People have to know it or else we forget

Mr. Longclaws talks about 1862 in the context of American history.

Audio Chapters

Chapter 1

DL: What’s your opinion of the war?

ML: Well they did stuff like ask to take what was ours. I realize that there was expansion, you know, that they were going to move this way. They said something about… What was the name they called it? It’s our divine right to take that land. There’s a word for that – Manifest Destiny. Now that, I don’t believe in. Our people from what I know were willing to share it. From what I gather and the way I know our people today is that we’re willing to share. But they just kept on taking and taking and it was genocide. They used germ warfare on us, I guess you could say. It was just dirty. It shouldn’t have happened but that’s the way things were done back then I guess.

DL: Is it a good idea to commemorate the events from then?

ML: Well people have to know it or else we forget.

Cite
Melvin Longclaws. "People have to know it or else we forget." https://www3.mnhs.org/usdakotawar/stories/contributors/clifford-longclaws/1503
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Oral History- Interview | Narrator Melvin Longclaws Interviewer Deborah Locke in Dakota Tipi First Nation Manitoba, Canada | Thursday, January 19, 2012
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Citation: Minnesota Historical Society. U.S. - Dakota War of 1862. People have to know it or else we forget. May 23, 2025.