Our History is the Future is a book dedicated to the struggle of America’s indigenous population against the colonists. The modern movement against the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) at Standing Rock is only one of the manifestations of the long resistance of the Indians to settler colonialism. The author of the book, activist, and Ph.D. Nick Estes traces the history of the complicated relationship of the native peoples, in particular Oceti Sakowin, with the conquerors, providing a historical context for the fight against DAPL. This resistance is not just the self-defense of indigenous peoples or claims to land, but a confrontation between contrasting values, between the local worldview and the ideas of settler colonialism, capitalism’s twin.
The problem of managing the land and resources of the Missouri River without caring for the well-being of the indigenous population was not the first time manifested during the DAPL. The author cites examples as after World War II, Army Corps built dams saving cities with a white population and flooding reservations even in cases where this could have been avoided (Estes 2019). However, the form that the resistance took in Standing Rock is one of the most significant demonstrations of unification and solidarity.
American history is based on the struggle for land, and now most of the indigenous territory and its income from it is owned by non-native white people. Referring to Cedric Robinson, the author says that this is a manifestation of racial capitalism, which arose in feudal Europe and spread as imperialism around the world (Estes 2019). In North America, it took the form of settler colonialism – “the specific form of colonialism whereby an imperial power seizes Native territory eliminates the original people by force, and resettles the land with a foreign, invading population” (Estes 2019, 89). Thus it is also a form of genocide and land conquest. Moreover, it is not just a phenomenon of the past since this process is still happening.
The struggle is fueled by different views on life and an understanding of the structures of the world. For example, the concept of time is also very different. The conquerors perceive it linearly, thereby withdrawing from past crimes. In turn, for the indigenous population, the present and future are determined by the past and its understanding. According to Estes (2019), for this reason, our history is in the future. Moreover, the struggle of the past is strongly connected to the present one. In the same way, white settlers do not want to accept the values of the Indians, their relationship with the land, and other-than-human kin, which opposes capitalism. This contradiction causes more and more conflicts and contributes to settler colonialism.
The understanding of time inherent in the indigenous population is quite specific and categorical and seems to leave no chance for changes. Considering that humanity is developing, it is gaining new knowledge and learning to accept new phenomena, it is impossible not to separate the past, the present, and the future. Nevertheless, history’s cycling nature has long been discussed among scientists, and the observed patterns cannot be ignored. Estes points out that everything is transforming: “as colonialism changes throughout time, so too does resistance to it” (Estes 2019, 21). In this case, it is the study and understanding of the past that will guarantee the progress of mankind and the avoidance of repetitive mistakes.
Returning to settler colonialism, one can safely claim that the peoples who came from Europe built a new society in America on the genocide of the local population. Whites used force, manipulated Native Americans, imposed their own rules of conduct and mentality in order to annihilate representatives of different peoples, and, without resistance, populate the discovered lands. However, since Native Americans still live here, they were not entirely replaced by settlers. In incidents such as the wrong choice of place for the dam or the laying of the pipe, which negatively affects the remaining indigenous population, the author sees an ongoing colonization process.
Studying the history of the first Europeans in America, one can find many other settler colonialism examples, except those mentioned earlier. Richter (2009) mentions in his book Facing East from Indian Country an era of racial cruelty. For instance, in 1763, there was an incident preserved in history as the Paxton Boys uprising, when settlers stabbed two dozen innocent representatives of the local population. Another example is the Gnadenhutten massacre in 1782, when almost a hundred Indians were killed. According to Richter, the American Revolution became not only a confrontation with the British rule but also a struggle with the indigenous population.
Prior to discussing these incidents, the author gives examples of how Europeans created stories and assumptions that represented the Indians as incompatible with the white nation. Such an image created the belief that local ones should “either surrender gracefully to a superior Christian civilization or die in a futile attempt to resist” (Richter 2009, 108). Despite attempts by personalities such as Pocahontas, Tekakwitha to establish communication and cooperation, Europeans did not accept the Indians as equal.
Europeans used not only power but also influence on public opinion so that the local population was not perceived on an equal basis with the colonists. Thomas (2001), in his book Skull Wars, studied how scientists at different times perceived and represented Native Americans. In his work, readers can detect mostly white scientists’ desire to find evidence that the Indians were not the first to come to this land, and these were Europeans (Thomas 2001). Such an aspiration to exclude the local population from their history testifies the desire to prove the superior right to land. Another striking example of displacing Indians from America in Thomas’s (2001) book is this opinion widespread in the 19th century that Indians were going to vanish as a species. Scientists sought to collect facts and relics until these peoples were gone forever, thus pushing them to disappear. Although these actions do not use weapons or physical force, manipulation is traced to settler colonialism’s objectives.
Thus, settler colonialism is the acquisition of territories through the elimination of the local population and the settlement of other foreign people. It is distinguished from other forms of colonialism by the fact that it has more to do with genocide than with economic gain. Estes (2019) is sure that American history is a history of settler colonialism that has not ended in the past but continues.
White settlers who came in the New World could not accept the values and worldview of the Indians and therefore imposed their rules. Their technical superiority suppressed Native Americans, and the descendants of the survivors still suffer from biases and modern manifestations of settler colonialism. Although some of Estes’s statements are quite categorical, one can find examples of this phenomenon among other studies of the history of Native Americans.
References
Estes, Nick. 2019. Our History Is the Future. Standing Rock versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance. New York: Verso.
Richter, Daniel K. 2009. Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Thomas, David H. 2001. Skull Wars: Kennewick Man, Archaeology, and the Battle for Native American Identity. New York: Basic Books.