They used to have love, honor and respect for each other.

Ms. Wilson talks about her hopes for the Dakota people and her own visions.

Audio Chapters

DL: If you had a magic wand, what would you wish for Dakota people today?

LW: I wish for people to go back the way they were and not be poor, to the way they used to get along. They used to help each other. They used to have love, honor and respect for each other. They were a real family. Things were different. We didn’t need psychiatrists. We didn’t need doctors. We didn’t need to have people teach us how to eat. If Indians could go back to the things that they learned about how to get along, to help each other, to care for each other… All that is lost. Everybody’s farther south now. You have to lock your doors now. People will come in and rob you, your own family. I don’t know if they could ever get back. I doubt it; it would take a real miracle. But it’s supposed to be strived for. I saw a vision where there’s a whole bunch of chairs all around. Some are facing in and some are facing out. I still don’t know what that means. I have had so many visions, I’d like to write a book sometime and show the pictures of the things I’ve seen, the things I’ve heard. I think when the time comes, when it’s right for the time, then I’ll be approached and somebody will write it. But I know a lot of things that are going to take place that I wish I could go up and say to somebody, “Hey, you’re going the wrong way. Hey, don’t go that way. Hey, don’t do this…” But you can’t. That’s their life lesson. Just like if you could see someone coming to the edge of the bridge and then there’s no more – like that, but you can’t tell them. They have to learn their own way. It’s scary. I always wonder why, if you get knowledge, what good is it then?

Oral History- Interview | Narrator Lillian Wilson Interviewer Deborah Locke made in Morton, Lower Sioux Community, MN | Thursday, February 17, 2011

Citation: Minnesota Historical Society. U.S. - Dakota War of 1862. They used to have love, honor and respect for each other. December 2, 2024. http://www.usdakotawar.org/node/1149

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