Scan barcode
samtheowl96's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
5.0
This is a great and refreshing read. You get the brutal history but you also get a unique focus on the livelihood of Natives throughout history. There is a general broad history, but also a focus on specific individuals. The author speaks to reclamation and empowerment. He weaves the hardships with the "goodships" beautifully. I've read my fair share of Native history books, and I was intitially unmotivated to read "yet another" one, but I am so glad I did and wish I had done so sooner. This is also a good first Native history book, if you are just begining your journey down the path or are looking for a "one stop shop" to better inform yourself about turtle island.
cindypepper's review against another edition
3.0
I felt like I was reading two different books here; the first felt like a history book, whereas the latter part felt like longform journalism. After the initial chapter, I felt like the narrative lost a lot of focus for me. I appreciate that Treuer focused on the personal stories of Native Americans and he's great at surfacing these compelling stories, but something about the way the stories were introduced and woven within the overall narrative felt scattered and the pacing off.
nermutbundaloy's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.75
princeoforangepeels's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
jarcher's review against another edition
4.0
The scope of the work is remarkable, and the discussions on polarizing concepts at the heart of Native politics is impressively nuanced. I was particularly taken with how well Truer explains widely misunderstood concepts in Native culture (blood quantum, Indian gaming and casinos, etc) in a way that might be easily digested by non-Native readers. My one complaint about the book is that in the introduction, Truer promises a celebration of Native history that will not be the catalogue of US colonial atrocities that so many authors have already produced. However, the first roughly 60% of the book is a catalogue of just such atrocities. I understand why this is important for framing the latter half of the text, but it would have made more sense to take a pause once we arrive at 1890 to state that “from here on out will be a celebration of Native achievements,” rather than set these expectations in the beginning and ignore them for 300 pages.