Rez Life
by David Treuer
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Pub Date Feb 01 2012 | Archive Date Sep 01 2012
Grove/Atlantic, Inc. | Atlantic Monthly Press
Description
"A gritty, raw, and thoroughly authentic look at reservation life-as experienced
from the inside out. Here is modern America glimpsed
through a different membrane, narrated in a fresh new voice. In this searching,
at times heartbreaking, but often triumphant mélange of history, journalism, and
memoir, Treuer loudly proclaims that all reports of the American Indian's demise
have been greatly exaggerated." -Hampton Sides, best-selling author of Blood and
Thunder
Celebrated novelist David Treuer has gained a reputation for writing fiction that expands the horizons of Native American literature. In Rez Life, his first full-length work of nonfiction, Treuer brings a novelist's storytelling skill and an eye for detail to a complex and subtle examination of Native American reservation life, past and present.
With authoritative research and reportage, Treuer illuminates misunderstood contemporary issues of sovereignty, treaty rights, and natural-resource conservation. He traces the convoluted waves of public policy that have deracinated, disenfranchised, and exploited Native Americans, exposing the tension and conflict that has marked the historical relationship between the United States government and the Native American population. Through the eyes of students, teachers, government administrators, lawyers, and tribal court judges, he shows how casinos, tribal government, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have transformed the landscape of Native American life.
A member of the Ojibwe of northern Minnesota, Treuer grew up on the Leech Lake Reservation, but was educated in mainstream America. Treuer traverses the boundaries of American and Indian identity as he explores crime and poverty, casinos and wealth, and the preservation of his native language and culture. Rez Life is a strikingly original work of history and reportage, a must read for anyone interested in the Native American story.
Celebrated novelist David Treuer has gained a reputation for writing fiction that expands the horizons of Native American literature. In Rez Life, his first full-length work of nonfiction, Treuer brings a novelist's storytelling skill and an eye for detail to a complex and subtle examination of Native American reservation life, past and present.
With authoritative research and reportage, Treuer illuminates misunderstood contemporary issues of sovereignty, treaty rights, and natural-resource conservation. He traces the convoluted waves of public policy that have deracinated, disenfranchised, and exploited Native Americans, exposing the tension and conflict that has marked the historical relationship between the United States government and the Native American population. Through the eyes of students, teachers, government administrators, lawyers, and tribal court judges, he shows how casinos, tribal government, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have transformed the landscape of Native American life.
A member of the Ojibwe of northern Minnesota, Treuer grew up on the Leech Lake Reservation, but was educated in mainstream America. Treuer traverses the boundaries of American and Indian identity as he explores crime and poverty, casinos and wealth, and the preservation of his native language and culture. Rez Life is a strikingly original work of history and reportage, a must read for anyone interested in the Native American story.
Advance Praise
"An invaluable study and vivid account of problematic life on our
reservations by a writer- a very good writer!-raised ‘on the rez' who knows what
he's talking about only too well and also knows how to tell a story, lots of
stories, that document and effectively banish a number of misconceptions still
held by white society. Highly recommended." -Peter Matthiessen
"Rez Life is a powerful, poignant, and beautifully written history/memoir that weaves together strands of joy and tragedy, empathy and greed, hope and despair, and tradition and wrenching change. It is an important and insightful book that should be read by anyone interested in the fascinating role of reservations in America's past, present, and future." -Eric Jay Dolin, author of Fur, Fortune, and Empire
"Free of academic jargon, overflowing with terrific storytelling, David Treuer has given us the best book I have ever read on contemporary reservation life. A courageously intimate memoir of family life and community survival . . . it deftly sashays between gritty everyday realities and their well-researched historical contexts and cultural resonances through the magically readable kind of nonfiction that perhaps only a novelist could pull off. Alive with memorable personalities and harrowing dips into reservation hell, wonderfully observed road trips through Indian country and inspiring examples of traditional subsistence and linguistic renewal, this introduction to Native America is destined to be a classic." -Peter Nabokov, Professor of American Indian Studies, UCLA, and author of Where the Lightning Strikes
"One of the most provocative voices in American Indian literary writing and criticism, David Treuer turns his piercing eye to the intertwined experiences of Native resurgence and crisis. Rez Life is for those who really want to understand Indian casinos, fishing rights, poverty, alcohol, spirituality, family, crime, war, law, sovereignty, violence, love, dedication, endurance . . . and most everything else." -Philip J. Deloria, author of Indians in Unexpected Places and Playing Indian
"Rez Life is a compelling and unvarnished look at the unique experience of life on an Indian reservation. With a novelist's eye for detail and a journalistic grasp of history, David Treuer reveals that this country's crimes against its original inhabitants were not limited to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This is a must read for anyone who cares about the ongoing plight of our Native Americans." -Brian Hicks, author of Toward the Setting Sun: John Ross, The Cherokees, and The Trail of Tears
"Out of the people and places of Native America David Treuer has crafted a story of vital interest to all Americans." -Former Vice President Walter Mondale
"Rez Life is a powerful, poignant, and beautifully written history/memoir that weaves together strands of joy and tragedy, empathy and greed, hope and despair, and tradition and wrenching change. It is an important and insightful book that should be read by anyone interested in the fascinating role of reservations in America's past, present, and future." -Eric Jay Dolin, author of Fur, Fortune, and Empire
"Free of academic jargon, overflowing with terrific storytelling, David Treuer has given us the best book I have ever read on contemporary reservation life. A courageously intimate memoir of family life and community survival . . . it deftly sashays between gritty everyday realities and their well-researched historical contexts and cultural resonances through the magically readable kind of nonfiction that perhaps only a novelist could pull off. Alive with memorable personalities and harrowing dips into reservation hell, wonderfully observed road trips through Indian country and inspiring examples of traditional subsistence and linguistic renewal, this introduction to Native America is destined to be a classic." -Peter Nabokov, Professor of American Indian Studies, UCLA, and author of Where the Lightning Strikes
"One of the most provocative voices in American Indian literary writing and criticism, David Treuer turns his piercing eye to the intertwined experiences of Native resurgence and crisis. Rez Life is for those who really want to understand Indian casinos, fishing rights, poverty, alcohol, spirituality, family, crime, war, law, sovereignty, violence, love, dedication, endurance . . . and most everything else." -Philip J. Deloria, author of Indians in Unexpected Places and Playing Indian
"Rez Life is a compelling and unvarnished look at the unique experience of life on an Indian reservation. With a novelist's eye for detail and a journalistic grasp of history, David Treuer reveals that this country's crimes against its original inhabitants were not limited to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This is a must read for anyone who cares about the ongoing plight of our Native Americans." -Brian Hicks, author of Toward the Setting Sun: John Ross, The Cherokees, and The Trail of Tears
"Out of the people and places of Native America David Treuer has crafted a story of vital interest to all Americans." -Former Vice President Walter Mondale
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9780802119711 |
| PRICE | $26.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 368 |
