The book’s prologue, “Prophets,” describes a new way of looking at time. Estes notes that settler colonialism views time as a linear structure: Something happens; then something else happens. Conversely, Estes proposes an alternative way of considering time—as a tapestry of interwoven threads. The history and the future blend together. They are not and cannot be separated. By examining the past, one can gain a better understanding of the present and the future. The past, Estes reveals throughout the book, is filled with Indigenous resistance.

Estes’s own legacy is one example. His Grandpa Andrew and grandfather Frank Estes paved the way for his own resistance. Estes explains that the prophets to whom he refers are not fortune tellers or magicians but people who diagnose the problems of the time and find a path forward. The Black Snake became the prophecy of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a symbol of the continued violence against and eradication of Indigenous peoples. Estes draws a distinction between prophets of the past, elders whom young people listened to for wisdom, and the prophets of the present, young people who provide a new comprehension of the world around them. The book’s many stories of Indigenous resisters—Crazy Horse,

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