes over Indigenous peoples, whom settlers’ textbooks often portray as less-than-human disturbances to the flow of progress. Estes’s reference to peace and genocide in opening the book is intentional: It outlines a context for the counternarrative he provides that highlights a more accurate and well-rounded historical account of Indigenous existence and resistance in the US. The author details how the land that DAPL, the Pick-Sloan Plan, and countless other settler movements took was violated and stolen—not only from Indigenous peoples but from Earth itself. As its own entity, the land was enslaved by capitalism and colonialism. In this statement, Estes also makes a case that what has happened—and continues to happen—to Indigenous peoples is genocide—an attempt to eradicate Indigenous peoples through resource depletion, violence, and assimilation.

In addition, these first two sections introduce the theme Familial Relationships with the Natural World, as Estes emphasizes the importance of relationships between human and nonhuman kin in Indigenous thought. The Water Protectors sought to save the river for more than her resources; they protected her as family members would protect kin from violation or abuse. The US government failed to acknowledge how the DAPL would affect the people on the reservation—and how it would affect the Missouri River, which Indigenous peoples consider kin and is therefore protected under the Fort Laramie Treaty.

Estes describes Earth as a body and the pipeline as a violation of that body. The violence against Earth and the water links directly to the violation of and violence against Indigenous peoples. The discussion of Mni Sose in the Prologue and Chapter 1 further reveals the connectedness between Indigenous peoples and nonhuman relatives. Just as their history is intertwined, so is their violence and redemption.

The Keystone XL Pipeline, a precursor to DAPL, provides one example of the US government’s continued failure to acknowledge its violence and violation of Indigenous people, which amounts to genocide. Estes introduces the theme The Legacy and Prophecy of Indigenous Resistance by revealing the importance of prophecy—a diagnosis of the times and a prescription for the future—as a means of moving forward. He discusses his own legacy within an ancestry of Indigenous resistance. In this way, Estes makes a case for the interwoven nature of time. He shows how the past, present, and future are not points on a linear scale but are woven into one another, impossible to separate.