Much of Treuer’s motivation in writing Rez Life was to dispel stereotypes about life on the reservation. The conventional view is that reservations are often poor, blighted by broken families and alcoholism, and are generally places in which surviving Indigenous people welter in despair. While poverty, addiction, and crime are realities on reservations, as they are in other sectors of society and among every race, this is not the only story. Some nations, like the Mdewakanton Dakota, are extraordinarily wealthy. Others, such as the Ojibwe, are thriving despite their problems. Treuer illustrates how reservations are microcosms of American life. The problems that exist on reservations are reflections of the nation and its history.

Treuer’s use of reportage helps to personalize life on reservations. Through the eyes of Sean Fahrlander, Dustin Burnette, Brooke Mosay Ammann, Officer Charley Grolla, and his mother Judge Margaret Seelye Treuer, Treuer explores the diverse nature of reservation life. Through Officer Grolla, Fahrlander and Burnette, Treuer depicts how cultural and land preservation are key to perpetuating tribal life for future generations. The difficulties of young people like Burnette are inextricable from a legacy of disenfranchisement and the internalization of racism, which Fahrlander, as a mentor, worked to undo in Burnette.