In
the autumn of 2016, a large alliance of Indigenous peoples and their
non-Indigenous supporters blocked the path of yet another oil pipeline in North
America, the Dakota Access Pipeline. At Standing Rock, people opposed the fossil
fuel industry and protected water as the essential source of life. It is this
moment of contestation, which is at the heart of Nick Estes' book Our
History is the Future (Verso, 2019). In this blog post, I will outline
several of Estes' key contributions.