SIOUX FALLS S.D. (KELO) — As honored as Ellen Medicine Horn is to be the grand marshal of the Native Americans’ Day parade, it wasn’t exactly expected.

“They surprised me, my daughter and granddaughter,” she said.

“I’m so happy for her,” Medicine Horn’s daughter Laura Gillis said. “I mean, she was kind of, like, shocked and stuff that we did it.”

Gillis says she nominated her mother because of what she does for other people.

“She loves her family; she loves her friends,” Gillis said. “She loves to do everything for them. She’s always helping them, like, go to the doctors with her brothers and sisters, like, families that come to the church that need help with funerals.”

PHOTOS: Sioux Falls Native Americans’ Day Parade

Every second Monday of October, South Dakota celebrates Native Americans’ Day, and Monday’s annual Sioux Falls parade honored Medicine Horn as the event’s grand marshal. She says the parade has a purpose behind it.

“Show people that we were here and lived here a long time and want to be respected and thought of and honored,” Medicine Horn said.

And her own honor as grand marshal has been, as her daughter phrases it, “a long time coming.”

“She don’t got very much, but she’s got a big heart, so that’s why I nominated her,” Gillis said.

“I’m happy, and I’m glad,” Medicine Horn said. “Thankful.”

Medicine Horn is a member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, and Gillis is a member of the Santee Sioux Tribe. They each live in Sioux Falls.