Wakara's America: A Native and American History of the West

FAIN: FZ-287303-22

Max Perry Mueller
University of Nebraska, Lincoln (Lincoln, NE 68503-2427)

Research and writing of a biography of Wakara (c. 1815-1855), famed Ute horse thief, Indian slave trader, defender of Native sovereignty, and collaborator in settlement.

In the first half of the 19th century, Wakara (often anglicized as "Walker" (c. 1815-1855)), the famed Ute horse thief, Indian slave trader, collaborator in the settlement of the west and defender of Indian sovereignty, was among the most influential and feared men in the American Southwest. Yet the history books barely mention him. Wakara's America, the first full-length biography of the controversial Ute leader, illuminates why history has forgotten Wakara and explains why it's time that history give Wakara his due. Instead of repeating Manifest Destiny's most pernicious myth—that Native peoples and lifeways were eradicated from the American landscape—telling Wakara's story, and those of his lineal and spiritual descendants, reveals the history of resilience as well as present-day vitality of Wakara's people. Doing so also blurs the long-established lines between "colonizer" and "colonized"; "Native" and "American."

Associated Products

Wakara Remains: A Native and Settler History of the American West (Book)
Title: Wakara Remains: A Native and Settler History of the American West
Author: Max Perry Mueller
Editor: Brian Distelberg
Abstract: In the 1840s-1850s, Wakara (often anglicized as “Walker” (c. 1815-1855)), the famed Ute horse thief and Indian slave trader, was among the most influential and feared men of the American West. Yet most history books barely mention him. Wakara Remains, the first, full-length biography of the controversial Ute leader, illuminates why history has purposefully forgotten Wakara, and explains why it’s time that history give Wakara his due. Wakara Remains does so by challenging Manifest Destiny’s most dangerous myth: that it succeeded in eradicating Native peoples from the American continent and culture. Instead, the book reveals how Wakara became a founding father of the American Southwest and a fierce defender of Native sovereignty. It also reveals how today, his descendants continue his legacy of Native and American nation-building, defense, resistance, and resilience. As such, telling Wakara’s (ongoing) story blurs the long-established line between colonized and colonizer; Native and American.
Year: 2025
Publisher: Basic Books
Type: Single author monograph

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