Nick Estes is a member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and is an Assistant Professor in American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota. His research focus engages in colonialism and global Indigenous histories, with a focus on decolonization, oral history, U.S. imperialism, environmental justice, anti-capitalism, and the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires; the Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota people).
Estes is the author of the award-winning book Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance (2019), which places into historical context the Indigenous-led movement to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. He also worked on the co-edited volume with Jaskiran Dhillon Standing with Standing Rock: Voices from the #NoDAPL Movement (2019), which draws together more than thirty contributors, including leaders, scholars, and activists of the Standing Rock movement for a reflection of Indigenous history and politics and on the movement’s significance.
Estes is the author of the award-winning book Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance (2019), which places into historical context the Indigenous-led movement to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. He also worked on the co-edited volume with Jaskiran Dhillon Standing with Standing Rock: Voices from the #NoDAPL Movement (2019), which draws together more than thirty contributors, including leaders, scholars, and activists of the Standing Rock movement for a reflection of Indigenous history and politics and on the movement’s significance.Estes was the American Democracy Fellow at the Charles Warren Center for Studies in History at Harvard University (2017-2018), the Lannan Literary Fellow for non-fiction (2019), and a Marguerite Casey Foundation Freedom Fellow (2020-2021). He is currently a National Archives Distinguished Scholar at Boston University (2022-2023).
Estes co-founded The Red Nation, an Indigenous resistance organization situated in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2014. This group is dedicated to the liberation of Native people from capitalism and colonialism. Estes co-hosts the Red Nation podcast and is the lead editor of Red Media, an Indigenous-run non-profit media organization that publishes books, videos, and podcasts. Estes is also a member of the Oceti Sakowin Writers Society (formerly Oak Lake Writers Society), a network of Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota writers committed to defend and advance Oceti Sakowin sovereignty, cultures, and histories. He is also an award-winning journalist whose writing has been featured in the Guardian, Intercept, Jacobin, Indian Country Today, The Funambulist Magazine, High Country News, and the New Yorker.
Contact Information: nestes@umn.edu
Select Recent Works:
“Nick Estes and Ned Blcakhawk on the historiographical problems of studying US settler colonialism,” on The Red Nation 18 June, 2023, available on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2VER_SKgQw
“The World of Paper, Restoring Relations, and the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe,” in Allotment Stories: Indigenous Land Relations under Settler Siege, eds. Jean O’Brien and Daniel Heath Justice (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2022), 47-54.
Estes, Nick, “The Age of the Water Protector and Climate Chaos,” Bioneers Conference, 28 June, 2022 on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki7OmflLgWg
Estes, Nick, Melannie Yazzie, Jennifer Nez Denetdale and David Correia, Red Nation Rising: From Bordertown Violence to Native Liberation (PM Press, 2021).
“Mni Sose and the Oceti Sakowin: Refusing Death on the Missouri River,” in Violence and Indigenous Communities: Confronting the Past and Engaging the Present, eds. Susan Sleeper-Smith, Jeffrey Ostler, and Josh Reid, (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2021), 223-241.
“Waves of History,” in Revision and Resistance: mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Kent Monkman (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020), 104-111.
“Anti-Indian Common Sense: Border Town Violence and Resistance in Mni Luzahan,” in Settler City Limits: Indigenous Resurgence and Colonial Violence in the Urban Prairie West, eds. Heather Dorries, Robert Henry, David Hugill, Tyler McCreary, and Julia Tomiak (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2019), 44-67.
Estes, Nick. “Anti-Indian Common Sense: Border Town Violence and Resistance in Mni Luzahan.” In Settler City Limits: Indigenous Resurgence and Colonial Violence in the Urban Prairie West, edited by Dorries, Heather, Robert Henry, David Hugill, Tyler McCreary, and Julie Tomiak, 44–69. Winnipeg, Manitoba: University of Manitoba Press, 2019.
Estes, Nick, and Jaskiran Dhillon, eds. Standing with Standing Rock: Voices from the #Nodapl Movement. Indigenous Americas. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2019.
Estes, Nick. Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance. London: Verso, 2019.
Estes, Nick. “Fighting for Our Lives: #Nodapl in Historical Context.” Wicazo Sa Review 32, no. 2 (2017): 115–22.