At the root of everything, factionalism was created when immigrants came to our way of living. And I think this factionalism was destructive to our people. And so, what you mentioned in terms of all these factions, is not the Dakota way of life. One ingredient that's still present today is that every Dakota person living at that period of time, I believe, knew that it [going to war] was futile. Every Dakota person knew that it was futile.
But at the same time they also were promised a lot through treaties. That if you—well, to kind of back up – back in 1830 there was a U.S. policy initiated by Andrew Jackson. It's called the Indian Removal Act of 1830. And the purpose of that was against the Cherokees because they were sitting on Georgia land that had gold. And so they were forcibly moved to Oklahoma. So I think the impetus for this conflict had to do with the same kind of Indian Removal Act of 1830. Before the treaties or anything happened, Indian removal was happening to our Dakota people. They were put into holding places – called Indian communities or reservations. So that impetus of taking away the land, the abundance of resources and so on was the main goal. What I know through study and what I teach today is that the United States was built on this conflict of democracy and capitalism. Democracy is good, but it's counterproductive to capitalism. So I think that in a sense, capitalism in a sense is a very frenzied activity, and I think that Indian removal was very negative to Native American people. It was a frenzied economic venture that cheated and underhandedly dealt with Native American people. That was the impetus of why they resisted. But what would you do if you were promised thousands and thousands of dollars? If you moved to a smaller portion of land and the United States said: “We'll feed you, we'll give you implements so you can be farmers, we'll do this, we'll do that.” But when you did move onto those small pockets of land, you were starving. Your children were starving. Your women and your grandmothers and grandfathers were starving. What were they to do?
So I think that in a sense, in this instance of Little Crow, that they were pushed into a corner where they were either going to starve or resist.
And so I think if I lived in those times, and my family was pushed to starvation, and regardless of what number – overwhelming number of a standing army – I would fight. I would fight today even though I knew it would be futile. Because you're going to die anyway. You're going to starve. So, do you want to die honorably or you want to die being defensive, and just get old and die?
So, as a warrior today I would, even today, for example, if a foreign nation came and tried to do what they did to Dakota people – if the Chinese came and tried to do with Americans today, I would fight the Chinese even though it would be futile.