Rez Life: An Indian’s Journey Through Reservation Life

“Indian reservations, and those of us who live on them, are as American as apple pie, baseball, and muscle cars. Unlike apple pie, however, Indians contributed to the birth of America itself.”

Treuer prefaces his account of reservation life, which is inextricable from the origins of the United States, by helping the reader understand that Indigenous Americans’ lives are not marginal. They, too, suffer from woes and benefit from great privileges like Americans from any other segment of society do. This supports the author’s theme concerning the differences between the reality of life on reservations and common misperceptions of life on reservations.

“We are thought of in terms of what we have lost or what we have survived.”

Treuer seeks to paint a more complex portrait of Indigenous Americans’ lives. He eschews the one-dimensional narrative of their being simply an impoverished and disenfranchised people who have survived centuries of disease, displacement, and wars. While all of that is part of their story, it is only a fraction of it.

“The average life expectancy for Indian men is sixty-four. When white people turn sixty-five they, on average, retire. Indians are lucky to live long enough to see retirement. The average household income on my reservation is $21,000. On some reservations in the Dakotas the median income hovers just above $10,000; for the rest of America, median income is $52,029, as of 2008. Life is hard for many on the rez.”

Treuer illustrates the racial wealth gap between Indigenous communities and white communities. His statistic about the life expectancy for Indigenous American men is particularly jarring. It reveals how much more difficult their lives are compared to their white peers, a fact that is inextricable from a legacy of poverty and isolation.