Description:

*4/10/23: Due to unforeseen circumstances, this 4/11 Dialogue with Nick Estes and Dallas Goldtooth is postponed. We do hope to reschedule sometime in the coming year!

A discussion of environmental, activist, and Indigenous energies with Nick Estes and Dallas Goldtooth, moderated by Doug Kiel.

Co-presented with the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research, this event is the rescheduled winter keynote of the Kaplan Humanities Institute's 2022-2023 Dialogue, ENERGIES: A year-long conversation about energies—personal, collective, planetary—from different humanistic perspectives.

This event brings together Indigenous activist-scholars to foreground the Indigenous lands and nations on the front lines not just of the climate crisis but also of collective actions seeking different futures. As the climate crisis continues to be fueled by energy extraction and an inability on the part of nation states and corporations to divest from capitalism, we focus in on Indigenous resistance movements to protect the environment. We ask:

What are the forms of activism and collective organizing that are shaping Indigenous movements for lands and waters?

Where do activist energies intersect with artistic and scholarly ones?

We hope this conversation reflects both on the urgency of energy crises as well on long-standing Indigenous collective energies.

Nick Estes is Kul Wicasa, a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe. He is Assistant Professor in the Department of American Indian Studies at University of Minnesota, cofounder of The Red Nation, and author of Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline. 

Dallas Goldtooth (Mdewakanton Dakota & Diné) is an organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network, writer for FX’s Reservation Dogs, and a co-founder of The 1491s comedy group.

Moderator: Doug Kiel (a citizen of the Oneida Nation) is Assistant Professor in Northwestern's Department of History, Kaplan Humanities Institute, and Center for Native American and Indigenous Research.

Tickets are free for this event; public welcome! Space is limited. RSVPs (tickets) are not required, but appreciated, as they help us anticipate attendance numbers. Reception with refreshments will follow the conversation.