{"id":43345,"date":"2023-10-03T09:15:21","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T16:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/?p=43345"},"modified":"2023-10-03T09:15:22","modified_gmt":"2023-10-03T16:15:22","slug":"there-is-nothing-greater-than-giving-back-to-your-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/there-is-nothing-greater-than-giving-back-to-your-land\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThere is nothing greater than giving back to your land\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It\u2019s one of those times (again) when I’m heart-wrenchingly conflicted. I\u2019m sure many of you relate to feeling this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the one hand, I want to write about a million different things, not the least of which include the tiny slip of warm water currently flowing between the banks of the Middle Rio Grande\u2014hardly a hearty welcome for the sandhill cranes that will be arriving soon\u2014and last week\u2019s shooting in Espa\u00f1ola, and the dangerous, sickening, and exhausting legacy of white supremacy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, I don\u2019t want to write about anything. I don\u2019t want to grapple with hard topics or complex layers. I don\u2019t want to open my heart to challenging issues or difficult experiences. I don\u2019t want to challenge the opinions I\u2019ve formed due to my own history, culture, gender, class, and experiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, of course, this is precisely the time to listen, learn, and lean into hard conversations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming up on October 13, one of those hard conversations is with Rebecca Clarren, author of <\/strong>The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance<\/em><\/strong>. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the turn of the 20th century, Clarren’s ancestors fled antisemitism in Russia to start new lives in America, where they became homesteaders on lands the U.S. government stole from the Lakota people. \u201cAmerica has failed to undergo any process of national truth telling, reparation, or reconciliation, let alone any real public amends,\u201d she writes in her book, which published this week.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During our conversation, Clarren says that as a longtime journalist covering the western United States, she was uncomfortable \u201cpretending\u201d to be an unbiased observer to the legacy of federal policies on Indigenous people. \u201cI have clearly benefited as a descendant of homesteaders from policies that caused great harm to Native people\u2014and so that’s where then this book was born.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clarren talks about her book, in which she reckons with a past that still reverberates today\u2014and engages in the \u201cmoral obligation to pursue justice.\u201d If you think you don\u2019t need to read her book (or watch our conversation) because you\u2019re neither Jewish nor Lakota, I\u2019ll kindly correct you. This is a story about America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As she writes in The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance<\/em>: \u201cOur failure to teach American history in its full and nuanced complexity leads to ignorance, which saps empathy and allows racism and hatred to flourish, which keeps our caste system in place, which keeps marginalized people poor and disenfranchised, which allows the dominant class to maintain a historical narrative that is inaccurate in its simplicity. How to stop this cycle of harm?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clarren is an old friend and colleague of mine from High Country News<\/em>. And yet, her book continued to surprise me and take me to new places. It also offers ways forward. She writes, for instance, of the work she embarks on with her rabbi, her community, and her family. Here\u2019s an excerpt:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c…from their earliest written texts, Jewish scholars have insisted we have a moral obligation to pursue justice, to repair the world, to take responsibility for our part. I\u2019ve returned, repeatedly, to the famous philosopher Maimonides\u2019 laws of repentance, and his time-tested strategy for making things right. Here is a modern break-down of his six steps: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First: Stop doing the harm. Second: Confess as specifically as possible what harm you have caused and ideally, say this truth out loud in public. Third: Begin the work of transforming yourself from a person capable of causing such harm to one who isn\u2019t. (In ancient days, people changed their names. Today, it might mean therapy.) Fourth: Make financial restitution that reflects the size of the harm. Fifth: Apologize in a way that doesn\u2019t necessarily anticipate being forgiven but that makes clear to the victim that you have heard them, and that you understand how you have caused them pain. Finally: When you face the opportunity to cause the same sort of harm, make different choices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve already shared this 2022 interview about healthy masculinities,<\/strong> but I\u2019d like to pass it around again, as I think about it all the time. I certainly thought about it when I read the news of last week\u2019s shooting in Espa\u00f1ola. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also often think about why there are so few public and productive conversations about what it means to be a healthy man, raise healthy men, love healthy men, and build a future with healthy men and healthy families. As Tewa Women United\u2019s Dr. Corrine Sanchez said during that conversation, \u201cWe know that a healthy ecosystem is a diverse ecosystem, and we want to make sure that we\u2019re reflecting that in our communities and in our families.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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