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The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance
"Sharply insightful . . . A monumental piece of work." — The Boston Globe
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
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.
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
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.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published October 3, 2023
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October 28, 2023
5***
This book is intensely convicting because it describes in full horrific detail the oppression and destruction of the Indigenous peoples here in America, all in the name of Manifest Destiny. Before we point the finger of injustice at foreign lands while sitting on our veritable high horse, we ought to look to our own and see the plank of oppression that we used as an instrument to beat others into submission.
Yet what sets this book apart is its unique perspective from that of persecuted European Jews who were escaping Russian pogroms into the American land of the free and home of the brave. They emigrated to the United States in hopes of a better life - well, just to be able to live - and were given, according to the U.S. government, wide swaths of lands throughout the Plains. Unbeknownst to them, this was the land cruelly and illegally confiscated from the Indigenous people, and it was on this land that they built successful generations of industry amidst wars and Prohibition.
The author, who traces her lineage back to these persecuted Jewish ancestors, discovers that their high tales of survival, grit, and perseverance were unwittingly built on the backs of the persecuted Indigenous tribes, and she she writes this as a form of reparation for the guilt and responsibility that her forebears owe because she knows that an apology from them or the government will never be forthcoming. Restitution in the form of land swaps or equivalent compensation, clearly enunciated in the Torah for the purposes of making right an injustice, will likely never happen due to capitalist greed and simply because the tangled web of ownership is entirely too complicated at this point to unravel. To the Natives, money is not nor ever will be the point, but rather their sacred land, which they believe is not to be owned but rather shared (a concept Americans cannot seem to grasp because ownership is in their DNA), should be fully restored.
I was thoroughly fascinated and equally appalled with this meticulously researched book, though I admit I became a bit weary of the constant references to dates, documents, legal battles, government edicts, and the unrelenting hammering of persecution and injustice. For those historians and readers who are hungry for explicit, corroborative evidence, you will be thoroughly satisfied. Yet, I suppose that my drained conscience is minuscule compared to those who suffered and continue to suffer. And, well, that is exactly the point. This book is important. The history is important. Knowledge of how we came to own this land is crucial. For your sake, and more importantly for their sakes, invest some of your time to read this, allowing the pendulum of perspective to swing towards those who deserve our empathy and compassion instead of derision and marginalization.
This book is intensely convicting because it describes in full horrific detail the oppression and destruction of the Indigenous peoples here in America, all in the name of Manifest Destiny. Before we point the finger of injustice at foreign lands while sitting on our veritable high horse, we ought to look to our own and see the plank of oppression that we used as an instrument to beat others into submission.
Yet what sets this book apart is its unique perspective from that of persecuted European Jews who were escaping Russian pogroms into the American land of the free and home of the brave. They emigrated to the United States in hopes of a better life - well, just to be able to live - and were given, according to the U.S. government, wide swaths of lands throughout the Plains. Unbeknownst to them, this was the land cruelly and illegally confiscated from the Indigenous people, and it was on this land that they built successful generations of industry amidst wars and Prohibition.
The author, who traces her lineage back to these persecuted Jewish ancestors, discovers that their high tales of survival, grit, and perseverance were unwittingly built on the backs of the persecuted Indigenous tribes, and she she writes this as a form of reparation for the guilt and responsibility that her forebears owe because she knows that an apology from them or the government will never be forthcoming. Restitution in the form of land swaps or equivalent compensation, clearly enunciated in the Torah for the purposes of making right an injustice, will likely never happen due to capitalist greed and simply because the tangled web of ownership is entirely too complicated at this point to unravel. To the Natives, money is not nor ever will be the point, but rather their sacred land, which they believe is not to be owned but rather shared (a concept Americans cannot seem to grasp because ownership is in their DNA), should be fully restored.
I was thoroughly fascinated and equally appalled with this meticulously researched book, though I admit I became a bit weary of the constant references to dates, documents, legal battles, government edicts, and the unrelenting hammering of persecution and injustice. For those historians and readers who are hungry for explicit, corroborative evidence, you will be thoroughly satisfied. Yet, I suppose that my drained conscience is minuscule compared to those who suffered and continue to suffer. And, well, that is exactly the point. This book is important. The history is important. Knowledge of how we came to own this land is crucial. For your sake, and more importantly for their sakes, invest some of your time to read this, allowing the pendulum of perspective to swing towards those who deserve our empathy and compassion instead of derision and marginalization.
June 5, 2024
Brava, Rebecca Clarren. This history of Jews landing in South Dakota after fleeing pogroms in the Pale (the only region the Russian Empire allowed them to live—where every day was the equivalent of October 7th as Cossacks butchered, burned, and raped whole villages), is thorough and necessary history of both the exiled Jews and the Lakota whose land was stolen and offered as “free land” to settlers who would work on it.
For me the book was almost too personal to review, since my ancestral story parallels Clarren’s—from the shtetls to Oklahoma. It informed my understanding of my own family, and for that I am inexpressibly grateful.
But, beyond my personal experience, this is a necessary book of American history; it’s what’s been erased. And until we know and feel it, there will be no lasting peace. South Dakota has recently outlawed critical race theory study and Governor Kristi Noem “cut more than half of all references to Indigenous Nations and citizens from history textbooks and curricula in her state, saying she wants to give students ‘a patriotic education.’ (222)”
By the end of the book, when I was drowning in hopelessness, Clarren offered clarity:
I’m so grateful for this book—for knowledge and personal repair. (Thanks to Jan Priddy for for reviewing it.)
# # #
6/5/24 Update
After reading The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance by Rebecca Clarren, I donated to the Indian Land Tenure Foundation, and yesterday I got my donation acknowledgement letter. In it, Cris Stainbrook, President of the foundation, quotes Brook Jarvis’s New Yorker article “Who Speaks for Crazy Horse” about “the unfortunate recurring history and contradictions reflected in the landscape of today’s Black Hills in South Dakota:
For me the book was almost too personal to review, since my ancestral story parallels Clarren’s—from the shtetls to Oklahoma. It informed my understanding of my own family, and for that I am inexpressibly grateful.
But, beyond my personal experience, this is a necessary book of American history; it’s what’s been erased. And until we know and feel it, there will be no lasting peace. South Dakota has recently outlawed critical race theory study and Governor Kristi Noem “cut more than half of all references to Indigenous Nations and citizens from history textbooks and curricula in her state, saying she wants to give students ‘a patriotic education.’ (222)”
By the end of the book, when I was drowning in hopelessness, Clarren offered clarity:
When Native and non-Native people talk together about their shared history of trauma and loss, they build common ground says Faith Spotted Eagle, a politician, activist, and Ihanktonwan elder from the Yankton Sioux Tribe. “The Native people’s objective is to heal. The non-Native’s objective is to come out of denial.” What she calls “freedom from denial” is much more powerful than guilt, she says, and allows non-Indigenous people to step toward repair. (228)
I’m so grateful for this book—for knowledge and personal repair. (Thanks to Jan Priddy for for reviewing it.)
# # #
6/5/24 Update
After reading The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance by Rebecca Clarren, I donated to the Indian Land Tenure Foundation, and yesterday I got my donation acknowledgement letter. In it, Cris Stainbrook, President of the foundation, quotes Brook Jarvis’s New Yorker article “Who Speaks for Crazy Horse” about “the unfortunate recurring history and contradictions reflected in the landscape of today’s Black Hills in South Dakota:
“So much of the American story—as it actually happened, but also as it is told, and altered, and forgotten, and, eventually repeated—feels squeezed into the vast contradiction that is the modern Black Hills. Here, sites of theft and genocide have become monuments to patriotism, a symbol of resistance has become a source of revenue, and old stories of broken promises and appropriation recur. A complicated history becomes a cheery tourist attraction. The fact of the past comes to look like the faces of those who memorialize it.”
December 20, 2023
This book is the product of an interesting combination: Rebecca Clarren is a journalist who has written extensively on Native American issues, and she is Jewish with ancestors who settled a homestead in SD. At some point in her career she connected that what her ancestors had settled involved the unsettling of the Lakota. She set out to review family stories with this in mind. She notes the need to hear what is said and what is not said. And to ask, Why the silence?
She juxtaposes her personal search with Lakota history; she starts with Russian pogroms in the late 1800s that prompted her ancestors' leaving. She also explores negative experiences her ancestors had in the US. She points out the parallel between the pogroms and the US treatment of Native Americans. Some of her expositions involve direct overlap, some less direct. A lot of the organization of the book explores parallel histories: while x was happening in my family, y was happening to Native Americans. Others explorations are more direct, like her explaining the Allotment Act that released "surplus" land that could be sold to settlers at the time her ancestors were taking the government up on a homestead.
This is not an excessive expression of guilt, but a realistic assessment. Nor do the settlers end up being bad guys. Clarren presents main characters in each group with compassion, and they are likeable. One exception would be the government agents who have participated in corruption. Clarren is influenced by conversations with Native Americans who emphasize healing. One such is Faith Spotted Eagle, quoted as saying, "'The Native people's objective is to heal. The non-Native's is to come out of denial.'" She elaborates on "come out of denial," explaining that it is "more powerful than guilt . . . [it] allows non-Indigenous people to step toward repair"(228). Another is Yurok Judge Abby who urges Clarren to go to her own Jewish traditions of healing. Thus Clarren spends time with a Rabbi in study of Jewish teachings on making amends after a wrong, whether one was participant or merely has been a recipient of benefits.
This is a valuable book for people interested in Native American history, in Jewish immigrant experience, in restorative justice, or who simply like reading a well written memoir.
She juxtaposes her personal search with Lakota history; she starts with Russian pogroms in the late 1800s that prompted her ancestors' leaving. She also explores negative experiences her ancestors had in the US. She points out the parallel between the pogroms and the US treatment of Native Americans. Some of her expositions involve direct overlap, some less direct. A lot of the organization of the book explores parallel histories: while x was happening in my family, y was happening to Native Americans. Others explorations are more direct, like her explaining the Allotment Act that released "surplus" land that could be sold to settlers at the time her ancestors were taking the government up on a homestead.
This is not an excessive expression of guilt, but a realistic assessment. Nor do the settlers end up being bad guys. Clarren presents main characters in each group with compassion, and they are likeable. One exception would be the government agents who have participated in corruption. Clarren is influenced by conversations with Native Americans who emphasize healing. One such is Faith Spotted Eagle, quoted as saying, "'The Native people's objective is to heal. The non-Native's is to come out of denial.'" She elaborates on "come out of denial," explaining that it is "more powerful than guilt . . . [it] allows non-Indigenous people to step toward repair"(228). Another is Yurok Judge Abby who urges Clarren to go to her own Jewish traditions of healing. Thus Clarren spends time with a Rabbi in study of Jewish teachings on making amends after a wrong, whether one was participant or merely has been a recipient of benefits.
This is a valuable book for people interested in Native American history, in Jewish immigrant experience, in restorative justice, or who simply like reading a well written memoir.
May 1, 2023
(Note: I received an advanced reader copy of this work courtesy of NetGalley)
Rebecca Clarren is admirably honest and straightforward as she examines the various ways in which her immigrant ancestors, who were direct victims of anti-semitic violence, trauma and repression back in Russia, were able to elevate themselves and benefit from broken treaties and government policies that traumatized, oppressed and robbed the Lakota people and the other indigenous nations of the United States. She is also fantastically thorough as she details said broken treaties policies, and provides a very welcome education. I thought that I had been doing a decent job personally filling in some of the large gaps that my school history classes completely failed me on in regards to the treatment of Native Americans (thanks to books like Pekka Hämäläinen’s Indigenous Continent, Thomas King’s An Inconvenient Indian, and David Treuer’s The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee, to name a few recommended titles). But as I now see, the extent to which the US government has unjustly treated its native peoples continues to go horribly further and further than I thought I knew, and I appreciate Clarren for helping to expand my still-growing knowledge on the matter.
Also very much appreciated is the way in which she in turn has gotten me, someone whose varied ancestors all originate from Europe, to start some personal reflection of my own and begin to examine some aspects of my own life in a much more different light. And I’ll be honest, I haven’t had to go very far back to find something problematic - in hindsight, my time in the Boy Scouts was packed with quite a lot of appropriation. Hopefully, The Cost of Free Land will get others to do some hard thinking and maybe get involved in the restorative justice process, but at least for now she’s officially gotten one other person to begin viewing the past in a new lens.
This is definitely a strong recommendation, and and this is also most definitely a title I’d like to see in both the academic library I work in and the shelves of my public library.
(And for anyone who would like a book in a similar vein to pair along with this - I wholeheartedly suggest Patty Krawec’s’s Becoming Kin).
Rebecca Clarren is admirably honest and straightforward as she examines the various ways in which her immigrant ancestors, who were direct victims of anti-semitic violence, trauma and repression back in Russia, were able to elevate themselves and benefit from broken treaties and government policies that traumatized, oppressed and robbed the Lakota people and the other indigenous nations of the United States. She is also fantastically thorough as she details said broken treaties policies, and provides a very welcome education. I thought that I had been doing a decent job personally filling in some of the large gaps that my school history classes completely failed me on in regards to the treatment of Native Americans (thanks to books like Pekka Hämäläinen’s Indigenous Continent, Thomas King’s An Inconvenient Indian, and David Treuer’s The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee, to name a few recommended titles). But as I now see, the extent to which the US government has unjustly treated its native peoples continues to go horribly further and further than I thought I knew, and I appreciate Clarren for helping to expand my still-growing knowledge on the matter.
Also very much appreciated is the way in which she in turn has gotten me, someone whose varied ancestors all originate from Europe, to start some personal reflection of my own and begin to examine some aspects of my own life in a much more different light. And I’ll be honest, I haven’t had to go very far back to find something problematic - in hindsight, my time in the Boy Scouts was packed with quite a lot of appropriation. Hopefully, The Cost of Free Land will get others to do some hard thinking and maybe get involved in the restorative justice process, but at least for now she’s officially gotten one other person to begin viewing the past in a new lens.
This is definitely a strong recommendation, and and this is also most definitely a title I’d like to see in both the academic library I work in and the shelves of my public library.
(And for anyone who would like a book in a similar vein to pair along with this - I wholeheartedly suggest Patty Krawec’s’s Becoming Kin).
June 2, 2024
This will be book of the year. This stunning work of nonfiction belongs in the curriculum of schools, not only because it balances the myths of the West that Americans are too fond of, but because the author details how things might be made better:
This is the story of Jews escaping the pogrom and of the Lakota Americans who are trapped by greed, racism, misogyny, and cultural indifference. One will thrive, and the other will struggle to remain alive. It is a story about accepting responsibility. [note: The book was written over many years and published in 2023, but parallels with what is happening in the Middle East as I write this will not escape anyone's notice.]
I heard Rebecca Clarion read from this account—brilliant and rare to find history I know absolutely nothing about: Jews homesteading in the Dakotas (new to me), the loss of Indigenous rights (known), and a woman willing to undertake both understanding and atonement. Her acceptance that "before you can fix anything, you must tell the truth, not just to God, but out loud to the entire community" (8).
The book reveals concurrent stories of Clarren's family's escape from Russian persecution in the Pale and successes in the United States, and the cultural and literal genocide of the White Bull family, their cultural loss of what becomes South Dakota, by the U.S. government. She honors both those who came to America desperate for opportunity and those who lost nearly everything—language, culture, home, land, and life—in order for that opportunity to be possible.
She begins and continues her story by clarifying her personal responsibility as a descendent of homesteaders and a Jew in conversation with Judge Abby who shares her values: "Our ancestors worked much harder than we do on values, and those values weren't grounded in greed."
Many years ago, a student read Vine Deloria's book for an independent reading project in my class. She was furious to learn what had been done to Native peoples. This is the follow-up I wish I could offer her today. No less damning, it offers more. Clarren is a journalist, and this shows in the clarity of her reporting, but what also shows is the meticulous research and detailed back matter of a historian, the honor and honesty of an ethical being, and the grace on the page of a literary novelist. The last time I was so deeply moved by nonfiction was Mountains Beyond Mountains, which I taught. If I were teaching, this would be included in the curriculum.
The truth of history should not be suppressed because those in power find it embarrassing.
I find it interesting that this book is what the film version of Caste aspires to be—a detailed history intertwined with a personal story of discovery. In Clarren's case, however, instead of writing purely as outraged victim, there is a sense of personal responsibility and atonement that is entirely missing from Wilkerson's work, which I was reading at the same time.
"If you believe breaking is possible, believe fixing is possible."—Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav
This is the story of Jews escaping the pogrom and of the Lakota Americans who are trapped by greed, racism, misogyny, and cultural indifference. One will thrive, and the other will struggle to remain alive. It is a story about accepting responsibility. [note: The book was written over many years and published in 2023, but parallels with what is happening in the Middle East as I write this will not escape anyone's notice.]
I heard Rebecca Clarion read from this account—brilliant and rare to find history I know absolutely nothing about: Jews homesteading in the Dakotas (new to me), the loss of Indigenous rights (known), and a woman willing to undertake both understanding and atonement. Her acceptance that "before you can fix anything, you must tell the truth, not just to God, but out loud to the entire community" (8).
The book reveals concurrent stories of Clarren's family's escape from Russian persecution in the Pale and successes in the United States, and the cultural and literal genocide of the White Bull family, their cultural loss of what becomes South Dakota, by the U.S. government. She honors both those who came to America desperate for opportunity and those who lost nearly everything—language, culture, home, land, and life—in order for that opportunity to be possible.
She begins and continues her story by clarifying her personal responsibility as a descendent of homesteaders and a Jew in conversation with Judge Abby who shares her values: "Our ancestors worked much harder than we do on values, and those values weren't grounded in greed."
Many years ago, a student read Vine Deloria's book for an independent reading project in my class. She was furious to learn what had been done to Native peoples. This is the follow-up I wish I could offer her today. No less damning, it offers more. Clarren is a journalist, and this shows in the clarity of her reporting, but what also shows is the meticulous research and detailed back matter of a historian, the honor and honesty of an ethical being, and the grace on the page of a literary novelist. The last time I was so deeply moved by nonfiction was Mountains Beyond Mountains, which I taught. If I were teaching, this would be included in the curriculum.
The truth of history should not be suppressed because those in power find it embarrassing.
I find it interesting that this book is what the film version of Caste aspires to be—a detailed history intertwined with a personal story of discovery. In Clarren's case, however, instead of writing purely as outraged victim, there is a sense of personal responsibility and atonement that is entirely missing from Wilkerson's work, which I was reading at the same time.
July 27, 2024
Reading this book hand in hand with Audrea Lim’s FREE THE LAND was truly an eye opener about US land policies that are never taught in schools.
August 10, 2024
Wow. Such a good book. Learned a lot and thought the author had a unique perspective / insight from her Jewish identity in the atrocities every non Native American has benefited from
October 14, 2023
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC: This book is critically important and should be adopted into all history curriculums. I considered myself informed about immigration of the Jews of the Settlement of Pale and knew nothing about South Dakota homesteading and Jew Flats. I also had no idea of the many ways that the Lakota people have been cheated of their land and heritage. It's written as an exploration of the author's family history and a concurrent history of the Lakota people. I found myself hoping that true reparations had been made. The author's framework of reparations based on Maimonides teaching works so well for so many systemic wrongs that have been perpetuated. Also disturbing is the lack of reparations from more recent administrations--to the Lakota people. Two minority, low caste people who inadvertently perpetuated injustice. The author offers extensive resources and this book is meticulously researched. A very important book--if the actual history isn't taught/presented as in this excellent book, it can't be known or understood and restorative justice won't be implemented.
December 29, 2023
Unforgettable and invaluable account of the way those pushed to the margins can be pitted against each other to maintain systems of power and oppression. Clarren does such a good job of centering the humanity of the Lakota people, robbed of their land and culture, and the Jewish immigrants who were “given” the land (and the very livelihoods stolen from the Lakota) who fled to the U.S. for a better life. Honestly this should be required reading. I will be thinking about this book for years to come.
August 8, 2024
An extremely well researched and equally well narrated account of family history wedded to national history, The Cost of Stolen Land has immediately moved up to my go-to recommendation list.
I feel immensely grateful that this document exists. So many of us in the US receive (as the book acknowledges) piecemeal, incomplete, and inaccurate history of the Indigenous peoples of this land. It is books like this one that fill this notable and horrid lacuna in our social and political educations. So many of us Jewish people in this country view ourselves only as victims of theft and genocide without understanding that victimization is not a nametag or shipping label, and that it is not only possible but common to suffer *and* perpetrate and benefit from harm that has been systematized.
Clarren writes with pathos and empathy, with well informed approach to both Jewish and (I’m hoping) Native culture.
In other words this book helps people learn the way Antisemitism and racism against Native people are linked and have been linked by dominant systems of racial capitalism and the organization and machinery of the settler state.
My only gripes are 1) possible perpetuation of the “wise old quiet Indian” trope. Unclear to me if this is something I saw in this book as it is a stereotype I grew up with in the media or if it’s something others viewed here too. And 2) the tiniest mention of Israel, twice. For a book whose main audience is Jewish Americans, I’d hoped Clarren would be more specific and explicit about the similar dispossession of Palestinian land and, given her professional background and how much do the book speaks of Dakota oil, the importance of Palestinian self-determination AS Indigenous sovereignty and as such crucial to mitigating and exiting the climate and extinction crisis
I feel immensely grateful that this document exists. So many of us in the US receive (as the book acknowledges) piecemeal, incomplete, and inaccurate history of the Indigenous peoples of this land. It is books like this one that fill this notable and horrid lacuna in our social and political educations. So many of us Jewish people in this country view ourselves only as victims of theft and genocide without understanding that victimization is not a nametag or shipping label, and that it is not only possible but common to suffer *and* perpetrate and benefit from harm that has been systematized.
Clarren writes with pathos and empathy, with well informed approach to both Jewish and (I’m hoping) Native culture.
In other words this book helps people learn the way Antisemitism and racism against Native people are linked and have been linked by dominant systems of racial capitalism and the organization and machinery of the settler state.
My only gripes are 1) possible perpetuation of the “wise old quiet Indian” trope. Unclear to me if this is something I saw in this book as it is a stereotype I grew up with in the media or if it’s something others viewed here too. And 2) the tiniest mention of Israel, twice. For a book whose main audience is Jewish Americans, I’d hoped Clarren would be more specific and explicit about the similar dispossession of Palestinian land and, given her professional background and how much do the book speaks of Dakota oil, the importance of Palestinian self-determination AS Indigenous sovereignty and as such crucial to mitigating and exiting the climate and extinction crisis
December 27, 2023
Truly, a must-read for all Jewish Americans - the beginning of understanding and empathizing with how much is shared between these two peoples.
June 4, 2024
The Cost of Free Land is an account of learning uncomfortable truths about your family history and how to re-configure your personal mythology while adjusting your posture towards your home, world, and your neighbor. Clarren is a professional journalist and it comes through in how she is able to weave back and forth between the history of her family (Jewish homesteaders who fled persecution in Russia) and the US's treatment of the Lakota and their land with as much thematic parallel and narrative punch as the best of any grand political multi-POV fantasy novel.
A gripping read and an instructive example of starting the difficult work of harm that benefits you on a scale too large for individual compensation.
A gripping read and an instructive example of starting the difficult work of harm that benefits you on a scale too large for individual compensation.
December 26, 2023
It is a continual process of understanding American history as it really happened instead of how we were taught (or rather, what we were not taught at all). This book adds such depth to a complicated story of people oppressed becoming oppressors, their oppression manifest as silence, generational legacy/profit, and trying to move away from their own marginalization. The US government never ceases to fail in using minority groups against one another and to uphold white supremacy. It is sickening and disheartening to read the statistics, to understand the life experiences, and recognize that Indigenous people in the US have, and continue to be, completely robbed of their livelihood in this country. What the author does uniquely in this book is take individual responsibility to show those truths, begin the process of healing, learn how to stop afflicting harm, and make amends both verbally and financially. It got me really thinking about how I could do the same, whether that is through work, activism, financial means, or person to person. I started today by making a donation to the Indian Land Tenure Foundation per the authors offered recommendation to restore native lands to indigenous people. This is just a small step, but a necessary one. I hope one others will do the same.
November 26, 2023
Excellent journalistic journey into the author's family history and its relationship to the US's treatment of Native Americans. Journalistic in that it is filled with facts and history, and well told. I was not at all familiar with the history of Jews in the US trying to farm and ranch in South Dakota as one of their few options to survive, let alone running the best bar in the Black Hills. While I was quite aware of the treatment of Native Americans generally, the author dives deeply into how land practices decimated a people and their culture. Hard to ignore the potential parallels with Israel and the Palestinians, which the author at one point makes explicit. The discussion of healing and reconciliation at the end seems right on point.
December 18, 2023
Staggering. A hard read but excellent reporting.
August 13, 2024
The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance compares the persecution of Jews and Native Americans, but also elaborates on how Jewish people who came here to escape persecution have benefited from the persecution of Native Americans. She delves deeply into all the nooks and crannies of her family history, but also creates the timeline of indigenous history during this period from her research.
This book is not just an expression of irreparable guilt. Instead, Clarren gives concrete action of what non-indigenous people can do to help Native Americans and repair a major wrong in our history. As a Jew, I personally enjoy how Clarren shared how she and her Rabbi delved into Jewish text to figure out how their people right a wrong, especially one that was committed indirectly.
Now, the only reason this is not a five-star review from me is Clarren’s failure to at least halfway talk about Israel in a constructive manner. In a book that focuses on land back movements, the founding of the modern state of Israel is the biggest example of decolonization. The state of Israel has saved millions of Jewish lives - and in a post October 7 world, my non-Jewish friends ask me “well, why didn’t the Jews just buy land in America?” Well, because that would be colonialism. The only place the Jewish state could exist is the indigenous, ancestral land without it being colonialism.
Of course, there are more complexities to that. Like how the Israeli day of independence is a day of mourning for Palestinians - and crazy settlers in the West Bank who believe in a proto-type of Judaism that the VAST number of Jews dint support. And, of course, the ongoing Israel-Hamas War. I acknowledge that this book is not about these things. But when Clarren's only mention of Israel is when she mentions German teenagers comparing Israelis to Nazis, and she leaves this undisputed without any follow up explanation - it's journalistically irresponsible and feeds into misconceptions of Jewish people. I am disappointed. this book has a whole missing piece.
This book is not just an expression of irreparable guilt. Instead, Clarren gives concrete action of what non-indigenous people can do to help Native Americans and repair a major wrong in our history. As a Jew, I personally enjoy how Clarren shared how she and her Rabbi delved into Jewish text to figure out how their people right a wrong, especially one that was committed indirectly.
Now, the only reason this is not a five-star review from me is Clarren’s failure to at least halfway talk about Israel in a constructive manner. In a book that focuses on land back movements, the founding of the modern state of Israel is the biggest example of decolonization. The state of Israel has saved millions of Jewish lives - and in a post October 7 world, my non-Jewish friends ask me “well, why didn’t the Jews just buy land in America?” Well, because that would be colonialism. The only place the Jewish state could exist is the indigenous, ancestral land without it being colonialism.
Of course, there are more complexities to that. Like how the Israeli day of independence is a day of mourning for Palestinians - and crazy settlers in the West Bank who believe in a proto-type of Judaism that the VAST number of Jews dint support. And, of course, the ongoing Israel-Hamas War. I acknowledge that this book is not about these things. But when Clarren's only mention of Israel is when she mentions German teenagers comparing Israelis to Nazis, and she leaves this undisputed without any follow up explanation - it's journalistically irresponsible and feeds into misconceptions of Jewish people. I am disappointed. this book has a whole missing piece.
May 29, 2024
This is a searing book made up of three interconnected strands: 1) the dispossession of the Lakota, 2) the Jewish immigrants who settled on the "free land" that had recently been stolen from the Lakota, and 3) the author learning about the history of her immigrant family and the "free land" they claimed. Clarren draws upon extensive family records and memories, as well as Lakota elders, records, and memories. Her call to reckon with the past and with the ongoing legacy of that past, and not to just sweep it under the rug and forget (as much of the US seems determined to do!), is a strong and powerful one.
I really appreciate how insistent Clarren was about including Lakota voices as much as possible. I would very much be interested in a Lakota-authored book as well.
I wish more books like this one were included in school curriculum. We need more reckoning with our past, and less collective denial. Across the board!! Sanitizing history into a flat, whitewashed, heroic "America First" narrative is so wrong on so many levels and does our country and our children a deep moral disservice.
And it goes without saying that moral reckoning should be combined with economic reckoning and action. It is deeply deeply shameful and wrong that we have not addressed this already.
I really appreciate how insistent Clarren was about including Lakota voices as much as possible. I would very much be interested in a Lakota-authored book as well.
I wish more books like this one were included in school curriculum. We need more reckoning with our past, and less collective denial. Across the board!! Sanitizing history into a flat, whitewashed, heroic "America First" narrative is so wrong on so many levels and does our country and our children a deep moral disservice.
And it goes without saying that moral reckoning should be combined with economic reckoning and action. It is deeply deeply shameful and wrong that we have not addressed this already.
January 1, 2024
I can’t stop thinking about this book. I have spent my academic and professional life immersed in American history and yet I knew very little about much of the history presented here about Native Americans, Jewish immigrants, and settlement of South Dakota. From the jumping off point of her own family history, Clarren carefully contextualizes their experience with concise, but extensively documented, explanations of the greater policies and forces at play. Her exploration of how her family benefited from federal US policies while the indigenous peoples who had called the Dakotas home for thousands of years were systematically stripped of their autonomy and culture is clear-eyed and fascinating in its examination of the intersectionality of oppression and how that played out the American landscape . I was also interested in how Clarren applied Jewish teachings on forgiveness and atonement to what she learned. Reading this book makes me want to further research both my own family’s history of immigration to the upper Midwest and the original peoples of the land I now call home.
I am grateful to my friend Darcey Bennett for selecting this book for our Smith College Class of 1997 Washington DC area book club. She chose it because Clarren was one of our classmates, and while I don’t believe our paths crossed at Smith, I am unsurprised that such a powerful, well-written book was authored by a Smithie. Bravo!
I am grateful to my friend Darcey Bennett for selecting this book for our Smith College Class of 1997 Washington DC area book club. She chose it because Clarren was one of our classmates, and while I don’t believe our paths crossed at Smith, I am unsurprised that such a powerful, well-written book was authored by a Smithie. Bravo!
April 15, 2024
A unique lens on histories that have been told before, Rebecca Clarren marries the history of Jewish immigrants in America to the cruelty and extermination inflicted upon the native people of this country.
A journalist by trade, Clarren began to wonder after the stories surrounding her family's success in the United States. They were given land, essentially for free, when they immigrated to the American west. How, exactly, did they get this land? What were the conditions? Which portions of our oral history or true, and which have been exaggerated. And, most important of all, from whom was our land taken?
The respective stories of Jewish and Native persecution have been told before, and have been told better. That said, The Cost of Free Land is a special addition to the canon. It speaks to the salvation of one resulting in the oppression of another. It speaks to how folks rarely question the things they are given when they are need. It stares our lack of reflection dead in the eye, and warns us to not be complacent in our curiosity and our penitence.
A journalist by trade, Clarren began to wonder after the stories surrounding her family's success in the United States. They were given land, essentially for free, when they immigrated to the American west. How, exactly, did they get this land? What were the conditions? Which portions of our oral history or true, and which have been exaggerated. And, most important of all, from whom was our land taken?
The respective stories of Jewish and Native persecution have been told before, and have been told better. That said, The Cost of Free Land is a special addition to the canon. It speaks to the salvation of one resulting in the oppression of another. It speaks to how folks rarely question the things they are given when they are need. It stares our lack of reflection dead in the eye, and warns us to not be complacent in our curiosity and our penitence.
August 18, 2024
Read for OSC book club 2024. Borrowed from MCL. I think the author did an excellent job presenting all the material, and if she were my personal friend I would rate her book 10/10. There were some slower areas where I chose my romance read instead, but I am so glad I read this. I learned so much about early Jewish settlers in the United States and much more detail than I’ve ever understood about indigenous displacement. I want to find more native authors to learn from but I do think Clarren did a wonderful job finding a way to tell this story from her lens without appropriating.
August 6, 2024
Really great and def required reading for American Jews. Also a lovely discussion of what could be considered a modern day Jewish Bundism and focus on the value of Jewish diaspora while acknowledging how that impacts understandings of indigenaity. One critique is I though there could have been a little more discussion of Israeli occupation in Palestine, there was discussion in the epilogue but I thought it could have been more of a through line.
September 4, 2024
I highly recommend this book. While digging into her own history, the author discovered the connections between her Jewish ancestors and the Lakota people. She does a thorough job of investigating and uncovers a story that has affected each of us. She shares personal stories of the people involved at the time to life and explains the events on the state and federal levels that led to the outcomes we see today. She challenges the reader not only to think, but to act, and she describes specific ways we can do that.
January 22, 2024
This book answered a lot of questions I have about ancestral harm. How do those people who descend from immigrants make reparations for harm they did not cause but that they benefit from? I love the way the author looked to her heritage for the answers. This is something I will be giving more thought and attention to in my personal life.
October 24, 2023
This book is beautiful and deep, a complicated look at the author’s personal history. If you listen to the audio make sure to look up the photos as well- whole thing was well done.
January 15, 2024
Great book that shares important Lakota history and also American Jewish history. I learned a lot and appreciated the author’s perspective.
January 15, 2024
This book should be required reading for all non-Indigenous Americans. So well written, researched, and constructed… and so utterly devastating. Page after page, chapter after chapter, Clarren guides her readers through the long and shocking history of abominations inflicted on Indigenous nations by the US government. She cleverly weaves in the complicated story of her own Jewish family from the time they fled persecution in Russia and were incented to homestead so-called “free” land in South Dakota. A compelling reflection on inheritance, reparation, and grappling with the legacy of our ancestors. Highly recommend!
February 26, 2024
I started this entire book in the airport while my flight was delayed four hours .. and finished it as the plane started its descent.
I anticipated that the comparisons to Israel-Palestine would be more direct, but perhaps it is more convincing this way, such that Jewish audiences will internalize an understated comparison rather than resist a direct one.
I frequently see pro Israel arguments (eg Bill Maher) leveraging the analogy of indigenous Americans as a way to mock the Palestinians’ land related interests as absurd (“get over it”) or to mock progressives for hypocrisy on Thanksgiving by referencing stolen land, the subtext being that progressives don’t care about that and do care about Palestine, and “should” care about both or neither. Those folks should read this book.
I anticipated that the comparisons to Israel-Palestine would be more direct, but perhaps it is more convincing this way, such that Jewish audiences will internalize an understated comparison rather than resist a direct one.
I frequently see pro Israel arguments (eg Bill Maher) leveraging the analogy of indigenous Americans as a way to mock the Palestinians’ land related interests as absurd (“get over it”) or to mock progressives for hypocrisy on Thanksgiving by referencing stolen land, the subtext being that progressives don’t care about that and do care about Palestine, and “should” care about both or neither. Those folks should read this book.
October 25, 2023
An interesting and intimate glimpse into a Jewish family’s roots in South Dakota as well as their interactions or non interaction with Native Americans. They fled pogroms in Ukraine to displace Native Americans from their land. Lots of history and injustice all recounted here as well as talk of reparations, forgiveness, and making it right to Native Americans.
December 31, 2023
The Cost of Free Land, is really three books braided together: the immigration story of Rebecca Clarren’s ancestors; the American Government’s (and its citizens) abuse and theft from the Indigenous People, in this case the Lakota tribe, onto whose ancient land Clarren’s ancestors settled, and Clarren’s own story of investigating and reacting to the interwoven story of the Lakota and her ancestors. The story is a mix of reportage and memoir in which Clarren becomes part of the story, and is more distinguished by her personal reactions than it is a history.
Clarren’s story of her ancestors is fascinating. I am always interested in immigration stories — what journey we all take to get where we are — and immigrant stories of grit and courage are an endless source of my admiration of the human spirit. Clarren’s own story appeals to me particularly perhaps because my ancestors came from the pale of settlement in Western Russia (through Latvia, Lithuanian, Belarus, Romania and other countries) that Clarren’s did although mine ended up in Los Angeles instead of South Dakota. The story of her ancestor’s journey and how they survived there was moving and informative.
Clarren’s description of the rape of the Lakota by the white man, and the US government is devastating and embarrassing, a fact that she feels compelled to tell the reader repeatedly as if laying out the facts is not enough. Perhaps it is as she only lays out some of them, although the point is well proven. I wonder if there is any counter-point, although I suspect not. Some things are indefensible, although perhaps they are explicable, and the book falls short in any real history of the abuse or more than a few cursory and conclusory (and repetitive statements). Still it is probably more informative and more important to most readers and certainly a sordid tale that pulls at the heart.
The final story, and the one which holds the two better more important stories together, is the author’s reason for her search both for her ancestors, and her reaction and responsibility toward the Lakota’s whose land they didn’t take but did acquire from the US Government which had stolen it though a series of sleight of hand or outright deceitful treaties and manipulations. Clarren feels a sense of responsibility as a result which she discusses with various Lakota and other native Americans, and with several rabbis as well. Here the book takes on a moralist and paternalistic tone, telling the reader how they should feel and ultimately making suggestions of what to do about it. She almost completely bypasses the underlying and very modern question of how much responsibility we should all feel for the sins of our fathers, whether intentional or, as in this case, completely innocent (if they sinned at all). She doesn’t think to address the question of whether she should bear personal responsibility (rather than we all bear responsibility as a nation) for the damage done to Native Peoples, and similarly whether Russia owes her responsibility for the Pogroms from which her ancestors fled. Is she more responsible to the Lakota just because that is where her ancestors landed after immigration, making me less responsible because mine landed in Los Angeles (which also included a Native population, if less well known). Do we all have a list of specific descendants to whom we owe a special debt, or do we (or should we) simply say that those of us who are fortunate owe an obligation to those less fortunate to help them out in meaningful ways.
As a reporter she tells an interesting story. As a moralist there is room from much more thought.
Clarren’s story of her ancestors is fascinating. I am always interested in immigration stories — what journey we all take to get where we are — and immigrant stories of grit and courage are an endless source of my admiration of the human spirit. Clarren’s own story appeals to me particularly perhaps because my ancestors came from the pale of settlement in Western Russia (through Latvia, Lithuanian, Belarus, Romania and other countries) that Clarren’s did although mine ended up in Los Angeles instead of South Dakota. The story of her ancestor’s journey and how they survived there was moving and informative.
Clarren’s description of the rape of the Lakota by the white man, and the US government is devastating and embarrassing, a fact that she feels compelled to tell the reader repeatedly as if laying out the facts is not enough. Perhaps it is as she only lays out some of them, although the point is well proven. I wonder if there is any counter-point, although I suspect not. Some things are indefensible, although perhaps they are explicable, and the book falls short in any real history of the abuse or more than a few cursory and conclusory (and repetitive statements). Still it is probably more informative and more important to most readers and certainly a sordid tale that pulls at the heart.
The final story, and the one which holds the two better more important stories together, is the author’s reason for her search both for her ancestors, and her reaction and responsibility toward the Lakota’s whose land they didn’t take but did acquire from the US Government which had stolen it though a series of sleight of hand or outright deceitful treaties and manipulations. Clarren feels a sense of responsibility as a result which she discusses with various Lakota and other native Americans, and with several rabbis as well. Here the book takes on a moralist and paternalistic tone, telling the reader how they should feel and ultimately making suggestions of what to do about it. She almost completely bypasses the underlying and very modern question of how much responsibility we should all feel for the sins of our fathers, whether intentional or, as in this case, completely innocent (if they sinned at all). She doesn’t think to address the question of whether she should bear personal responsibility (rather than we all bear responsibility as a nation) for the damage done to Native Peoples, and similarly whether Russia owes her responsibility for the Pogroms from which her ancestors fled. Is she more responsible to the Lakota just because that is where her ancestors landed after immigration, making me less responsible because mine landed in Los Angeles (which also included a Native population, if less well known). Do we all have a list of specific descendants to whom we owe a special debt, or do we (or should we) simply say that those of us who are fortunate owe an obligation to those less fortunate to help them out in meaningful ways.
As a reporter she tells an interesting story. As a moralist there is room from much more thought.
November 5, 2023
I learned a lot reading this book especially about ,any different aspects of the horrific treatment of indigenous people in the US.
The author uses her own family, Jews who fled Russian pogroms, as a real life example of how land stolen from indigenous people benefitted other families for generations. As a reminder to all of us and how we all have benefitted from this stolen land.
MY biggest issue with the book is the author inserting herself so much. I frankly did not care about her and her sanctimonious nature turned me off. EVEN though I agree we all bare responsibility for making this situation more right.
The author uses her own family, Jews who fled Russian pogroms, as a real life example of how land stolen from indigenous people benefitted other families for generations. As a reminder to all of us and how we all have benefitted from this stolen land.
MY biggest issue with the book is the author inserting herself so much. I frankly did not care about her and her sanctimonious nature turned me off. EVEN though I agree we all bare responsibility for making this situation more right.
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