F26-12 A Homesteader's Lament: Making Financial and Artistic Reparations to the Descendants of the Original Occupants of the Land Where I Grew Up
Class | Available (Membership Required)
My grandmother was the last homesteader in very Southern Arizona, adjacent to the US/Mexico border. At the time, courtesy of the Federal Stock Raising Homestead Act of 1916, a married couple could acquire for free a square mile of land (640 acres) if within three years they made improvements (such as erecting some sort of structure and digging a well) valued at $1.25 per acre.
I will talk about and present an early edit of my documentary film about my story and the Chiricahua Apache, who were the original occupants of that land before the federal government imprisoned or killed them and made the land available to my family.
John Thomas JD, LLM, MPH
John Thomas LLB is a freelance writer, professor at the Quinnipiac University School of Law in Hamden, Connecticut, and performing guitarist. John teaches international law and health law. John's 200 + publications address topics from gun violence to health policy, politics, autism, juvenile justice, and music and musical instruments and have appeared in law reviews, medical journals, major newspapers, a wide range of music magazines, and the Oxford Dictionary of Music.