This is my tribute to the man who confirmed the existence of and helped me understand those shadows in my romantic childhood dreams. Raised on a steady diet of movies and television series about the wild west I wondered why the Indians were always cast as the bad guys, generally relegated to a treacherous mob and where did they go after their daring and deadly deeds? As a child and a Scot living under British rule I intrinsically understood that we were breaking their spirit, stealing their land and destroying their culture. It had happened to our people too. Fast forward twenty years and finding myself a casualty of Thatcher’s Britain I ventured onto the Great Plains with no particular purpose other than to have a look around. No not a potential redemption story but idle time put to good use with the expectation of nothing in return. Early in my journey I met Jack Little a full blood Oglala-Brulé-Lakota from the Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota. Born in 1920 in an eighteen pole framed tepee, named in the traditional way by a Lakota holy man and descended from survivors of the infamous 1890 Wounded Knee massacre Jack’s life like so many of his contemporaries would follow a previously unchartered path. A traditional man in an untraditional world. Our friendship engaged me with a reality much greater than the cowboys and Indians of my childhood in fact an epic story of conquerers versus the conquered, rich versus poor, the powerful versus powerless experienced by and witnessed through one man’s life. It showed me that if you believe in the Great Spirit or a God if you prefer that term then the measure of a man’s life is more likely to be judged in the here and now, in the small kindnesses, how you conduct yourself in everyday transactions during both the good times and the bad. One of the great challenges in life is to make the complex easy to understand. In Jack Little’s story is a man’s life played out against the background of unprecedented change, unimaginable loss and institutionalised disadvantage approached with honesty, dignity and integrity. A staunch advocate with a generous heart for his people, culture and the land not afraid to speak out against the greed, paucity of spirit and often destructive nature of our society. In such a changing world Jack Little did not have the honour of earning his warrior’s name but like the coyote a master of adaptation his spirit lives on in his people the Lakota. A hard life no doubt but a life well lived. Andrew Hogarth.