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

Nick Estes is Kul Wicasa, a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe within the nation of Oceti Sakowin Oyate. Estes is an Assistant Professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico and cofounded The Red Nation, a social justice organization that consists of a coalition of activists focused on Indigenous liberation. In 2019, Estes was awarded the Lannan Literary Fellowship for Non-Fiction and is currently writing a book on the history of Red Power.

Estes is the editor of Red Medica Collective; he publishes books and podcasts that discuss Indigenous matters including decolonization, environmental justice, and anti-capitalism. His works have appeared in The Guardian, Indian Country Today, The Intercept, and other publications.

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.