Writing Indigenous History in an Age of Protest: Critical Reflections on “Our History Is the Future”

In 2016, a small protest encampment at the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota, initially established to block construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, grew to be the largest Indigenous protest movement in the twenty-first century, attracting tens of thousands of Indigenous and non-Native allies from around the world. Its slogan "Mni Wiconi"--Water is Life--was about more than just a pipeline. Water Protectors knew this battle for Native sovereignty had already been fought many times before, and that, even after the encampment was gone, their anti-colonial struggle would continue.

This paper reflects on the long history of Indigenous resistance, and what it means to write Indigenous history in an era of mass protest. I elaborate on the methodologies employed writing the book Our History Is the Future and what scholars have called an “Indigenous perspective.” I also take seriously the view that Indigenous social movements are key sites of knowledge production, generating and advancing theoretical interventions and how we understand history and struggles for decolonization. While scholars typically write for their specialized fields of study within their respective disciplines, this paper asks “what does it mean to write for and about Indigenous social movements?” which is the aim of Our History Is the Future.