“In this landscape, water is animated and has agency; it streams as liquid, forms clouds as gas, and even moves earth as solid ice—because it is alive and gives life. If He Sapa is the heart of the world, then Mni Sose is its aorta. This is a Lakota and Indigenous relationship to the physical world.”

Estes emphasizes that from the perspective of Indigenous peoples, nonhuman entities are relatives. In fact, a common belief is that they belong to the land. Mni Sose is the Missouri River, and protecting the river against, first, damming through the Pick-Sloan Plan and, second, DAPL represents an important aspect of how Indigenous peoples believe they should treat their relatives.

“Our lands, and lives, were targeted not because they held precious resources or labor to be extracted. In fact, the opposite was true: our lands and lives were targeted and held value because they could be wasted—submerged, destroyed.”

The book provides numerous examples of how the US government failed to recognize the humanity of Indigenous peoples or the importance of nonhuman relatives. The US government felt no need to declare war on Indigenous nations because doing so would acknowledge their humanity. Estes notes that the only value the government saw in Indigenous peoples was that—given their perceived lack of humanity—they could be wasted like the land.

“Settler narratives use a linear conception of time to distance themselves from the horrific crimes committed against Indigenous peoples and the land. This includes celebrating bogus origin stories like Thanksgiving. But Indigenous notions of time consider the present to be structured entirely by our past and by our ancestors. There is no separation between past and present, meaning that an alternative future is also determined by our understanding of our past. Our history is the future.”

At the heart of Estes’s book is a concept of time in which the past and the present are intrinsically interwoven. The book itself uses a structure that shows how the past influences the present and how the present mirrors the past. The cyclical nature of history supports this conception of time.