Calling it, “A day we have waited for for a long time,” White Earth Nation Chair Erma Vizenor presided over a belated ceremony at the Minnesota State Capitol Thursday honoring the state’s thousands of American Indian veterans of the U.S. military.

“For once, we want the facts stated, and the truth known,” Vizenor said at the ceremony that was timed to lead up to the Memorial Day weekend. “Our American Indian veterans have served this country honorably and well.”

I recently profiled Vizenor as part of a report covering The Bush Foundation’s work in Native Nation-Building. Her profile appears in the first issue of “b Magazine,” a new publication of the Bush Foundation.

Click on Vizenor’s photo below to read her story.

“I am so proud of you,” Vizenor said, addressing the throng of Indian veterans on hand to carry the flags and eagle-feather staffs of the state’s various tribal communities, as well as the flags of the branches of the military in which they served — as many speakers pointed out — at rates higher than the service rates of any other population group. “Our people are so proud of you…Our country is so proud of you. God bless you. Miigwetch (“thank you,” in Ojibwe), for your service.”

Vizenor, leader of the state’s most populous Indian reservation, began pushing the state to recognize its native warriors since 2005. Finally, on a spectacular spring day and at an hour-long ceremony attended by Gov. Mark Dayton and other civil and military dignitaries, the recognition came Thursday.

An honor guard of Native American veterans carrying eagle feather staffs stands next to a plaque honoring the state’s “Dakota and Ojibwe Veteran warriors” that was dedicated Thursday at the Minnesota World War II Veterans Memorial