David Treuer on ‘The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee’

David Treuer has complicated feelings about Dee Brown’s book “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.”

He read the book in 1990, the 100th anniversary of the Wounded Knee Massacre, when he was 20 years old.

As a young Ojibwe man, he was grateful that a writer had lifted up Native American stories and brought them to the attention of the country at large.

But he also felt Brown’s declaration that Wounded Knee finally destroyed what was left of American Indian civilization pushed him and his Native contemporaries into an early grave.

Treuer was frustrated that the narrative describing a Native past and an American present continues to this day.

“I really think of my job as a writer and a professor to challenge the status quo, to challenge the dominant narrative,” he said. “And sometimes that makes people uncomfortable.”

Like his other work, Treuer’s new book “The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee” combines reporting with history and his own life experience.

He acknowledges that the Wounded Knee Massacre was tragic, but he didn’t want the book to be a tragedy.

“What I really wanted to do in the book was showcase the ways in which we are complicated, layered, detailed, interesting, vibrant — not always good, not always nice, not always healthy, but fully realized human beings,” he said.

He spoke with MPR News host Kerri Miller at the Wordplay festival earlier this year.

Use the audio player above to hear the radio version of their conversation.

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