“Tahicido”

DL: What did you learn about Dakota history while you were growing up, and who told you about it?

SG: I can’t remember where I heard about 1862, but I remember asking my dad, and all he could say was: “Tahicido”, and that means, “It’s really hard.” And that’s all he said.

DL: In other words, it was so hard, he couldn’t talk about it.

SG: Yes. And we knew when we asked our parents something, we knew not to pry and ask more, because we would receive that lesson when the time was right. And I guess the time was never right, because he never told us about the 1862. And it’s probably because my grandfather was sent to Davenport Prison. He stayed there for four years and then he came back.

DL: Was that grandfather involved in the war effort in any way? Was he a warrior?

SG: He definitely was a warrior.

DL: Any family stories come from his experience? Did he tell anyone else that you ever talked to?

SG: Yes. My grandfather’s name was Moses Columbus. He had a sister, Elizabeth Columbus; she married a Red Wing from Flandreau, and because of the separation of the family when he was sent to Davenport, we never knew about Elizabeth or her children until 2003 when the Wolfchild lawsuit started, and that’s when we found out about Elizabeth’s relatives; there are a lot of them.

DL: That had to be a rather delightful surprise.

SG: Oh, very much so, because Moses had several children, I think five. Three of the younger brothers died when they were young; one died in a fire and then that left my Auntie Valerie and my dad. My Auntie Valerie never had any children, and my dad had 17 children, but a lot of my brothers never had children, so we thought we were just a small little family; we had no cousins, you know, from my auntie. And then to find out! I was just really happy that I found all these people that came from William Columbus.