Book Review: Rez Life by David Treuer
This review of Rez Life by David Treuer focuses much on its substance as a model piece of cultural protection of Indians living in reservations in the US. Victimization and involvement of Indians in criminal activities have emerged due to lack of protection within their reservations and the consequence negative influence coming from mainstream US. At the same time, the ambiguity expressed by Treuer in the last part of the story could possibly signify a practical response to the problems raised in the review.
Introduction
Indian reservations are among the most protected territories within the United States (US). The US extends its efforts to the hundreds-strong Indian tribes living within the national territory by entitling many of them with an area of land referred to as a reservation. Yet, despite the high protection and degree of autonomy conferred to Indian reservations, those still have associations with a number of negative issues. David Treuer, wrote Rez Life to unfold his experience as a member of the Ojibwe tribe in Minnesota through a journalistic manner. Treuer vividly communicated his memoirs on growing up in the Ojibwe reservation as he exhausted his account of the history of the place alongside the multitude of issues it has encountered (Treuer, 2012).
Social Changes
Treuer did not promise that Rez Life would become an all-encompassing account of all the problems surrounding the Ojibwe reservation. Nevertheless, Treuer provided an exemplary work that enables outsiders to have a rich understanding on the kinds of issues Ojibwe Indians experience, both including those in the past and present. On a general scale, the style employed by Treuer in writing Rez Life includes a concoction of journalism, history and memoir, putting said publication at par with the most recommendable materials to read for further understanding of Indian reservations. As Treuer went through with describing his personal experiences, he detailed how the lives of Indians have changed within the reservation, noting that their culture has encountered effects from several influences outside their tribe (Treuer, 2012).
Treuer focused on the nature of Indian reservations per se in detailing many of the problems Indians constantly encounter. For instance, the problems associated with sovereignty and taxation emphasizes on the role of Indians as tribe managers vis-à-vis the national authority of the US. Growing up, Treuer has witnessed the emergence of disputes surrounding the question on who holds true authority over Indian tribes, given the historical fact that the formation of the US as a nation did not involve the express consent of the Indians, who inhabitant the lands way before occupation. What Treuer has pointed out in that aspect of his story is the fact that Indians have long fought against the authority of the US in the name of ancestral domain, exposing the inadequacy of the government initiative to designate reservations. Nevertheless, it would seem that the fight to win over authority over reservation lands is a hopeless cause, given the continuing primacy of the US (Treuer, 2012).
The establishment of casinos serves as another damaging factor for Indians mentioned by Treuer in the story. Modernization has inevitably penetrated through reservation areas, with many Indians having embraced practices foreign to their heritage. Casinos are among the foreign introductions that heavily affected the lifestyles of many Indians. The addictive nature of casino games and the financial propensity such addiction requires have caused peril to many Indians through financial and social problems. Treuer also detailed life within Indian boarding schools, emphasizing that distance from their families has a profound impact on its residents. Verily, social disarray is at the core of the many accounts Treuer has emphasized, as he has stressed that influences foreign to Indian tribes have caused destructive effects on Indian societies (Treuer, 2012).
The prevalence of drugs, gangs and violence also proved to be another factor for the decaying social milieu surrounding Indians within settlements. Influences foreign to Indian tribes have caused the entry of criminal activities prevalent throughout mainstream US. The experiences of Treuer concerning the foregoing urged him to emphasize on the value of preserving Indian culture against negative mainstream cultural faces of the US. While Treuer did not mean to adulterate his accounts with exaggerations, he nevertheless succeeded in convincing that Indians have already succumbed to detrimental influences coming from outside their tribe. Peace within reservations broke due to the prevalence of drugs, which drew some Indians to addiction and led to the formation of criminal groups in the form of gangs. Violent troubles associated with criminal gangs soon emerged, affecting the lives of many Indians within reservations through the growth of concerns related to lack of security. Verily, Rez Life stresses that Indians have gone so much changes largely unknown to outsiders. The massive efforts of Treuer to recount his memoirs into a blend of history and journalism has generated the power to draw the attention of a wider scope of audiences towards awareness of the problems plaguing Indian tribes, particularly that of the Ojibwe (Treuer, 2012).
What Treuer attempted to portray with Rez Life is to open the awareness of many people – Indians or not, towards the idea that Indians have already incurred effects through cultural changes resulting from their external environment. With the US as the legitimate authority ruling over Indian reservations and appointed leaders within Indian tribes being power only within functions pertaining to autonomy, it has become inevitable for many Indians to accept facets of US culture, as shown by the negative manifestations in the foregoing sections. Yet, Treuer is highly critical of the fact of Indian languages becoming obsolete. Since English serves as the most widely spoken language throughout the majority of the US, it has become unavoidable for many Indians to use it as their lingua franca than their traditional languages. In this case, the tyranny of the majority has played its cruel part, as many Indians saw the urgency of speaking the language. The threat of losing an important component of Indian culture looms within details of Treuer on the increasing prominence of English among Indians. In that aspect, Treuer sends out a strong appeal to his readers for promoting cultural preservation for Indian tribes, particularly among the Ojibwe, with emphasis on the problem of the constant decline of Indian languages (Treuer 2012).
Detailing Memoirs
Treuer wrote Rez Life in such a highly personal manner, given that his journalistic insight of the lives of Indians within reservations has found a profound concoction with his individual memoirs. The controversy Treuer raised on Indian boarding schools evokes despair from the sordid experiences of resident Indians, who had to endure several forms of abuse including one for speaking native Indian languages. Treuer further speaks of injustice by portraying the pain Indians had to endure in entering boarding schools, as they have to live away from their families while they go through a variety of physical and emotional abuses, among the worst ones being rape. The aforementioned scenarios went through the brilliance of Treuer in providing intense portrayals in his writings, as he has sought to convince readers that life for the Indians has become tough due to their marginalized status within the US (Treuer, 2012).
However, what sets apart Treuer from the traditionally biased insights of other memoir authors is the fact that he also exposed the ills his fellow Indians have exhibited. An astonishing fact Treuer has pointed out is the fact that Indians have also become involved in racist acts against non-Indian Americans. Violence and greed among Indians is another aspect Treuer raised, as he erased the notion that mainstream US is the only one to blame for the social ills he sought to address. With such surprising claims Treuer has made on the Indians, Rez Life unfolds as a fair-enough account of his experiences, as he does not provide biased opinion against only one party to the controversies he raised. In fact, Treuer uses such balance to emphasize the importance of solving the social problems he mentioned in order to restore order within the Indian restorations (Treuer, 2012).
Criticizing Rez Life
In writing Rez Life, Treuer stayed as informative as he can in exhausting all of the information he believes is proper for the objective of portraying the contemporary state of Indians in reservation areas. Treuer gave further credit to the text he wrote by using details of his personal memoirs to conjure a mightily convincing image in enlightening his readers. Nevertheless, it is evident throughout the writing style of Treuer that he did not exhibit the same kind of strength in creating vivid imageries in the realm of convincing his readers to take on some sort of affirmative action. In other words, no matter how vivid Treuer was in portraying his memoirs, he did not actively pushed for his readers to take action against the negative changes occurring among Indians within reservations. With that, the decision to become active in helping the formation of relevant reforms lies within the discretion of readers. Rez Life offers, in that regard, the fact that it has powerful imagery and sharp storytelling inspiring enough to evoke the passions of readers on the issue of Indian tribes (Treuer, 2012).
Prominent throughout Rez Life is the striking familiarity of Treuer with the conditions experienced and suffered by Indians. Describing Treuer in his present terms alone may not do justice to his knowledge of Indian life within reservations, as his personality does not fit the descriptions he has clearly established within his work. Nevertheless, the lack of stereotypical similarities between Treuer, as he is right now, and the Indians he so intensely portrayed does not serve as a degrading factor to the story. Rather, it proves that an Indian like Treuer, who now seems to be an outsider, has proven to have the capability to intensify yet realistically describe the ordeal of Indians living within reservations. Treuer proved his genuine familiarity of his fellow Ojibwe Indians within their reservation by detailing crucial accounts of his closest friends and relatives. Shaping their experiences into one compelling publication proves the sharpness of Treuer in his acumen for writing. A notable observation one could make is that Rez Life aims to present itself as an expository work for much of the middle class people in the US, who present themselves as normally uninformed about the truth behind the real conditions of Indians settled within reservations. At the same time, the uncompromising stance of Treuer against the negative manifestations of Indians shows that the story also targets their attention (Treuer, 2012).
At the conclusion of Rez Life, Treuer provided an account of how the funeral of his grandfather went through, as he plotted the image of the US flag flying alongside the reservation flag. It is in this point where one would realize that Treuer might have a supporting stance on the unity of mainstream US citizens and Indians under one flag. While there may be prevailing impressions that the story covers the objective of supporting the maintenance of the culture of Indians, the manifestations found at the end of the story shows that Treuer, although vaguely, supports Indian-American unity, despite the negative consequences of forces external to Indian reservations on Indian culture. The concluding scene evokes a return to the idea questioning the legitimacy of US control over territories populated by Indians, given the fact that the later have already existed prior to the European colonizers who served as the direct descendants of many modern-day US citizens. Since there are strong implicit calls within the story against the assimilation of Indians within US territories, particularly with the emergence of negative social facets coming from influences outside of the reservations, it is highly unusual for Treuer to come up with such a conclusion. One interpretation that may suit that conclusion is that Treuer may want to compromise for Indian-American unity in favor of the practical observance of peace for the Indians. That is a possibility, since Indians could not present for now a powerful force enough to fight against the US or an adequately strong voice to convince the majority of their right for recognition as entities fully autonomous from said nation. After all, the conclusion did not entail an outright reversal of the stand of Treuer on Indians, as he may support a peaceful condition wherein his perceived reforms could flourish (Treuer, 2012).
Conclusion
Overall, Treuer presents an unbiased yet vague account of his experiences and stories he wrote in Rez Life. Conservation of Indian culture and freedom from abuse is the strongest message Treuer attempts to present to his readers, with many who may have little knowledge on the issues of Indians within the US. Indian life in the conservations has found a balanced portrayal through the work of Treuer, despite the concluding portion of the story.
References
Treuer, D. (2012). Rez life: An Indian's journey through reservation life. New York City, NY: Atlantic Monthly Press.
