Bruce Benson with Jackie and their children, Jeremy, Jessica, and Neil Jacob.

Bruce Benson’s name once was synonymous with TROUBLE. Beginning in his teens, Benson had a reputation for drinking and fighting, spending as much time in jail (and later the penitentiary) as he did at home. Whenever there was trouble on the reservation, his name was on everyone’s lips.

Today Benson, 31, is a graduate of Sitting Bull College and teaches in the building and trades program. He has much to teach. He is a man who laughs quickly and thinks before he speaks. His eyes reveal a wisdom that only comes from victories hard-won. He tells his first-year students that once they’re in business for themselves, they will establish a reputation quickly. “If you cut corners – that’s your name; your name travels,” he said, as one who knows all about it.

A member of the Three Affiliated Tribes of Fort Berthold, Benson seems aware at every moment that he is alive. His soft brown eyes actually do twinkle when he teases, which is often. And he smiles warmly as he stands listening to someone – anyone – speak. But he grieves, too. Not only did he lose his father to alcoholism, but he also watched many friends and relatives die from drinking. Their drinking was a dangerous dance on a thin line, and when they crossed over, everyone lost. It’s a dance he knows too well. “The day I turned 18, I was drunk,” he said. This began a fast roller coaster ride that lasted roughly 10 years.

Soon after Benson got out of prison, he met his girlfriend. Not only was she pretty, but she was also stable and trustworthy. He noticed she didn’t drink with him. She had two children, Jessica and Jeremy. Benson didn’t want to lose her or the possibility that they might become his family.

Occasionally he still drank and would disappear for a couple of days at a time. He tried to get a job, but he had trouble getting offers because of the word “felon” on his application. He moved to his girlfriend’s home on the Standing Rock Reservation and did odd jobs: fixed fences, put up phone poles, and helped on a ranch. Although he had always worked hard when he was younger, now he was just getting by.

Then he met Dave Luger and took two of his workshops on basic carpentry. Luger was thorough and precise with a commitment to quality that contrasted starkly with the contractors for whom Benson had worked. He was impressed.

When Luger announced that he was starting a building and trades program at Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates, N.D., Benson was one of the first students enrolled. “It was the year I started school that I really sobered up,” Benson said. He was still on probation, and he knew that if he got a DUI, he would be back in the penitentiary, losing his opportunity – and his girlfriend. Jackie didn’t nag him about his drinking, but he knew she didn’t like it. She counted on him, and he didn’t want to let her down. Things were changing.

When he began taking building classes in the fall of 1996, he liked the atmosphere at Sitting Bull College and the friendly, kind instructors. The future began to look attractive. In Luger, Benson found a mentor who was competent and honest. “Dave knew I wanted to learn and that I picked things up quickly.” Benson thrived.

Things were changing at home, too. In 1997, Benson became a father for the first time. He and Jackie named their son Neil Jacob, after both their fathers. “I just want to give our kids a father and a mother. We both grew up without fathers.”

Benson graduated with honors in 1998, earned the “Outstanding Student Award,” and Luger asked him to stay and teach. Benson now sees some of the students standing back, with their hands in their pockets, watching, just as he once did. When students tell him about struggling with a class, he tells them, “I don’t want to preach to you, but you should study on the weekends instead of partying.” He knows that they, like him, can do things they haven’t even dreamed of. He stresses careful workmanship and integrity, telling them the quality of their work reflects upon them and affects their family and their future.

Every year Bruce Benson goes back to the treatment center in Fort Yates on the anniversary date of his sobriety and tells the patients his story. He also speaks at educational meetings and youth correctional facilities statewide. Benson has built for his children and for young people everywhere a legacy of courage – the courage to live fully aware of joy and pain, to love in spite of the risk of loss, and to discover what he could become. And he’s only just begun.

Rebecca Gardner taught at Sitting Bull College before becoming assistant director of the Educational Opportunity Center at University of North Dakota. She is completing her M.A. in English Language and Literature and has a B.A. in Psychology.