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

The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) was founded in 1944 and spent much of the next decade successfully fighting termination legislation that targeted Indigenous peoples. However, many young people who followed NCAI’s movements were frustrated by its irresolution concerning colonial administration. Young activists protested the NCAI’s conservative policies and actions and began “a new era of Indigenous protest that called itself ‘Red Power’” (173). Vine Deloria, one such activist, advocated for Indigenous liberation, believing that the interest of Indigenous peoples was at direct odds with US culture and values. Red Power rejected assimilationism and instead embraced tribalism.

Estes draws a connection between the Red Power movement and the centuries of abuse from the US government that led to widespread poverty among Indigenous nations. Promises of payment or equality almost always meant assimilation. Vine Deloria suggested that poverty was merely a symptom of a much larger problem that threatened Indigenous peoples: colonialism. The fight was against colonialism itself. Red Power gained momentum and marked many significant protests, including those at Alcatraz, Mount Rushmore, and Wounded Knee. New groups, such as United Native Americans and the American Indian Movement (AIM), provided support for protests, offered legal advocacy, and established survival schools in which Indigenous students could learn about their culture and traditions—and resist the institutions that had oppressed them.