#WakarasAmerica
LightNews LightNews
lastbornpodcast.bsky.social
I was joined by @maxperrymueller.bsky.social in this sweeping interview to discuss his new book, Wakara's America: The Life and Legacy of a Native Founder of the American West. #WakarasAmerica

𝍌 www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/max...
Wakara’s America: History as a Circle; A Native Founder of the American West / Max Perry Mueller — Last Born In The Wilderness
Max Perry Mueller, professor of religious studies and author, joined me in this sweeping interview to discuss his new book, Wakara's America: The Life and Legacy of a Native Founder of the American…
www.lastborninthewilderness.com
December 1, 2025 at 6:11 PM
lastbornpodcast.bsky.social
"In some ways, I argue the most dangerous myth of Manifest Destiny is that it succeeded."

- @maxperrymueller.bsky.social / #WakarasAmerica

𝍌 www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/max...
But he was also defending Native sovereignty. So he's both this person who participates in the settler colonial enterprise very explicitly, but he is also doing so in a lot of ways to defend Native sovereignty. And so he is, I think, this pretty unique figure who exists—he's kind of fully settler and fully Native. But the point of the book is to collapse those distinctions in a lot of ways by pushing back on the narrative that both of the tropes reinforce, that Manifest Destiny succeeded. In some ways, I argue the most dangerous myth of Manifest Destiny is that it succeeded. Because that reduces Wakara and his living descendants, of whom there are many, to the past—relegating him to the past. Instead of seeing him as part of the continual process of what is the renewal, the restoration, the change, the evolution of what is America. - Max Perry Mueller
December 1, 2025 at 6:11 PM
lastbornpodcast.bsky.social
Our discussion covers the thematic sweeps of @maxperrymueller.bsky.social's rich history of the American West and one of its central and oft-forgotten founders—intersecting with indigenous ecological knowledge, settler-colonialism, and Mormonism. #WakarasAmerica

🎧 on.soundcloud.com/ZCnHYNPD4s7Y...
395 / Wakara’s America / Max Perry Mueller
Max Perry Mueller, professor of religious studies and author, joined me in this sweeping interview to discuss his new book, Wakara's America: The Life and Legacy of a Native Founder of the American We
on.soundcloud.com
December 1, 2025 at 6:11 PM