A theme that comes up over and over again, if you look at environmental protests throughout

history, is the way it often intersects with the fight for indigenous sovereignty.

And the way that makes the backlash to protest more severe.

From Ochetti Chakwan people in the U.S. to the Wetsuetin and Canada, the link of people

in Honduras, the Tuhoi, in New Zealand, indigenous led efforts to stop environmentally

harmful projects, often help drive wider movements for native people's rights.

And when the backlash comes, efforts to repress environmental activism end up targeting

indigenous rights movements too.

This is Nick Estes.

I am an assistant professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota,

the Founder of the Nation, and I'm also an enrolled member of the lower rural Sioux tribe.

Nick Estes was deeply involved in protests at the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation

against the Dakota Access Pipeline, which a lot of people pinpoint as a key starting

point of the modern climate movement in the U.S.

And it was a really big deal.

Thousands of people from all over the world showed up in North Dakota to protest the pipeline

and stand up for indigenous land and water rights.

There were celebrities there too, politicians, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has cited it as

the moment that sort of radicalized her in the climate fight.

People camped out for months.

They participated in multiple direct actions, and the police response was intense.

There was militarized gear and helicopters, attack dogs, private security forces from

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