On a personal note, In 1981 when I first came to America from England, a new friend gifted me a book and said 'I think you should have this', he knew about my life long interest in Native Americans, and so I accepted the book, it was 'Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee' by Dee Brown. I started to glance through it at first looking at the photos in there, and all of a sudden I was shaken to the core, a picture of a man, a Dakota man, a man that I knew really well, but didn't. I couldn't understand it, I didn't know why, it sort of worried me but also excited me. Who was this man and why did I have such strong feelings? The photo above is the one that made me feel that way and over the years I followed this man's history, and it has brought me to here, today, to tell that story, on this group that means so much to me, to let you all know why I am so passionate about this part of History.

Big Eagle was that man, I found too that I also knew other Dakota men from that same history. You may believe in past-lives, you may not, but I don't have any other explanation as to why I have followed this man through time and place and history. It's a long story that I won't go into here, but suffice it to say, the photo changed my life. In the 80's, my ex husband, Andy, when asked why he was out west, would answer, 'She is following an old boyfriend and so I follow with her!' he had no problem with it. I met my late husband Chuck in 1990, through this same story, it has been very significant to my and my family's path.

The photo above shows a Dakota chief, Big Eagle (Wamditanka or Jerome Big Eagle). He was one of the leaders during the 6 week war. He led the attack on Fort Ridgley with his brother Medicine Bottle, and joined Little Crow on other attacks. He was not hanged but was sent to Davenport, and from there was sent to Santee, Nebraska, as a lot of the ex prisoners were. He and some others wanted to be closer to their home land, and so asked the Government if they had some land that they could have to live on, close to Minnesota. (No Dakota was allowed to be in MN at that time due to the war.) They weren't too helpful, (No! really, I wonder why?) and so eventually, in 1869, a group of Santee Dakota, among them Big Eagle gave up their tribal rights, entered claims and formed a community as ordinary citizens of the United States. They left Santee and travelled north to the Big Sioux River, to a place they called Titankahi, and set up the Flandreau Colony, where the Ride is today. The founders of Flandreau Colony were Old Flute, All Over Red, Iron Dog, and Big Eagle, all signers of the Fort Laramie Treaty for the Santee Sioux and good men. Also joining them were Many Lightenings (Jacob Eastman), Wo-wi-na-pi (Thomas Wakeman), and David Weston.

After many years on my travels of Big Eagle's path I was given ' A History of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe' by Sam Allen a Flandreau Dakota, not as a book but just pages put together with a clip, it is all typed nicely and is an interesting read to see how Flandreau started and continued. It is dated 1971. I was very honored to be given that, and Flandreau will always hold a special place in my heart.