The Point of View of a Stone: Looking at the Colonization of the Northern Plains from the Standing Rock

The Standing Rock of North Dakota is not merely the namesake for an agency and a Sioux tribe. Its monumentalization as well as the publication of the legend associated with it point to the web of interactions between Indians (Lakotas, Dakotas, and Arikaras) and non-Indians that made possible the transition from war to peace, pre-reservation and reservation life after the 1870s. They are a rare opportunity to grasp the quiet work that went into preparing Native traditions for life under colonialism and reveal the complexity of the colonial encounter in North America.