(Nonfiction, 352 pp., 2023)
Growing up, Rebecca Clarren only knew the major plot points of her tenacious immigrant family’s origins: her great-great-grandparents and their six children fled antisemitism in Russia, ultimately settling on a 160-acre homestead in South Dakota. Despite tough years on a merciless prairie and multiple setbacks, the Sinykins became an American immigrant success story. Clarren’s ancestors never mentioned that their land, the foundation for much of their wealth, had been cruelly taken from the Lakota by the United States government. 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.
Reading guide with discussion questions from Penguin Random House
Review by David S. Koffman, Society for U.S. Intellectual History, October 13, 2024
Review by Deborah Mason, Bookpage, October, 2023
Review by Elaine Elinson, Jewish Book Council, October 1, 2023
Review by Kirkus Reviews, August 7, 2023
Review by Hannah Fish, Christian Science Monitor, November 20, 2023
Review by Robin Jacobson, Congregation Beth El of Montgomery County, January 19, 2024
Interview with author by Judith Rosenbaum, Jewish Women’s Archive, June 20, 2024 (video)
Interview with author by Sarah Podemski, Weitzman National Museum of American History, December 5, 2023
Interview by Lori Walsh, Ellen Koester, and Ari Jungemann, South Dakota Public Radio, May 9, 2025 (audio)
Program with author, Jewish Community Library, February 22, 2024
