In this episode, I’m joined by Nick Estes—associate professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota, cofounder of The Red Nation, and author of Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance (Verso Books, 2019)—to discuss the long and rich history of Indigenous resistance to colonialism in North America. We explore the different ways that Indigenous peoples have stood up against settler-colonial displacement and erasure, both historically and in the present, and situate this history within a broader international context, tying together Indigenous struggles for land and liberation across the globe—from Turtle Island to Palestine.
Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Washington, D.C. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock.
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Sources and helpful links:
Nick Estes — Our History Is the Future:Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance(Verso Books, 2019)
Indigenous Environmental Network and Oil Change International — Indigenous Resistance Against Carbon (August 2021)
Julian Brave NoiseCat and Anne Spice — A History and Future of Resistance (Jacobin, September 2016)
Julian Brave NoiseCat — When the Indians Defeat the Cowboys (Jacobin, January 2017)
Kyle Stokes — The long, bitter fight over Minneapolis’ Roof Depot site, explained (MinnPost, February 2023)
Nic Sanford Belgard — The Land at The Center of Cop City and Why We Must Defend It (Indigenous Peoples Power Project, March 2023)
Delilah Friedler — What Will Replace the Minneapolis Police? The City’s Native American Community Has Some Ideas. (Mother Jones, June 2020)
American Indian Movement — Trail of Broken Treaties 20-Point Platform (1972)
NDN Collective — LANDBACK website
Nick Estes – The Radical Origins of International Indigenous Representation (Verso Books blog, December 2019)
Nick Estes — interview with Daniel Denvir (The Dig podcast, June 2019)
Nick Estes — Settler “Self-Defense” and Native Liberation (Indigenous Solidarity With Palestine, October 2024)
The Red Nation — Leonard Peltier is going home! (January 2025)
Leonard Peltier — Prison Writings: My Life is my Sun Dance(St. Martin’s Griffin, 2000)
Social links:
Return to Bandung:
Twitter: twitter.com/returntobandung
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/returntobandung/
Pranay Somayajula:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/p_somayajula
Website: https://www.pranaysomayajula.com/
Substack: https://www.culture-shock.xyz/
Nick Estes:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nickwestes
Substack: https://nickestes.substack.com/
The Red Nation:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/The_Red_Nation
Website: https://www.therednation.org
