Often Imagined, Infrequently Understood

An excerpt from Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask by Anton Treuer

I grew up in a borderland. My family moved a couple times, but we usually lived on or near the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. I went to school in the nearby town of Bemidji with plenty of other Native kids and many more Whites. Many Whites were scared of Indians and few had a chance to learn about Native Americans, so White folk usually just stuck to their imaginings. Many Indians were scared of Whites too (I know I was), so the disconnection cut both ways.

Anton Treuer and his sons Isaac and Evan

As a young person, I had several painful experiences with overt racial discrimination, but I also made some great friends in high school. And I was a great student. But the borderland remained a bramble on every level. I was tired of the tension, the confusion, and the mean-spirited statements of my peers about “drunken Indians.” I applied to Princeton University on a whim and surprised everyone, from my peers to my parents and especially myself, when I got in.

At college, I was looking forward to a breath of fresh air and a break from the borderland of my youth as much as I was to the challenges of a new stage of life. By my junior year, I realized I had not escaped the borderland. No matter how far I traveled, the haze engulfed everyone I met. Indians were imagined, not understood. And there were few resources and opportunities to do anything about it. Because we are so often imagined and so infrequently understood, I was (both unfairly and rightly) an ambassador for my people. If the misunderstandings that made growing up Native so frustrating for me were ever to be remedied, I would have to do my part to shine some light on the brambles and try to clear a path for others.

I gave up on my early plans of becoming an investment banker or lawyer. I never would have been happy in those roles. Instead, I graduated from Princeton with plans to walk the earth, which I did successfully for several months before I had to take a job. And then I dedicated myself to the pursuit of my tribal language, culture, and history. I eventually went to graduate school and entered academia. Through it all, I maintained one foot in the wigwam and one in the ivory tower, but I still see the borderland every day out my bedroom window. It is always an education not just about the world we live in, but about myself.

This book is designed for young readers as a tool to help all of us navigate this borderland. I originally published Everything with the Minnesota Historical Society Press, and it sold better than any of us could have hoped. I have expanded the topics here, with a lot more information on social activism and current events, and I have framed everything as best I can for a younger audience. Readers can read straight through, check out sections of personal interest, or use the table of contents and index to find answers to specific questions. I want this work to provide a place for people to get answers. It offers a first step to dispel erroneous imaginings and develop deeper understandings.

I originally wrote it trying to help the rest of the world understand us. But all Natives get bombarded with the same questions, and we need answers too. That this work has been helping Native people understand their own history, culture, and experience in new ways is very gratifying. The material in this Young Readers Edition is intentionally designed for both Native and non-Native kids to deepen their understanding and help build a better world for all of us.

 Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask I 9781646144181   I   $12.99   I   Paperback   I   Out Now