A lifetime of learning for a minute of understanding.

DL: Have you ever been to any of these places and what are your thoughts about them? I’ll list a few places.

DR: Okay.

DL: Starting with Fort Ridgely?

DR: Yes, I’ve been there. That’s another place that the land remembers a lot but [it remembers] nothing good. It’s a place that should be treated differently. It’s something that might be just the impression. Sometimes I feel like people are trying to kind of blot out the bad things and just leave the good things. That’s why history gets so convoluted. They’d rather talk about their golf course than the actual history of the area. At the same time the land is remembering, the people are trying to forget. There’s a conflict there. Whether or not everybody feels it, I have no idea, but there’s a conflict going on there.

DL: It’s interesting you say the monuments and everything also would remember. We were at the Milford Monument not too long ago, overlooking these farm fields. Those fields must remember, as well, what happened. There was certainly bloodshed.

DR: Yes. That’s the difference between the way I look at creation as opposed to someone else looking at creation. I know there’s a spirit that exists everywhere and maybe even say the land has a spirit or a tree has a spirit. And yeah, they do, but all at the same time they become one spirit and the land never forgets. It’s always there. The memories good, bad or ugly will always be there. Someday people will be reminded. Maybe they’ll be reminded of something good. Maybe they’ll be reminded of something bad. That’s part of the Dakota Armageddon I suppose but that’s more difficult to explain and I won’t even try. I mean that’s a lifetime of learning for a minute of understanding.