“I really believe that we need to rethink our relationship between Indigenous nations and this colonial government. We need to sit down and remake it so it’s no longer an abusive relationship,” says journalist Jacqueline Keeler (Diné/Ihanktonwan Dakota). “It’s an ethical question. It’s a moral question.”

Today, Jaqueline Keeler joins us to talk about her new book, Standoff, in which she writes about two recent conflicts between the U.S. government and protesters over land and sovereignty: the 2016 occupation of the Malheur national wildlife refuge in Oregon by the Bundy clan and the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock.

Though the origins and politics of these events are wildly different, Keeler argues that both speak to the need for the U.S. to reimagine its very structure.

Jacqueline Keeler is a Diné/Ihanktonwan Dakota writer living in Portland, Oregon. She is the author of Standoff: Standing Rock, the Bundy Movement, and the American Story of Sacred Lands (Torrey House Press, 2021), editor of the anthology Edge of Morning: Native Voices Speak for the Bears Ears (Torrey House Press, 2017), and has contributed to many publications including The Nation, Yes! magazine, and Salon.

Cover photo by jazapp from Pixabay