This paper examines how growing indigenous organization in the Ecuadorian Amazon is beginning to configure the local practices of petroleum development and multinational accumulation.  It argues that struggles over oil activity are as much about visions of national identity and social justice as they are about the material use and extraction of rainforest resources.  To understand the trajectory of environmental conflict in the region, analysis must attend to debates over cultural identity and social exclusion.  The paper points to the difficulty of forming an oppositional movement and argues that identities of resistance must be actively constructed and positively maintained.