Brown Bag with Rebecca Clarren

Little shtetl on the Prairie: how my ancestors benefitted from the amoral policies of the past

Portland award-winning writer Rebecca Clarren discusses her upcoming book, which uncovers the history of her ancestors, Jewish immigrant homesteaders on the South Dakota plains. Federal policies provided them free land and a road to middle class life but displaced and harmed the Lakota who had lived on the land for generations. Her presentation includes a slide show of family photographs from the ranch and images of the Lakota families who were displaced. Rebecca received a Regional Arts and Culture Council grant for the initial phase of this book project and is author of Kickdown her debut novel published in September 2018, which was shortlisted for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. She has been an reporter for 20 years, writing mostly about the rural American West for national magazines.

This is part of the OJMCHE series of informal lunchtime conversations. Bring a lunch or buy a brown bag lunch in Lefty’s Cafe and join us in the museum’s auditorium for a lively give and take as we share and explore ideas, experience, and expertise.