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The Savage Mind: An American Legacy
“Unlike anything I have read…this book will make a mark.” ―Percival Everett, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author of
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A searing exploration of American violence, interweaving memoir, history, and reportage to reveal the wound at the heart of our nation―and to offer hope that the country, and we, might be healed.In the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the January 6 insurrection, as America seemed to be falling apart, David Treuer decided to hold himself and his family together the only way he knew he sat down to write a letter. What resulted is The Savage Mind, the most personal and powerful work of his storied literary career.How do we understand America, ourselves, and the impulses that seem intent on destroying both? Ranging from Treuer’s upbringing on the Leech Lake reservation in Minnesota to the experiences of his parents, a Jewish Holocaust refugee and the first American Indigenous woman judge, The Savage Mind reveals the terrifying essence of our frontier violence, which has defined our country, our culture, and our very selves. The frontier, Treuer shows, was a site of epic, phantasmagoric bloodshed, initiated by white settlers but perpetuated by all of us. And after the geographic frontier closed in the late 19th century, it did not vanish―quite the opposite.Today, Treuer explains, America’s frontier―and all its violent pathologies―has migrated overseas and into our hearts and minds. The atrocities in Gaza and the school shootings in the American heartland are bound together by this invisible filament―one that Treuer makes visible in The Savage Mind, and which he offers hope for weaving, once and for all, into a better cloth.
272 pages, Hardcover
Published October 6, 2026
About the author
David Treuer
12 books476 followersDavid Treuer is an Ojibwe Indian from Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. He is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the NEH, Bush Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He divides his time between his home on the Leech Lake Reservation and Minneapolis. He is the author of three novels and a book of criticism. His essays and stories have appeared in Esquire, TriQuarterly, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, Lucky Peach, the LA Times, and Slate.com.
Treuer published his first novel, Little, in 1995. He received his PhD in anthropology and published his second novel, The Hiawatha, in 1999. His third novel The Translation of Dr Apelles and a book of criticism, Native American Fiction; A User's Manual appeared in 2006. The Translation of Dr Apelles was named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, Time Out, and City Pages. REZ LIFE is his newest book and is now out in paperback with Grove Press.
Treuer published his first novel, Little, in 1995. He received his PhD in anthropology and published his second novel, The Hiawatha, in 1999. His third novel The Translation of Dr Apelles and a book of criticism, Native American Fiction; A User's Manual appeared in 2006. The Translation of Dr Apelles was named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, Time Out, and City Pages. REZ LIFE is his newest book and is now out in paperback with Grove Press.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
David Treuer’s Savage Mind seems like the book he was meant to write, and the book he was always seeking, in his life, to write. This is no insult to his fictional (Prudence), critical (Native American Fiction: A User's Manual), autobiographical (Rez Life), or historical (The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee) work of the past; it’s just that the Savage Mind combines all of these tacts, and it has centered them all on a critical thesis—incarnated in America’s beginnings, and precipitated by the fascistic turbulence of America’s present, the savage mind persists in all of us—every race, gender, across all class divides.
The whole book is framed as a letter to his children and a letter to the US citizens in general. He relates his complicated history with his parents, the lessons born from his mentors (Toni Morrison, being one), and the thoughts about abhorrent events of recent (genocide of the Palestinians, the US ritual of school shootings). All of these threads coalesce towards the overarching fact of US history and the personal history of all Americans; the traumatic beginnings of American, and it’s continued culture of violence, has instilled a savage mind in all of us. The major societal events targeted in this text, are the argument that US school shootings are rituals of violence (all kinds of people enact them,the Red Lake school shooter, for example, was a Native neo-Nazi, but it’s mostly white men), and the Palestinian Genocide being carried out by some of the descendants of the victims of the Holocaust. The major point, I think, being that the victim does not automatically inherit or articulate a good counter position; often, the violent evils done, form within the minds of the victims and must be noted and worked on, otherwise we have the Red Lake shooting, the Palestinian genocide, internalized racism (Native, Black, etc,), etc.
(Based on ARC from NetGalley)
The whole book is framed as a letter to his children and a letter to the US citizens in general. He relates his complicated history with his parents, the lessons born from his mentors (Toni Morrison, being one), and the thoughts about abhorrent events of recent (genocide of the Palestinians, the US ritual of school shootings). All of these threads coalesce towards the overarching fact of US history and the personal history of all Americans; the traumatic beginnings of American, and it’s continued culture of violence, has instilled a savage mind in all of us. The major societal events targeted in this text, are the argument that US school shootings are rituals of violence (all kinds of people enact them,the Red Lake school shooter, for example, was a Native neo-Nazi, but it’s mostly white men), and the Palestinian Genocide being carried out by some of the descendants of the victims of the Holocaust. The major point, I think, being that the victim does not automatically inherit or articulate a good counter position; often, the violent evils done, form within the minds of the victims and must be noted and worked on, otherwise we have the Red Lake shooting, the Palestinian genocide, internalized racism (Native, Black, etc,), etc.
(Based on ARC from NetGalley)
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
(Note: I received an advanced reader copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley)
Through a combination of history and personal memoir, Treuer posits that since its inception, the US has been infected by frontier violence - starting with native and indigenous bodies, moving on to resources and land, and with the closure of the frontier, has since moved on to infect people internally.
The author absolutely does not mince words in the slightest here, nor does he hold back. From start to finish he’s as forward as can be, and in the process he makes his perspective surprisingly easy to agree along with. After all, while violence in its many forms and humanity have mixed like PB&J since the beginning of time, there does at times feel like there’s something darkly unique about the US.
However, this book isn’t just a castigation. In fact, there’s a surprising vein of hope for the better injected in here. Admittedly it almost feels like it clashes with the overview of everything that’s wrong and all the ways the country’s past and present have been marred, but Treuer doesn’t try to reconcile the two - in fact, his stance is more that it is indeed very much a paradox, and there’s something oddly freeing about the idea that it doesn't exactly make sense in many ways.
To say the least, this is one of the most intense reads that I’ve experienced so far this year. Definitely not a light literary romp to say the least. Treuer provides a great day to chew upon, much of it dark and bitter. But there’s also a generous serving of optimism as well, something that’s felt in short supply these last few years.
Through a combination of history and personal memoir, Treuer posits that since its inception, the US has been infected by frontier violence - starting with native and indigenous bodies, moving on to resources and land, and with the closure of the frontier, has since moved on to infect people internally.
The author absolutely does not mince words in the slightest here, nor does he hold back. From start to finish he’s as forward as can be, and in the process he makes his perspective surprisingly easy to agree along with. After all, while violence in its many forms and humanity have mixed like PB&J since the beginning of time, there does at times feel like there’s something darkly unique about the US.
However, this book isn’t just a castigation. In fact, there’s a surprising vein of hope for the better injected in here. Admittedly it almost feels like it clashes with the overview of everything that’s wrong and all the ways the country’s past and present have been marred, but Treuer doesn’t try to reconcile the two - in fact, his stance is more that it is indeed very much a paradox, and there’s something oddly freeing about the idea that it doesn't exactly make sense in many ways.
To say the least, this is one of the most intense reads that I’ve experienced so far this year. Definitely not a light literary romp to say the least. Treuer provides a great day to chew upon, much of it dark and bitter. But there’s also a generous serving of optimism as well, something that’s felt in short supply these last few years.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This book starts with two powerful epigrams: one by James Baldwin which posits evil is easy to name without naming its reason and the other by Clifford Geertz: “Every people, the proverb has it, loves its own form of violence.” These preclude a powerful examination of violence in American life especially as directed toward Indigenous people.
Written similarly as Ta-Nehisi Coates did to his son in “Between the World and Me,” Treuer writes a series of letters or essays to his children melding memoir, Indigenous identity, and US political and social history. Showing that the roots of violence goes back to a misplaced idea of the “frontier” and “manifest destiny” in calling out school shootings, the author notes “Most school shootings occur at the terminus of the American Dream (the suburb and the rural). . . . All in all, most mass shootings occur on what has been imaged as The Frontier, where most of the shooters have been imagined, or imagine themselves, as Frontiersmen.” He calls out the use of “senseless” when speaking of these events because “They are full of sense. But not a sense that most people want to see or understand.” American whites (my words not Treuer’s) have created the frontier myth for Indigenous people and the “hood” for black people - it keeps these people in their place. I especially liked how Treuer points out weak people “cannot recognize the past.” And it’s particularly moving when the author shares when “The Savage Mind first took root” - as a way of experiencing grief in one of three ways: (1) killing the enemy, (2)taking a hostage to replace the one lost, or (3)substituting one of their own to take the punishment or cover the dead with gifts. This “savage mind” came out of Dakota War with the US in 1862 is a lovely passage from the history of the Objiwa by William Warren.
I enjoyed Treuer’s previous book “The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee” which was a powerful look at the US government’s history with indigenous people and the continuous survival of indigenous people. This current book is a scathing examination of what survival means in today’s America. It opens the reader to the reality that our country had grown weak from its myths and not examining them.
I gave this book five stars for its structure and writing, for bringing a much needed examination of how America refuses to examine its sins and keeping alive the necessity of truth in history. Highly recommend.
My thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for allowing me access to this ARC.
Written similarly as Ta-Nehisi Coates did to his son in “Between the World and Me,” Treuer writes a series of letters or essays to his children melding memoir, Indigenous identity, and US political and social history. Showing that the roots of violence goes back to a misplaced idea of the “frontier” and “manifest destiny” in calling out school shootings, the author notes “Most school shootings occur at the terminus of the American Dream (the suburb and the rural). . . . All in all, most mass shootings occur on what has been imaged as The Frontier, where most of the shooters have been imagined, or imagine themselves, as Frontiersmen.” He calls out the use of “senseless” when speaking of these events because “They are full of sense. But not a sense that most people want to see or understand.” American whites (my words not Treuer’s) have created the frontier myth for Indigenous people and the “hood” for black people - it keeps these people in their place. I especially liked how Treuer points out weak people “cannot recognize the past.” And it’s particularly moving when the author shares when “The Savage Mind first took root” - as a way of experiencing grief in one of three ways: (1) killing the enemy, (2)taking a hostage to replace the one lost, or (3)substituting one of their own to take the punishment or cover the dead with gifts. This “savage mind” came out of Dakota War with the US in 1862 is a lovely passage from the history of the Objiwa by William Warren.
I enjoyed Treuer’s previous book “The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee” which was a powerful look at the US government’s history with indigenous people and the continuous survival of indigenous people. This current book is a scathing examination of what survival means in today’s America. It opens the reader to the reality that our country had grown weak from its myths and not examining them.
I gave this book five stars for its structure and writing, for bringing a much needed examination of how America refuses to examine its sins and keeping alive the necessity of truth in history. Highly recommend.
My thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for allowing me access to this ARC.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Unflinching, much more honest than the history we and our children learned in school, this book is a fierce but not un-tender grappling with the true frontier history and injustices inflicted upon the original Americans. This is not an easy or pleasant read, but we need so many more books of this caliber to undo the mess that is our revisionist heritage. Thank you, Net Galley for this advance reader copy.
Review of advance copy received from Goodreads Giveaways
Received a copy from Goodreads giveaway.
This book is a good look into how indigenous people feel about America and what it has done in the past to make it that way.
This book is a good look into how indigenous people feel about America and what it has done in the past to make it that way.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This book covered so much that it is a bit difficult to summarize. Ultimately, I would say it is an important and powerful read.
October 6, 2026
Thank you NetGalley for providing a free Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.
The Savage Mind is an epistolary non-fiction work, written by the author to his children, in which he takes an unflinching look at the acts of violence that shaped the US frontier, and ultimately the country we know today. The book is part memoir, part history lesson, part social critique. It is a hard but necessary read. And it is written by a man whose both sides of the family experienced displacement, violence and hardship. Truer is part Jewish, part Native American. His family survived despite determined attempts to extinguish their existence and their hope. He is an unlikely survivor. One who will not let us forget what we've done and what we continue to do.
This is an important book, but I struggled with it. "The Savage Mind" flows through the same valleys of thought as Ta-Nahisi Coates' "Between the World and Me"--but for me, Treuer's book felt like a paler version of Coates' masterpiece. At times "The Savage Mind" felt rushed, at times the organization didn't seem the most logical to me, and some of the historical conclusions felt occasionally over-simplified and overstated. I understood the author's choices, but the jumps from one topic to the next didn't always make sense. Your enjoyment may depend on how familiar you already are with the topics discussed--in my case the more I knew about a topic, the more disappointed I was with the author's decisions to condense details. I'm sorry to be a slightly dissenting voice in a sea of mostly 5 stars.
The Savage Mind is an epistolary non-fiction work, written by the author to his children, in which he takes an unflinching look at the acts of violence that shaped the US frontier, and ultimately the country we know today. The book is part memoir, part history lesson, part social critique. It is a hard but necessary read. And it is written by a man whose both sides of the family experienced displacement, violence and hardship. Truer is part Jewish, part Native American. His family survived despite determined attempts to extinguish their existence and their hope. He is an unlikely survivor. One who will not let us forget what we've done and what we continue to do.
This is an important book, but I struggled with it. "The Savage Mind" flows through the same valleys of thought as Ta-Nahisi Coates' "Between the World and Me"--but for me, Treuer's book felt like a paler version of Coates' masterpiece. At times "The Savage Mind" felt rushed, at times the organization didn't seem the most logical to me, and some of the historical conclusions felt occasionally over-simplified and overstated. I understood the author's choices, but the jumps from one topic to the next didn't always make sense. Your enjoyment may depend on how familiar you already are with the topics discussed--in my case the more I knew about a topic, the more disappointed I was with the author's decisions to condense details. I'm sorry to be a slightly dissenting voice in a sea of mostly 5 stars.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This was a very powerful book! I enjoyed the letter format (writing to his children), and it reminded me of Between the World and Me. His thesis of "the Savage Mind" was quite convincing and gave me a lot to think about. The book is very serious and intense and not a light read. Despite that, it was so compelling that I read it in three days. I would recommend this book to everyone, but particularly parents.
Incidentally, I was reading The Antidote at the same time, and I found a lot of parallels: the role of violence in collective history, immigrants vs. the Native population, nature and environmental concerns, and our own role in changing violence, prejudice, and harm to the environment.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book!
Incidentally, I was reading The Antidote at the same time, and I found a lot of parallels: the role of violence in collective history, immigrants vs. the Native population, nature and environmental concerns, and our own role in changing violence, prejudice, and harm to the environment.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews