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

Native American Heritage Month

A selection of pivotal works by Indigenous authors.

How two centuries of Indigenous resistance created the movement proclaiming "Water is life".

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. Water Protectors knew this battle for native sovereignty had already been fought many times before, and that, even after the encampment was gone, their anticolonial struggle would continue. In Our History Is the Future, Nick Estes traces traditions of Indigenous resistance that led to the #NoDAPL movement. Our History Is the Future is at once a work of history, a manifesto, and an intergenerational story of resistance.

"This book is a jewel — history and analysis that reads like the best poetry — certain to be a classic work as well as a study guide for continued and accelerated resistance." Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

"In this powerful blend of personal and historical narrative, Nick Estes skillfully weaves together transformative stories of resistance from these front lines, never losing sight of their enormous stakes. A major contribution." Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything

"A mindful and dynamic text. Nick Estes' narrative power gives dynamism and detailed realism to some of the most formative movements of our time. The book is expansive in its isolation and focus. The book embodies resistance and shows the true effort it takes to maintain it." Terese Mailhot, author of Heartberries

"With scrupulous research and urgent prose, [Nick Estes] declares the DAPL protest a flowering of indigenous resistance with roots deep in history and Native sacred land ... A powerful work, Estes's condemnation of the United States government is clear and resonant." Publishers Weekly

Nick Estes is a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and an Assistant Professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico.