"Return of the Pawnees" premieres on NET, PBS April 29

April 28, 2021

Return of the Pawnees still

The Reconciliation Rising project, co-directed by historian Margaret Jacobs, has produced an 11-minute film called “Return of the Pawnees,” which will premiere on April 29 at 8:00 p.m.

The film chronicles how the Pawnees, once exiled from Nebraska, are now regaining a presence in their homeland due to a significant act of reconciliation.

"In 2007, Roger and Linda Welsch did what few descendants of European immigrants have ever done in the 500-year history of America," Jacobs said. "They returned their plot of sixty acres near Dannebrog, Nebraska, to its original owners."

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Jacobs is an award-winning professor in the Department of History and director of the Center for Great Plains Studies.

Reconciliation Rising is a multimedia project that showcases the lives and work of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in the U.S. who are engaged in honestly confronting painful and traumatic histories, promoting meaningful and respectful dialogue between Natives and non-Natives, and creating pathways to reconciliation.