The heartbeat of Wounded Knee : native America from 1890 to the present / David Treuer.

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    • Abstract:
      Summary: The received idea of Native American history -- as promulgated by books like Dee Brown's 1970 mega-bestselling Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee -- has been that American Indian history essentially ended with the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. Not only did one hundred fifty Sioux die at the hands of the U. S. Cavalry, but Native civilization did as well. Growing up Ojibwe on a reservation in Minnesota, training as an anthropologist, and researching Native life past and present for his nonfiction and novels, David Treuer has uncovered a different narrative. Because they did not disappear -- and not despite but rather because of their intense struggles to preserve their language, their traditions, their families, and their very existence -- the story of American Indians since the end of the nineteenth century to the present is one of unprecedented resourcefulness and reinvention. Treuer melds history with reportage and memoir. Tracing the tribes' distinctive cultures from first contact, he explores how the depredations of each era spawned new modes of survival. The devastating seizures of land gave rise to increasingly sophisticated legal and political maneuvering that put the lie to the myth that Indians don't know or care about property. The forced assimilation of their children at government-run boarding schools incubated a unifying Native identity. Conscription in the U.S. military and the pull of urban life brought Indians into the mainstream and modern times, even as it steered the emerging shape of self-rule and spawned a new generation of resistance. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee is the intimate story of a resilient people in a transformative era.
    • Content Notes:
      Narrating the apocalypse: 10,000 BCE-1890 -- Purgatory: 1891-1934 -- Fighting life: 1914-1945 -- Moving on up: termination, and relocation: 1945-1970 -- Becoming Indian: 1970-1990 -- Boom city: tribal capitalism in the twenty-first century -- Digital Indians: 1990-2018.
    • Notes:
      Includes bibliographical references (pages 461-488) and index.
    • Other Titles:
      Native America from 1890 to the present.
    • ISBN:
      9781594633157
      1594633150
    • Accession Number:
      2018018371
    • Accession Number:
      on1075513969
      1075513969
    • Accession Number:
      lcc.on1075513969

Reviews

Booklist Reviews 2018 November #2

*Starred Review* Treuer—acclaimed author (Prudence, 2015), professor, and Ojibwe from the Leech Lake reservation in northern Minnesota—here offers his own very personal "counternarrative" to the depressing story of defeated, hopeless Native Americans depicted in Dee Brown's 1970 classic, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Treuer methodically guides the reader along the path of Native history since that 1890 massacre, highlighting not just the ways in which treaties were ignored, or how the disastrous policy of assimilation was aimed at wiping out centuries of culture and language, or the drastic reduction of Indian landholdings resulting from the Dawes Act of 1877, but focusing instead on how each of these assaults on everything indigenous people held dear actually led to their strong resolve not only to survive but to emerge reenergized. Native participation in World Wars I and II, the termination policy and subsequent Relocation Act, the migration to cities, the rise and fall of the American Indian Movement, the growth of tribal capitalism engendered by tribal sovereignty—each of these phenomena is embellished not only by Treuer's extensive documentation but also by anecdotes populated by members of his own family and longtime friends from Leech Lake. His scholarly reportage of these 125 years of Native history thus comes to vivid life for every reader. Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews.

LJ Reviews 2018 February #1

The author of astute, heartfelt fiction, including the multi-best-booked The Translation of Dr Apelles, Ojibwe author Treuer uses his anthropological training to offer a new view of the Native experience. Treuer argues that the adversity Natives have faced since the late 1800s has in fact led to a rebirth of culture and identity, firming up resistance and connecting different peoples across the continent.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal.

LJ Reviews 2018 December #1

Treuer (literature, Univ. of Southern California), a Leech Lake Reservation Ojibwe scholar, has distinguished himself as an accomplished writer of both fiction (Prudence) and nonfiction (Rez Life). Here he takes on a bold task: a history of Native America from the Paleolithic to the Standing Rock Reservation protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2017. Peoples from all regions of North America are included. Unlike other works that depict the "vanishing Indian" narrative, Treuer's does not end at the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre. Rather, he uses Wounded Knee as a springboard to discuss the Native American experience as it has adapted and persisted since. The struggles of Native peoples, including the United States cavalry's attacks, the destruction of the bison herds, and forced integration through boarding schools, are held in balance with the success stories, such as the Pueblo Revolt, the rise of the American Indian Movement, and the development of the tribal gaming industry. VERDICT Treuer chronicles the long histories of Native North America, showing the transformation and endurance of many nations. All American history collections will benefit from this important work by an important native scholar.—Jeffrey Meyer, Mt. Pleasant P.L., IA

Copyright 2018 Library Journal.