The author details the history of Native Americans in the United States since European colonization, including criticisms of the modern conservation movement as exclusionary to indigenous concepts of land and environmental stewardship, and coverage of the 2010s Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock.

Colville Confederated Tribes member Dina Gilio-Whitaker was lecturing in American Indian Studies at California State University San Marcos at the time of the book's publication.

The European invasion that began in 1492 led to the deaths of 99% of Native Americans from diseases brought to the land, wars and starvation, including through forced displacements like the Trail of Tears.

She criticizes the views of Henry David Thoreau and John Muir on Native Americans, and that the conservation movement which arose from their ideology saw the wilderness as a place that indigenous people needed to be excluded from; meanwhile, toxic waste was disposed of in locations where it would harm communities of color.

[5] The Michigan Daily named it as one of 10 defining books of 2020: Trina Pal wrote for the publication that it is "a must-read for anyone hoping to understand the history and rights of Indigenous tribes" and a "wonderful and necessary start" to learning about environmental justice and how to participate in it.