This is an imperfect book, and yet it is absolutely extraordinary. Truer has given us the history of America's indigenous people, attempting with admirable success to tell the stories of many different nations, as impacted by European imperialism. The majority of what is here is history I never learned, and I am someone who has actively tried to gain this knowledge. Of course its a series of terrible tales, more shameful than I could have imagined. As far as I know the material in this book has never been taught to a single American schoolchild. (I do have a couple friends who went to rez schools, and I will need to ask them if they knew all of this.) Every American should be taught this history, it is essential to understanding America. With this book Treuer seeks to change the narrative of Indians as victims, a narrative with its popular genesis in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Instead Treuer tells us the story of resilient peoples. Indians who faced unimaginable violence and oppression and soldiered on.

To create this narrative of resilience Treuer blends history with memoir, social science, modern oral history, and political philosophy. While I understand his choice, in my opinion Treuer tries to do too much, and it makes it hard to follow the book in parts. As a reader I found I wanted more history, and suddenly I was listening to the personal stories of modern Indians. Again, I get that these modern stories illustrate the costs of the history described, and the power and resillience of communities who have had their land stolen, their citizens murdered, and their good faith mocked for hundreds of years. Still, I think this approach muddied everything, this should have been two books. Still, it was a perspective changing read which I know I will reread. It turns out to be one of the best reads of the year for me, but if it had been streamlined I think it would have been on my best ever reads list.