The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present
David Treuer
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present
David Treuer
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
... an informed, moving and kaleidoscopic portrait of 'Indian survival, resilience, adaptability, pride and place in modern life.' Rarely has a single volume in Native American history attempted such comprehensiveness.
Treuer’s revisionism leaves the reader with the understanding that foundational tales of indigenous suffering can be repurposed as a kind of prehistory for complex stories, typically absent from collective memory and scholarly literature, of Native nations that survived and thrived.
Readers in search of conventional history may be disappointed, for although somewhat chronological the book’s structure is hardly linear, and the historical content, while sound, is minimal.
This retelling [of the beginnings of European contact] is the weakest part of the book, although there are some nice historical tidbits.
Treuer blends a scholar’s tenacity with vivid reportage and personal anecdotes, but beneath his compassionate storytelling a magma of anger flows.
With clarity and skill, Treuer traces the legal origins of the rise of Indian casinos.
... highly readable.
... sweeping, consistently illuminating and personal.
... sweeping, essential.
However well-intentioned, this book is a disappointment. The prose is bloated, undisciplined and repetitive. Treuer seems incapable of being succinct. His talking points drown in a sea of verbiage. He quotes speeches, legal briefs and treaties at extraordinary length, when summaries would better serve his purpose. One wonders why his editors at the usually excellent house of Riverhead failed to rein him in..
Treuer presents a compelling narrative to challenge a familiar version of Native American history.
Treuer’s latest book is more than an addition to his previous literary and historical projects; it is also a response to Dee Brown’s best-selling stylized history, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (1970).
Treuer methodically guides the reader along the path of Native history since that 1890 massacre.
... a politically charged, highly readable history of America’s Indigenous peoples after the end of the wars against them.