November 4, 2019
Ojibwe novelist and nonfiction author Treuer (Prudence) offers a counter-narrative to the “same old sad story of the ‘dead Indian’ ” in this forceful, full-scale history of the Native American experience. The book’s title references Dee Brown’s 1970 bestseller, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, and its claim that, between 1860 and 1890, “the culture and civilization of the American Indian was destroyed.” Aiming to recast how Native Americans see themselves as well as how they’re viewed by others, Treuer briskly chronicles the first four centuries of contact between Europeans and American Indians before taking a deep dive into the “untold story of the past 128 years.” He documents Native American heroism in WWI; the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act, which brought New Deal reforms to tribal communities; the post-WWII urban migration of Native Americans; the 1970s occupations of Alcatraz Island and the Bureau of Indian Affairs by members of the American Indian Movement; and the impact of legalized gambling on reservation life. Interwoven with these accounts are profiles of Treuer’s friends and family, and reportage from “Indian homelands” throughout the U.S. His character sketches, of Oglala Lakota chef and cookbook author Sean Sherman, for example, are impactful and finely drawn. This vivid rewriting of the history of Native America should be required reading.
Starred review from October 24, 2022
Ojibwe author Treuer unblinkingly depicts “Indian life rather than Indian death” in this young readers adaptation of the 2019 adult bestseller of the same name. While the creator focuses on the 1890 massacre of the South Dakotan Wounded Knee Creek peoples and its aftermath, Treuer also summarily chronicles Indigenous history from 10000 BCE to the 2016 protests over the Dakota Access Pipeline’s running through the Standing Rock Reservation. An overview outlining pre-colonization Native life and the tragedy of Wounded Knee briefly contextualizes the tribe’s traditional perception in American history—Treuer writes that many Americans “saw the massacre as the end not just of the Indians who had died but of ‘the Indian.’ ” Disproving the myth that Indigenous peoples disappeared after the event, the creator conducts interviews with close friends and prominent members of Native history, including Kevin Washburn, an American law professor and member of Chickasaw Nation. By delving into subjects such as tribal termination and allotment, the author grounds readers with well-documented historical practices to better situate Indigenous peoples’ response to these oppressive regimes. Using approachable language and eye-opening firsthand accounts, Treuer unfailingly puts Indigenous people at the center of their own history to prove that “Indian cultures are not dead and our civilizations have not been destroyed.” Ages 12–up.
November 1, 2022
Gr 9 Up-This is a book about the lives, identity, and trials of the Indigenous peoples of North America. Indigenous author Treuer's The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee, a National Book Award finalist, has been reworked for young adults. Treuer emphasizes that this book is about identity and the ability of Indigenous people to exist on their own terms. The book moves forward in time starting with pre-contact Indigenous peoples and ends in our current era. Each chapter highlights the struggle of Indigenous people in the face of relentless colonialism, government-sanctioned violence, and many other social calamities. This work is an excellent source for young people to explore counter-narratives of North American history-settler society has long controlled the lens. As Treuer writes, "it is an attempt to confront the ways we Indians ourselves understand our place in the world. We carry within us stories of our origins, and ideas about what our families, clans, and communities mean. But too often we agree with the way in which we are read by outsiders." VERDICT A well-researched approach to North American history that features personal narratives from Indigenous Americans.-Meaghan Nichols
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Starred review from November 1, 2022
Grades 7-12 *Starred Review* Yes, it's another adaptation for young readers of an adult best-seller, but this one is special, for it offers an examination of an essential subject: life in Indigenous America. The Ojibwe author seamlessly addresses his material in a hybrid fashion that's part history, part reportage, and part memoir, and Keenan ensures all is accessible to a younger audience. The fascinating subject is presented in rough chronological order from 10,000 BCE to today, although Treuer's primary focus is on the period since the tragic 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. He begins by surveying Native history geographically (i.e., the Northeast, the Great Basin, etc.) and then moves to a more chronological and topical strategy (e.g., The "Indian Problem," 1891-1934). For Native Americans, the problems they faced, more often than not, resulted from dealings with the U.S. government, which Treuer finds to have been feckless, cruel, shortsighted, hypocritical, and shameful. Obviously, Treuer pulls no punches, concluding that "our Indian cultures are not dead, and our civilizations have not been destroyed"--as this excellent book demonstrates. Archival photographs and historical documents, such as a Bureau of Indian Affairs relocation brochure, pepper the text, which is further supported by copious source notes. The history related here is necessary for all Americans to understand, and Treuer's personalized accounting ensures that readers will learn it with both their minds and hearts.
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Starred review from August 15, 2022
Adapted for teen readers from the 2019 original, Treuer's seminal account offers a fresh, distinct historical reconsideration. The author's purpose is clear from the outset: to present a deliberate counternarrative to mainstream assumptions and push back against the constrictive specter of the framing of the Wounded Knee massacre of 1890 as a turning point representing the end of Native American cultures. In seven chapters spanning prehistorical times to the present, this chronicle of Indigenous communities and peoples in North America is a scintillating version reduced in length but not breadth. Beginning with a brief overview of the pre-colonization period and the ensuing violent disruptions of the Europeans, the opening chapter also covers Indigenous resistance. The next chapter depicts the role of the U.S. government in an ever increasing, violent push for assimilation via boarding schools and the Dawes Act. The further the book goes into the 20th century and the rise of Native American social action in the 1960s and 1970s, such as through the American Indian Movement, the more Treuer includes firsthand stories from his research interviews. These accounts clearly delineate the ties between the continued impact of the past and the possibilities for a viable, hard-fought future for Native American lives. This essential work ends with a review of the Standing Rock protest and its potential and asks the fundamental, yet-to-be-answered question: "What kind of country do we want to be?" Utterly vital in its historical prowess, essential in its portraits of lived experiences. (notes, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)
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