There’s a lesson to be learned in every tragedy

DL: I mention it because I’d heard this before and I should have asked then; I should have asked two months ago when somebody first said it. We all know it changed history, but how exactly did it change history for the better? What did it lead to? It led to a scattering of people. Did it stop starvation, did it stop the stealing of the land? How did it help? Or maybe perhaps they were examples of courage and fortitude at a really difficult time?

SG: I like the way you asked that, because fortitude is one of our 12 core Dakota values. My concept of leadership is probably different from somebody else’s, but when you have a leader and you put all that trust in that leader because you know he’s not going to steer you in the wrong direction, that’s what I believe our people did… took Little Crow’s direction because they trusted that he wasn’t going to put them in harm’s way. There’s a lesson to be learned in every tragedy, there’s a lesson to be learned from all of that.