Our History is the Future

"I think this is one of the most exciting books to come out about Native American history in the past several years. That’s because it connects historical scholarship with a present-day issue. In this case, the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline and the work done at Standing Rock by a variety of indigenous peoples and their allies. Even though the book is about a very recent event, the protests against the pipeline, Nick Estes explains that you can’t understand this protest without learning centuries of Lakota history, the ways that people have been protecting territory, sovereignty, land and water, for many centuries against invasion and other kinds of threats. Estes also highlights Native women who have done protective work over time. Sometimes that has meant ecological activism, at others it has meant simply carrying children and caring for children in the most treacherous of circumstances, the work of survival. Overall, I like the way that he highlights the work of Native women within that centuries-long story of activism."