A sweeping history of Native American life from the Wounded Knee massacre to the present. The received idea of Native American history has been that American Indian history essentially ended with the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. Not only did one hundred fifty Sioux die at the hands of the U. S. Cavalry, the sense was, but Native civilization did as well. Growing up Ojibwe on a reservation in Minnesota, training as an anthropologist, and researching Native life past and present for his nonfiction and novels, David Treuer has uncovered a different narrative.Through their intense struggles to preserve their language, their traditions, their families, and their very existence, the story of American Indians since the end of the nineteenth century to the present is one of unprecedented resourcefulness and reinvention. In The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee, Treuer melds history with reportage and memoir. Tracing the tribes' distinctive cultures from first contact, he explores how the depredations of each era spawned new modes of survival. “A gripping medley of academic rigor, reporting and memoir, Treuer’s fascinating and unconventional account of Native American history burns with a passionate sense of resiliency.” —Washington Post “Powerful and deeply felt.” - New York Review of Books