David Treuer traces America's relationship with violence back to the frontier

This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley. There's a familiar line in writer David Troyer's new book that sounds almost like a warning. The call is coming from inside the house, and He's talking about America, and this belief that the violence we associate with our country's past isn't simply behind us. It's something we've learned to carry within ourselves.

Choyer is Ojibwe and grew up on the Lee Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. He spent much of his career challenging the idea that Native American history is a story of defeat and disappearance. His acclaimed book, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee, challenged that narrative. Now in his new book, The Savage Mine, An American Legacy, Troyer turns his attention to the country itself.

He traces America's relationship with violence back to the frontier. Where the taking of native land and the subjugation of people were justified in the name of civilization. His argument is that the frontier didn't disappear when Westward expansion ended. Its violence has become part of American life through our institution, our stories, and the ways we think and act. And he argues that even the people who recognize that history are Aren't necessarily free from it.

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