★ 02/01/2019
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
01/07/2019
“The resistance camps 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.)
Nick Estes is a forceful writer whose work reflects the defiant spirit of the #NoDAPL movement. Our History Is the Future braids together strands of history, theory, manifesto and memoir into a unique and compelling whole that will provoke activists, scholars, and readers alike to think deeper, consider broader possibilities, and mobilize for action on stolen land.” —Julian Brave Noisecat, 350.org“Embedded in the centuries-long struggle for Indigenous liberation resides our best hope for a safe and just future for everyone on this planet. Few events embody that truth as clearly as the resistance at Standing Rock, and the many deep currents that converged there. 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“In Our History Is the Future, historian Nick Estes tells a spellbinding story of the ten-month Indigenous resistance at Standing Rock in 2016, animating the lives and characters of the leaders and organizers, emphasizing the powerful leadership of the women. Alone this would be a brilliant analysis of one of the most significant social movements of this century. But embedded in the story and inseparable from it is the centuries-long history of the Oceti Sakowin’ resistance to the United States’ genocidal wars and colonial institutions. And woven into these entwined stories of Indigenous resistance is the true history of the United States as a colonialist state and a global history of European colonialism. 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“When state violence against peaceful protest at Standing Rock became part of the national consciousness, many noticed Native people for the first time—again. Our History Is the Future is necessary reading, documenting how Native resistance is met with settler erasure: an outcome shaped by land, resources, and the juggernaut of capitalism. Estes has written a powerful history of Seven Fires resolve that demonstrates how Standing Rock is the outcome of history and the beginning of the future.” —Louise Erdrich, author of the National Book Award winner The Round House“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“A touching and necessary manifesto and history featuring firsthand accounts of the recent Indigenous uprising against powerful oil companies … 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.” —Kirkus“Activist, scholar, and Lower Brule Sioux citizen Estes 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 provides context for contemporary struggles against the Keystone XL and the Dakota Access pipelines.” —Library Journal“This book is a must read for anyone interested in the #NoDAPL movement. It works as an introduction—and a fearless analysis of—one of the biggest social movements of our times.” —Fiorella Lecoutteux, Peace News“Our History Is The Future traces not just an Indigenous politics of opposition, but a vibrant and omnipresent theory of decolonisation that strives to create and preserve as well as resist … Perhaps the most powerful argument of the book is the conceptualisation of Indigenous resistance as an omnipresent process that runs throughout the course of American history.” —Shelley Angelie Saggar, Hong Kong Review of Books“Nick Estes gives voice to the new wave of indigenous environmental mobilization.” —Neha Shah, Guardian“Our History Is the Future should be on the reading lists of historians, social scientists, and members of the public interested in grasping the interconnections and continuity among the many efforts of Indigenous resistance to settler colonialism and corporate encroachments onto their lands, waters, and natural resources.” —Simone Poliandri, American Indian Culture and Research Journal“The story of Indigenous resistance—its history, goals, forms, successes, and failures—is the book’s backbone, which allows Estes to range broadly, illuminating how racism, colonialism, capitalism, genocidal policies, religious and cultural persecution, and vile stereotyping have marginalized, dispossessed, and impoverished Indigenous societies over the centuries.” —Pekka Hämäläinen, New Mexico Historical Review
2018-12-04
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 efforts—namely, the "Water is Life" movement at Standing Rock, North Dakota, in 2016—with 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 relatives…but 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.
