The Cost of Free Land : : Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance

Locations
Call Number: 978.3 Cl, Adult Book / Nonfiction / History / United States / Native Americans / Clarren, Rebecca, Adult Book / Nonfiction / History / United States / Native Americans / Clarren, Rebecca
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Traverwood Branch, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	978.3 Cl	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / History / United States / Native Americans / Clarren, Rebecca	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / History / United States / Native Americans / Clarren, Rebecca	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / History / United States / Native Americans / Clarren, Rebecca	4-week checkout	Due 05-16-2024
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / History / United States / Native Americans / Clarren, Rebecca	4-week checkout	Due 05-01-2024

"An award-winning author investigates the entangled history of her Jewish ancestors' land in South Dakota and the Lakota, who were forced off that land by the United States government. "A brilliantly conceived family history, one that places questions of responsibility and atonement at the center of the conversation about America's political future."--the Whiting Foundation. Growing up, Rebecca Clarren only knew the major plot points of her tenacious immigrant family's origins. Her great-great-grandparents, the Sinykins, and their six children fled antisemitism in Russia and arrived in the United States at the turn of the 20th century, ultimately settling on a 160-acre homestead in South Dakota. Over the next few decades, despite tough years on a merciless prairie and multiple setbacks, the Sinykins became an American immigrant success story. What none of Clarren's ancestors ever mentioned was that their land, the foundation for much of their wealth, had been cruelly taken from the Lakota by the United States government. By the time the Sinykins moved to South Dakota, America had broken hundreds of treaties with hundreds of Indigenous nations across the continent, and the land that had once been reserved for the seven bands of the Lakota had been diminished, splintered, and handed for free, or practically free, to white settlers. In The Cost of Free Land, Clarren melds investigative reporting with personal family history to reveal the intertwined stories of her family and the Lakota, and the devastating cycle of loss of Indigenous land, culture, and resources that continues today. With deep empathy and clarity of purpose, Clarren grapples with the personal and national consequences of this legacy of violence and dispossession. What does it mean to survive oppression only to perpetuate and benefit from the oppression of others? By shining a light on the people and families tangled up in this country's difficult history, The Cost of Free Land invites readers to consider their own culpability and what, now, can be done"-- Provided by publisher.

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A different take submitted by Sophie on January 8, 2024, 4:19pm Rebecca Clarren shows great empathy, both for her own forebears who fled Europe in the face of pogroms and traumas, but also for the many other families who were impacted by her own family's history. We're beginning to hear some voices speak of the way our present day patterns of wealth and ownership spring from the American legacy of slavery, but what happened to Native Americans, or American Indians, tends to have been pushed quietly under the rug.

The pretence that it's all past history can no longer be sustained, and Clarren shows humility and perseverence in speaking to Lakota people about their view from the other side, and how their histories are interwoven. This book is a fascinating search over many years into what our shared and divided past means for people living today.