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

George Armstrong Custer (1839-1876) was a US Army commander in the American Indian Wars. Following the Fort Laramie Treaty, Custer and his men were stationed at the reservation’s northern border to ensure that the Oceti Sakowin would not leave. On June 25, 1876, Custer led a battalion of 650 men against a group of Lakotas living in a camp of thousands in the Black Hills—and met defeat. Custer was killed in the battle.

That attempted invasion, known in Indigenous narratives as the Battle of Greasy Grass and in white settler narratives as the Battle of Little Bighorn, is often referred to as “Custer’s Last Stand” in white historical accounts, which reflect great admiration for Custer’s perceived bravery during the attack. However, Estes notes that this description is inaccurate and fails to acknowledge that Custer’s men were never able to infiltrate the camp. Nevertheless, Custer’s attempt at a surprise attack did result in the loss of Indigenous lives: Four dozen Indigenous men and women were killed, and the victors spent the night mourning the loss of their family members.

Lewis and Clark, under an order for Thomas Jefferson, led a military expedition designed to establish a peaceful relationship between the Oceti Sakowin and the US government. According to Estes, white settler narratives depict the story of these two men as a peaceful exploratory expedition led by the Shoshone guide Sacagawea. However, Lewis and Clark took Indigenous leaders hostage and threatened Indigenous nations with military violence.

Jefferson ordered Lewis and Clark to note the power and size of the Indigenous nations they encountered and to encourage those nations to understand that they were now under the control of colonist rule. Estes presents the narrative of Lewis and Clark as an example of the evils of capitalism and colonialism—and of how colonialism is intrinsically linked with violence against Indigenous peoples.

Barack Obama (born August 4, 1961) was the 44th president of the US. Serving from 2009 to 2017, President Obama made history as the first Black president. Within the context of the book, Estes highlights Obama’s failure to recognize the Keystone XL Pipeline’s violation of the Fort Laramie Treaty and fast-tracking its construction before eventually withdrawing approval for the project in 2015. Estes also criticizes Obama for failing to control law enforcement and military officers’ harsh treatment of the Water Protectors during their peaceful protest—and for pulling back on DAPL construction too late. In December 2016, weeks before leaving office, Obama barred DAPL from crossing the Missouri River (a decision that Trump reversed when he took office a month later).

In addition, Estes notes that in 2010, Obama signed the Defense Appropriations Act into law, which included a quiet apology to Indigenous peoples called “Apology to Native Peoples of the United States.” While the wording did extend an apology to Indigenous peoples, it refused to accept blame or authorize any claim against the US. Estes cites this as one of many examples of the US government’s failure to acknowledge the ramifications of its own actions.

Pte Ska Win, known as the White Buffalo Calf Woman, is an important figure in Oceti Sakowin history. She outlined a basis for human and nonhuman relatives to interact, establishing Earth and all plants, animals, humans, and water as familial relations and declaring that they were to be treated as such. Lakota peoples refer to the Seven Sacred Rites, which Pte Ska Win brought to the tribe.

Estes suggests that this was the beginning of Indigenous understanding of the natural world as part of the Oceti Sakowin family. The #NoDAPL protests are founded on this basis, fighting not just for healthy drinking water but for the rights of the Missouri River as an entity. Estes claims that the lesson the White Buffalo Calf Woman brought to the tribe is the key to a sustainable future in the face of climate change.

Sacagawea was a Shoshone woman whom the French-Canadian trader Toussaint Charbonneau enslaved. Charbonneau physically and sexually abused Sacagawea, forcing her to bear his children. Captured at the age of 13, Sacagawea lived her entire life in subjugation to white men. Charbonneau was later stabbed by an Ojibwe woman for raping her daughter.

Little is known about Sacagawea, and settler narratives paint her as a helpful but mostly mute guide to the Lewis and Clark expedition. In reality, she was an enslaved Shoshone woman who was forced to submit through violence.

Sitting Bull was a 19th-century Lakota leader and resister. He resisted the granting of rights for railroads to construct rails along reservation land as outlined in the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie and halted the construction of rail lines. Before the Battle of Greasy Grass, in which Sitting Bull participated, he had a prophesy of an Oceti Sakowin victory.

Sitting Bull was arrested and killed because the US government believed that he would support Ghost Dancing. James McLaughlin, a Standing Rock agent, ordered the arrest. Sitting Bull was brought out from his cabin, unarmed, and shot in the head. Estes recognizes Sitting Bull as one of a long line of resisters in Oceti Sakowin history and calls out his death as an example of the unjust wielding of US governmental power.

Crazy Horse was a 19th-century Lakota war leader. He fought against the continued encroachment of white settlers onto Indigenous land and believed in a future for the Oceti Sakowin free from the influence of settler colonialism. When Crazy Horse returned home from a hunting trip to find his family massacred at the hands of General William S. Harney, he committed himself to fighting white settlers. Most noted for his act of resistance against General George Armstrong Custer, Crazy Horse and other armed resisters defeated Custer’s attack on their camp in the Black Hills.

For Estes, Crazy Horse exemplified the connection between Indigenous peoples and the land. To protect himself against the US military, Crazy Horse covered himself in dirt from mole mounds, believed to contain medicines.

Vine Deloria (1933-2005) was a Standing Rock scholar and advocate for Indigenous rights. Deloria was appointed executive director of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) in 1964. He taught at Western Washington State College and was a prolific writer, covering many accounts of Indigenous history and culture as well as the political history of Indigenous peoples.

Estes regards the work of Vine Deloria with great esteem, calling him “the most prolific and iconic Oceti Sakowin intellectual of the twentieth century” (173). Deloria detailed the Red Power ideology that became a catalyst for an Indigenous peoples movement. He advocated for the treatment of Indigenous rights through a lens of Indigenous nations rather than an individual’s civil rights.