Cover Image: Standing with Standing Rock

Standing with Standing Rock

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Member Reviews

This is a poorly written collection of information about the conflict between the American Indians and the oil companies that want to put pipelines through the reservations, namely the Dakota Pipeline and other projects. I stand by their cause, but the book could have been written much better. It's hard to take them seriously when the book is about mystical phenomenology and Native American folklore and not strongly researched information.

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In Spring 2016, the Standing Rock Reservation Sioux, or Oceti Sakwin, began protesting the planned construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) through reservation territory including the Missouri River and beneath Lake Oahe. The planned pipeline would run rough shod on sacred sites, burial grounds, and contaminate water sources. More than 10,000 people converged at Standing Rock, where then-President Obama halted construction until President Trump issued an executive order to jump start construction. Standing with Standing Rock: Voices from the #NoDAPL Movement is a groundbreaking anthology edited by Nick Estes (Lower Brule Sioux), American Studies professor and global studies professor Jaskiran Dhillon. The book is unified around critiques of colonialism and also reflects organizing against state, colonial, and gender violence and the destruction of land, air, water, and humankind.

The stellar book is a collection of academic articles depicting various facets of protest including leadership, life histories, state and gender violence, and critical pedagogies on the topic. Some of the articles I enjoyed the most were Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s “The Great Sioux Nation and the Resistance to Colonial Land Grabbing,” which provided a primer on Sioux history since the 1800s; Craig Howe (Oglala Sioux) and Tyler Young’s “Mnisose,” which centers the importance of the Mnisose (Missouri River) to the Oceti Sakwin; and the shrewd analysis of historian Elizabeth Ellis’s (Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma) “Centering Sovereignty: How Standing Rock Changed the Conversation” which argues that while stereotypes of Native peoples as innately ecological drew in the American public to the DAPL protest, once the were onboard the debate changed to one about sovereignty violations. The book is an astonishing compendium which centers Native voices and theoretical analyses and is recommended for students of American Indian Studies and environmental studies.

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I received a free electronic copy of Standing with Standing Rock from Netgalley, Nick Estes and University of Minnesota Press. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this collection of essays, etc. of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work.

I can highly recommend this excellent look into the #NoDAPL resistance by First American tribes.
Over the last few years the women of the Oceti Sakowin, the Seven Council Fires, have added their voices to the Saskatoon, Canadian ladies and their Idle No More resistance, elevating Standing Rock to a step in an international movement of (mostly) women of all tribes seeking to leave an environment that our grandchildren will be able to thrive upon. Common sense dictates that the world will not survive at all with our 'modern' way of doing business. Unfortunately, common sense is mostly missing in the halls of government.

Standing with Standing Rock is a collection of essays, poems, interviews, photographs, and living histories that form the basis of the Standing Rock resistance. Whatever race you consider you were born into, we are all one people. We need good, clean water every day. Without it, there is no life. It is hard to understand why this very obvious fact is lost in the fight for the continued use of fossil fuels. This work and American Indianology 101 by George L. Russell will bring you to ground zero in the battle of common sense vs. petroleum profits whatever your personal heritage. This is a battle humans can not afford to lose. We are already well on the way to becoming an endangered species. Standing with Standing Rock is essential to our continued existence.

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Standing With Standing Rock is a pivotal body of work that illuminates the advocacy of our Native American Brothers and Sisters to fight for their water rights on Native Land. .When Standing Rock began the tribes issued a distress call and tribes united and as they did so they unit all of us who are advocates against big oil and fight for Native rights. The advocacy was heard around the world as all of us took up their fight for maintaining water rights on their Native lands. We watched as peaceful protesters were shot at by officers and forced off the land their tribes have owned for hundreds of years. This protest changed the world and it illuminated the cause .

This authors have included here the story of Standing Rock through poetry and prose, essays, photography, interviews and Standing Rock leaders reflections. This is uniquely personally reflective on Indigenous history and on the Standing Rock movements effect on the world. The activism is notable and illuminated well here as is the personal and the long term affect of Standing Rock on our Native Tribal lands. Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley for the opportunity. My opinion is my own. I recommend that all who are involved in environmental and Tribal environmental activism read this great body of work. Well done to the author's . I will be buying a hardback copy for my own library and reflection on the movement of Standing Rock and how it influences my own activism.

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This book gives voice to the many perspectives and individuals involved in protesting or commenting on the DAPL protest.

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