Broken Lands: A Podcast About Reparations and Honoring Our Treaties

This is a special unabridged episode of Broken Lands for more advanced students of treaty rights and Indian Law. Three treaty experts–Dr. Joseph Bauerkemper, Samir Grover, and Professor Tadd Johnson–talk to us about the foundational issue of treaties. At the center of these treaties is the basic human relationship between the Native Americans and European settlers. The principle and foundation of...

In this episode, three treaty experts–Dr. Joseph Bauerkemper, Samir Grover, and Professor Tadd Johnson–talk to us about the foundational issue of treaties. At the center of these treaties is the basic human relationship between the Native Americans and European settlers. The principle and foundation of these treaties are that they recognize that rights were granted to settlers by the Tribal Nation...

In the wake of our last episode, Thanksgiving: An Autopsy, we’ve observed an uptick in the number of heated conversations within some of our ELCA congregations. Specifically, we’ve encountered a lot of questions and debates around politics and how we reckon with our role as members of a nation-state while also being members of the Body of Christ. Conversations surrounding how these two identities...

If we are looking at repairing our relationships, what do we do with Thanksgiving? How does the holiday's popular mythology obscure the realities of our history, and how do these misleading myths get in the way of connecting with one another and our Creator?  Host Matt Cobb gets into this subject with Kevin Kot, Ojibwe elder and member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa...

Rev. Matt McWaters is chairperson of the finance committee that recommended to the Northeastern Minnesota Synod Council of the ELCA to offer reparations to the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. Our host, Dr. Matthew Cobb, asks Rev. McWaters about the motivating factors behind that decision and what it felt like in the room when that decision was made. They also delve into the theological basis behind offe...

Broken Lands is a series about reparations and honoring our treaties with Native Americans. Bringing together both settler and Indigenous voices, this series reflects on our shared history and possibilities of how we can begin to live well together here now and into the future.