Nick Estes to speak on Standing Rock, Indigenous resistance Sept. 3 at Michigan Tech

Poster courtesy Indigenous Peoples' Day Campaign.

HOUGHTON -- Nick Estes, a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and assistant professor in the American Studies Department at the University of New Mexico, will present "Our History is the Future - Standing Rock vs Dakota Access," at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 3, in the Alumni Lounge, Memorial Union Building (MUB) at Michigan Tech.

His talk is about the lessons of the ten-month Indigenous resistance at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access pipeline in 2016. Estes places this narrative in the context of the long tradition of Indigenous resistance to the United States genocidal wars against the native peoples of this continent and the development of colonial institutions. He notes that the theft of Indigenous lands continues up to the present and is an integral part of global imperialism. In that sense, the Indian Wars have never truly ended. They continue and reach beyond the borders of this country. Thus the spirit of internationalism is an existential necessity, and ending imperialism abroad by ending it at home is a sacred duty of the Indigenous movement.

At Standing Rock in 2016, this spirit of internationalism was evident, as Indigenous nations from around the world made their way to the camp site in solidarity.

Nick Estes places the struggle at Standing Rock in the context of the struggle against capitalism. His recent book, Our History is the Future, closes with the following words:

"The Water protectors also ask us: What does water want from us? What does the earth want from us? 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. Hecetu welo!"

In 2014, Estes co-founded The Red Nation, an Indigenous resistance organization. In 2017-2018, Estes was the American Democracy Fellow at the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University. His work engages colonialism and global Indigenous histories, with a focus on decolonization, oral history, U.S. imperialism, environmental justice, anti-capitalism, and the Oceti Sakowin.*

This event is sponsored by the Michigan Tech Center for Diversity and Inclusion; the Michigan Tech Social Science, Humanities and Physics departments; the Episcopal Church; and the King-Chavez-Parks Initiative.

*Oceti Sakowin (Och-et-eeshak-oh-win), meaning Seven Council Fires, is the proper name for the people commonly known as the Sioux.