*Starred Review* Treuer acclaimed author (Prudence, 2015), professor, and Ojibwe from the Leech Lake reservation in northern Minnesota here offers his own very personal counternarrative to the depressing story of defeated, hopeless Native Americans depicted in Dee Brown's 1970 classic, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Treuer methodically guides the reader along the path of Native history since that 1890 massacre, highlighting not just the ways in which treaties were ignored, or how the disastrous policy of assimilation was aimed at wiping out centuries of culture and language, or the drastic reduction of Indian landholdings resulting from the Dawes Act of 1877, but focusing instead on how each of these assaults on everything indigenous people held dear actually led to their strong resolve not only to survive but to emerge reenergized. Native participation in World Wars I and II, the termination policy and subsequent Relocation Act, the migration to cities, the rise and fall of the American Indian Movement, the growth of tribal capitalism engendered by tribal sovereignty each of these phenomena is embellished not only by Treuer's extensive documentation but also by anecdotes populated by members of his own family and longtime friends from Leech Lake. His scholarly reportage of these 125 years of Native history thus comes to vivid life for every reader.--Deborah Donovan Copyright 2018 Booklist

Ojibwe novelist and nonfiction author Treuer (Prudence) offers a counter-narrative to the "same old sad story of the 'dead Indian' " in this forceful, full-scale history of the Native American experience. The book's title references Dee Brown's 1970 bestseller, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, and its claim that, between 1860 and 1890, "the culture and civilization of the American Indian was destroyed." Aiming to recast how Native Americans see themselves as well as how they're viewed by others, Treuer briskly chronicles the first four centuries of contact between Europeans and American Indians before taking a deep dive into the "untold story of the past 128 years." He documents Native American heroism in WWI; the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act, which brought New Deal reforms to tribal communities; the post-WWII urban migration of Native Americans; the 1970s occupations of Alcatraz Island and the Bureau of Indian Affairs by members of the American Indian Movement; and the impact of legalized gambling on reservation life. Interwoven with these accounts are profiles of Treuer's friends and family, and reportage from "Indian homelands" throughout the U.S. His character sketches, of Oglala Lakota chef and cookbook author Sean Sherman, for example, are impactful and finely drawn. This vivid rewriting of the history of Native America should be required reading. (Jan.)

An Ojibwe novelist and historian delivers a politically charged, highly readable history of America's Indigenous peoples after the end of the wars against them.Native American history, Treuer (Prudence, 2015, etc.) provocatively reminds us, does not end at Wounded Knee, which is usually the last major event concerning Native people that non-Natives can recite. The population of those who identify as Native has increased tenfold since 1900; a third of them are under the age of 18 in a time when many other populationsincluding white Americansare aging. "We seem to be everywhere," writes the author, "and doing everything." This is not for want of trying otherwise on the part of the federal government, which, at several points in the last 12 decades, has attempted to delist Indian populations and seize reservation lands. Treuer's account includes many such maneuvers, such as the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, along with episodes of Native resistance that were not always successful. As he notes, for example, the American Indian Movement of the 1970s, born in the cities, often had trouble gaining a foothold on rural reservations such as Pine Ridge: "Despite its focus on reclaiming Indian pride by way of Indian cultures and ceremonies, and by privileging the old ways, reservation communities were not entirely sold on AIM." Treuer has been through a tremendous amount of literature to write this book, but he's also been out on the land talking with people in those communities, as with one tough Blackfoot elder he interviewed: "He had the clipped tones of the High Plains along with a kind of Don't fuck with me' cadence that I always think of as elderly Indian voice.' " Treuer closes his lucid account with a portrait of the "water keepers" who gathered from all over the continent in the hope of protecting Sioux lands against an oil pipeline that, for the moment, has been stalled in its tracks through their efforts.A welcome modern rejoinder to classics such as God Is Red and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

THE HEARTBEAT OF WOUNDED KNEE: Native America From 1890 to the Present, by David Treuer. (Riverhead, $28.) This response to Dee Brown's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" highlights the numerous achievements of Native Americans over the past century, and celebrates their resilience and adaptability in the face of prejudice, violence and the many other obstacles placed in their way. HARK, by Sam Lipsyte. (Simon & Schuster, $27.) The attraction and repulsion between a would-be messiah and his apostle anchors this madcap skewering of contemporary culture packed with fake gurus, cheating spouses, junk-food obsessions and yoga. INHERITANCE: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love, by Dani Shapiro. (Knopf, $24.95.) A DNA test submitted on a whim upends Shapiro's assumptions about her family history and forms the basis for her new book, a searching exploration of the power of blood ties to shape our sense of who we are. AN ORCHESTRA OF MINORITIES, by Chigozie Obioma. (Little, Brown, $28.) A sweeping epic centered on a fraught romance between a humble poultry farmer and the daughter of a prosperous chief, Obioma's new novel travels from rural Nigeria to Cyprus and to the cosmic domain of the Igbo guardian spirit who watches over and recounts the proceedings. ARISTOTLE'S WAY: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life, by Edith Hall. (Penguin Press, $27.) Aristotle was concerned with how to achieve a virtuous, happy life. Hall sees his answer as a source of great comfort, his most important insight being that people need to find their own purpose and search out a middle way - "nothing in excess," the philosopher said. THE WORLD ACCORDING TO FANNIE DAVIS: My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers, by Bridgett M. Davis. (Little, Brown, $28.) Davis's heartwarming memoir honors her remarkable mother, who made a good life for her family in the '60s and '70s. THE FALCONER, by Dana Czapnik. (Atria, $25.) In this electric debut novel, 17-year-old Lucy's coming-of-age is powerfully shaped by her encounters with basketball and New York City itself, even as she constantly brushes up against the constrictions society places on her sex. IN MY MIND'S EYE: A Thought Diary, by Jan Morris. (Liveright, $24.95.) The beloved nonagenarian writer shares a year of observations - of herself and of the changes she's observed. TO NIGHT OWL FROM DOGFISH, by Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer. (Dial, $17.99; ages 9 to 12.) Told in a series of frantic emails and other correspondence, this hilarious novel follows two girls who have never met - one in California, one in New York - who learn that their single dads plan to marry each other. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books