"David Treuer is a novelist who teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Southern California. Nothing about his outward appearance fits the stereotype of an American Indian. But Treuer definitely qualifies as an intellectual with deep knowledge of Indian civil rights — and wrongs.
Stereotyping anybody is dangerous, and Treuer in particular transcends easy labels. His biological mother, from the Ojibwe tribe, raised him on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. His biological father, Austrian and Jewish, escaped the Nazi death camps to settle in the United States, where he ended up being more comfortable with reservation life than life elsewhere.
Treuer still spends significant time at the reservation, as well as in metropolitan Los Angeles. As an accomplished novelist (whose works include Little, The Hiawatha and The Translation of Dr. Apelles) should, he writes with clarity and compassion. As a result, Rez Life — part family memoir, part American history, part contemporary cultural journey through some of the approximately 310 reservations dotting the United States — is a triumphant book."
Get the Story:Book review: Rez Life: An Indian’s Journey Through Reservation Life, by David Treuer (The Dallas Morning News 2/25) Related Stories:
NPR: Interview with David Treuer, Leech Lake Ojibwe writer (02/21)
Review: 'David Treuer's Rez Life' not just a book on Indians (2/20)
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