Treuer briefly charts Native America from prehistory to the Wounded Knee massacre, then outlines the perils of federal “benevolence” exerted through sometimes well-meaning but continually misguided policies and the horrors of tribal dependency. Indian people are obviously proud to be Americans - because they are the first Americans - but this pride is constantly challenged by a nation of new immigrants determined to treat them as some sort of rarified and exotic “other.” Indians were not granted citizenship until 1924 and then were often denied voting rights in Western states. This is particularly visible in the intense pride and patriotism of Indian veterans tribal members have fought in every American conflict, including as scouts in the Indian Wars, and have had to deal with the irony of fighting for freedoms denied to them at home. The embrace of American life along with a demand for special status has always placed Indian people in an awkward position. Treuer’s impassioned book is more the literary child of Vine Deloria’s 1969 “Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto” than Brown’s “Wounded Knee.” Deloria argued that native peoples had retained their tribal identity while adapting to modern American society and struggling for their treaty rights and human rights.

Bury my heart at wounded knee review