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DL: Is it a good idea to commemorate the events of the mid 1800’s?
GG: Yes.
DL: What’s the best way to do that?
GG: I’m not smart enough to know. I do know that people like Denny Warta here in New Ulm and others have extended what I would consider to be sort of an olive branch to the Indians up at the reservation and have invited the Indians here. Are you aware of the polka band and polka dancers and Indian dancers that were here just a couple of weeks ago?
DL: No.
GG: Oh really! Well this occurred twice in the past. Denny Warta is a guy here who has friends up on the reservation and last year and this year, the New Ulm Area Foundation, The Friends of German Park, and a couple other organizations funded an event. Every Monday night during the summer there’s a free concert put on by the Park and Recreation Department down in German Park. The concerts vary from week to week. They tend to be German stuff. Last year this group funded a group of Indian dancers, the name of which I can’t remember but a family of Indian dancers danced along side of a polka band and polka dancers. So they had a polka band and polka dancers and they had Indian dancers and Indian drummers and they all performed, I say, together. Sometimes they alternated performances. In just two weeks there was a big event out here at… It was a hot night so they decided to move it inside. If you give me your email, I’ve got some pictures that I’ll send you.
DL: I’d like that.
GG: This was one of those, I call it, olive branch attempts to say, “Hey it’s over now, why don’t we just make friends.” Yeah we’ll remember what happened before but we’re not going to go around beating each other up for this forever.
