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Nick Estes

Nick Estes is a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe. He is a journalist, historian, and host of The Red Nation Podcast. He is the author of Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance (Verso, 2019). 

June 2023

  • ‘The argument reeked of “reverse racism,” a bogus notion that measures taken to protect marginalized people end up harming white people.’

    The supreme court made a surprising ruling for Native American rights

    Nick Estes
    A white couple challenged an adoption law that protects Native children. Thankfully, the conservative court didn’t buy their argument

July 2022

  • ‘Kavanaugh’s words could have come from the most ardent anti-Indian racist of a bygone era. Asserting state criminal jurisdiction over Native lands has been a primary tactic of legally eliminating Native people.’

    The rightwing supreme court has another target: Native American rights

    Nick Estes
    In last month’s Oklahoma v Castro-Huerta, the court tore up centuries of legal precedent and Native sovereignty

February 2022

  • Marchers carry a banner depicting Leonard Peltier during a march for the National Day of Mourning in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on 22 November 2001.

    Leonard Peltier is America’s longest-held Indigenous prisoner. He should be freed

    Janene Yazzie and Nick Estes
    Millions have called for Peltier’s release since his incarceration, including Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu before their deaths. It’s time to act

August 2021

  • Members of the Mosakahiken Cree Nation hug in front of a makeshift memorial at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School to honor the 215 children whose remains have been discovered buried near the facility, in British Columbia.

    Why is the US right suddenly interested in Native American adoption law?

    Nick Estes
    A 1978 law tried to remedy adoption practices created to forcibly assimilate Native children. Now conservative lawyers are arguing that the law constitutes ‘reverse racism’

June 2021

  • ‘A man man sits and prays at the field where the remains of over 750 children were buried on the site of the former Marieval Indian Residential School in Cowessess First Nation, Saskatchewan.’

    My relatives went to a Catholic school for Native children. It was a place of horrors

    Nick Estes
    After the discovery of 751 unmarked graves at the site of a former school for Native children in Canada, it is time to investigate similar abuses in the US

April 2021

  • FILE: Rick Santorum Out Of Presidential Race<br>FILE - FEBRUARY 3, 2016: It was reported that former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is dropping out of the race for president February 3, 2016. NASHUA, NH - JANUARY 23: Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum speaks at the NHGOP First In The Nation Town Hall January 23, 2016 in Nashua, New Hampshire. The convention was a day long affair and featured presidential candidates looking to win the first in the nation primary. (Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images)

    Only racist ignorance lets Rick Santorum think America was ‘birthed from nothing’

    Nick Estes
  • ‘Land is power, land is wealth, and, more importantly, land is about race and class. The relationship to land ��� who owns it, who works it, and who cares for it – reflects obscene levels of inequality and legacies of colonialism and white supremacy.’

    Bill Gates is the biggest private owner of farmland in the United States. Why?

    Nick Estes

January 2021

  • Indigenous activists protest a Keystone construction site near the US-Canadian border in Montana, May, 2020.

    Biden killed the Keystone Pipeline. Good, but he doesn't get a climate pass just yet

    Nick Estes
    Democrats’ climate record is mixed – and it’s largely pressure from Indigenous and environmental groups that’s pushed them to act

November 2019

  • BOLIVIA-CRISIS-MORALES-RESIGNATION-MARCH-AFP PICTURES OF THE YEA<br>- AFP PICTURES OF THE YEAR 2019 - Riot police fire tear gas to disperse supporters of Bolivian ex-President Evo Morales and locals discontented with the political situation during a protest in La Paz on November 13, 2019. - Bolivia’s exiled ex-president Evo Morales said Wednesday he was ready to return to “pacify” his country amid weeks of unrest that led to his resignation. (Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP) (Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)

    Is Bolivia turning into a rightwing military dictatorship?

    Nick Estes
  • People react amid tear gas during clashes between members of the security forces and supporters of former Bolivian President Evo Morales in La Paz<br>A woman argues with a member of the security forces during clashes between members of the security forces and supporters of former Bolivian President Evo Morales in La Paz, Bolivia November 13, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Romero

    What the coup against Evo Morales means to indigenous people like me

    Nick Estes
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