It's perhaps the easiest problem in America to ignore: the grinding poverty and dysfunction of Indian reservations--and Naomi Schaefer Riley gives it every bit of her attention in The New Trail of Tears: How Washington Is Destroying American Indians.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Riley explains how the federal government makes life worse for these citizens, why property rights and better schools are part of the solution, and what 21st-century Americans owe to a group of people that Washington has abused for a long time.