It is evidence that the United States government took something that was not its to take, in violation of a treaty it had signed, through a process that its own highest court later described as profoundly dishonorable.

It is evidence that the United States has acknowledged, in the most formal legal terms available, that it owes a debt to the Sioux people for the Black Hills.

And it is evidence that the debt has not been paid — not in the sense that the Sioux understand the debt, which is not monetary.

The growing balance is a ledger of unresolved obligation.

Each year that passes, each additional dollar of interest that accrues, adds to the accounting of what has not been settled.

The fund does not diminish what was taken.