A new book by Nebraska's Max Perry Mueller tells the tale of a powerful and feared figure from the 19th-century American West.
In “Wakara’s America: The Life and Legacy of a Native Founder of the American West,” Mueller, associate professor in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies, recounts the story of notorious Native American leader Wakara. Wakara, a trader of Indian slaves and horse thief, was also a baptized a Mormon and allied with Mormon settlers to seize land in modern-day Utah and California. Yet a pan-tribal uprising against the Mormons that now bears Wakara’s name stalled and even temporarily reversed colonial expansion.
In a starred review, Publishers Weekly described the book as “gripping... an eye-opening and layered new vision of the American West.”
Mueller will appear at an event at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 13 at Francie and Finch Bookshop, 130 S. 16th St. where he will discuss his new book with Gabriel Bruguier, assistant professor and teaching and learning librarian at the University Libraries and enrolled member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe.
Mueller earned funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2022 to complete the project.
Mueller is also a fellow at the Center for Great Plains Studies and teaches in the Department of History, Ethnic Studies, and the Global Studies program. Mueller’s work centers on race and religion in American history.
