The Cost of Free Land

As we approach the complexities of the American Thanksgiving holiday, TCC presents a Shabbat cultural program to ponder and reflect on the many issues explored in The Cost of Free Land.

Award-winning author Rebecca Clarren investigates the entangled history of her Jewish family’s homestead in South Dakota, and the Lakota, who were forced off that land by the United States government. Her book has garnered great acclaim — named a Best Book of 2023 by Kirkus Reviews, and noted by The Forward, The Christian Science Monitor and The Tribal College Journal. MOMENT, the Jewish affairs magazine, had a feature piece on Ms. Clarren’s family in the November/December 2023 issue. In The Cost of Free Land, Clarren blends forgotten historical elements 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.

Rebecca Clarren has been writing about the American West for twenty-five years. Her journalism, for which she has won the Hillman Prize and ten grants from the Fund for Investigative Journalism, has appeared in such publications as High Country News, The Nation, and Indian Country Today. Her debut novel, Kickdown (Sky Horse Press, 2018), was shortlisted for the PEN/Bellwether Prize. She lives in Portland with her husband and two children.

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