[BEST OF] Our History Is the Future: The Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance
Revolutionary Left Radio
Breht O'Shea
4.8 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2025
⏱️ 83 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
ORIGINALLY RELEASED May 20, 2021
In this episode, we speak with Nick Estes, author of Our History Is the Future, about the powerful throughline connecting the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee, the 1973 AIM occupation, and the 2016 resistance at Standing Rock. Far from isolated events, these are chapters in a living history of Indigenous struggle against settler colonialism, ecological devastation, and capitalist expansion. Estes brings a revolutionary lens to history; one that is rooted in land, memory, and the radical refusal to disappear. This isn’t just a conversation about the past though, it’s a call to understand that the continued fight for Indigenous sovereignty is the fight for a livable future.
Listen to the full episode of Guerrilla History here: https://guerrillahistory.libsyn.com/nick-estes
----------------------------------------------------
Support Rev Left and get access to bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/revleftradio
Make a one-time donation to Rev Left at BuyMeACoffee.com/revleftradio
Follow, Subscribe, & Learn more about Rev Left Radio HERE
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | We're back on Guerrilla history, and we're now joined by our guest, Nick Estes, |
| 0:14.9 | who's professor of American Studies at University of New Mexico, is the author of Our History is the Future and is a citizen of the lower |
| 0:23.7 | Brule Sioux tribe. Hello, Nick, and welcome to guerrilla history. It's a pleasure to have you on. |
| 0:28.6 | Yeah, it's great to join you all. Nice to meet you, Henry Adnan, and Brett, to see you in person. |
| 0:34.5 | I actually never knew what you looked like. |
| 0:39.9 | Well, I'm sorry to let you down, but here I am. |
| 0:41.7 | He's a heck. |
| 0:42.6 | No, I'm just kidding. |
| 0:49.4 | I can say that, you know, we've definitely been wanting to record with you for a while, |
| 0:51.6 | and we're definitely looking forward to this conversation. |
| 0:57.9 | But Brett, you've already done a couple episodes with Neck and you know, you're familiar with him. So why don't I turn this over to you to get this conversation underway? Sure. Yeah. Well, first of all, Nick, as everything you do, I'm a huge |
| 1:03.4 | fan. I love this book. I loved re-diving into it in preparation for this interview and highly |
| 1:08.6 | recommend it to anybody listening. That's for sure. |
| 1:11.7 | And maybe a good place to start is to discuss the title. Our history is the future. |
| 1:16.6 | I think this is like multi-layered in many ways. It makes me think about the relationship to the natural world, |
| 1:24.1 | climate change. And you even discuss the radically different conception of time and |
| 1:28.6 | analysis of history that comes out of indigenous culture. So what does the title, |
| 1:33.6 | Our History Is the Future, mean to you? And why did you pick that as a way to frame this entire |
| 1:38.8 | book? To be honest, the meaning has changed over time. The original intent has sort of been lost, I guess, |
| 1:46.3 | and listening to other people's interpretations of the title has actually made it, |
| 1:51.7 | you know, much more of a kind of collective understanding. And I've noticed that people have |
| 1:55.9 | actually been using that phrase. I don't know if I coined it or not. It was just sitting on my |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 7 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Breht O'Shea, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Breht O'Shea and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.