First,
when analysing the resistance at Standing Rock, Estes successfully places this
particular moment of contestation in the much wider history of Indigenous
peoples’expropriation in North America and their resistance over the centuries
of settler colonialism. He outlines well how the slave plantations of the 19th
century were closely related to relentless genocide of Indigenous peoples
during the push of the USA towards the West in North America. ‘The expansion of
the plantation system coincided with Indigenous dispossession and removal’
(P.76). Capitalism as a mode of exploitation has always been closely
intertwined with racism and this included both black slave labour on the cotton
plantations in the Southern USA and the expropriation and extinction of
Indigenous people. ‘White settlers want Indigenous lands, but they don’t want
Indigenous Peoples’ (P.165).
Second,
settler colonialism is not only an attempt to replace Indigenous people with
settlers, but it is equally a war on nature. The disregard for water, expressed
in the construction of pipelines, the leaks of which result regularly in
pollution of ground water sources is one expression of this. The relentless
hunting of buffalos in the late 19th century is another. ‘An attack
on the land and the buffalo was an attack on Indigenous subsistence practices
and the ability to resist encroachment’ (P.98). In turn, resistance by
Indigenous peoples is not only a defence of themselves, but equally a defence
of nature. Unsurprisingly, activists at Standing Rock called themselves ‘Water
Protectors’.
Third, Estes highlights how the war against Indigenous peoples is an ongoing process. While the Indian Wars characterised the 19th century, it was through large dam constructions in the Missouri River, part of the so-called Pick-Sloan plan, that Indigenous peoples were attacked in the mid-20th century. ‘The Pick-Sloan Plan destroyed more Indigenous lands than any other public works project in US history, affecting twenty-three different reservation communities’ (P.139). Depriving Indigenous Peoples from the free goods of natures forcefully transformed them into potential wage labour.
Importantly,
Estes’ account illustrates well the internal relations between different forms
of exploitation. ‘Many Indigenous activists today have identified “man camps”,
the transient all-men communities of oil and gas workers, as hubs for the
exploitation of Indigenous women through trafficking and sex work’ (P.79).
Thus, the man camps in Alberta/Canada full of male workers, who are exploited
in the tar sands industry, are at the same time locations of hyper violence
against women. In turn, the tar sands industry pollutes local water supplies
and not only causes environmental destruction but also undermines the very
living conditions of Indigenous populations. Elsewhere, pipelines transporting
tar sands oil result in expropriation of Indigenous land (see the Dakota Access
Pipeline).
A
different understanding of time and nature underpins Indigenous resistance.
‘There is no separation between past and present, meaning that an alternative
future is also determined by our understanding of our past’ (P.14). Rivers are not
something external to human beings, which can be used. They are nonhuman, alive
relatives with their own rights. The struggle against exploitation is,
therefore, also automatically a struggle for nature.
‘Mni
Wiconi – water is life – exists outside the logic of capitalism. Whereas past
revolutionary struggles have strived for the emancipation of labor from
capital, we are challenged not just to imagine, but to demand the emancipation
of earth from capital. For the earth to live, capitalism must die’ (P.257).
With these words, Estes concludes his remarkable book. A must read for everyone
interested in understanding Indigenous peoples’ central role in shaping a
future beyond capitalism.
Personal website: http://andreasbieler.net
26 September 2021
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