Author: extremelyeloquent

From Activist to Poet to Performer, Trudell Sets His Message to Music | April 24, 1992

“I’ve always been able to work from the stage. From activist stage, I just spoke and said whatever I had to say. When the writing started, I would just read it. Then I had the interest into going into musical aspects. When that happened in ’86, I liked the result of work we did in the studio.” 

“We never had a problem with their audience. Maybe by the third song, they would catch on that I was not going to start singing. They started paying more attention when they realized I was just going to stand there and say these things.” – Opening for Midnight Oil in 1988. 

Continue reading “From Activist to Poet to Performer, Trudell Sets His Message to Music | April 24, 1992”

Trudell Draws from Personal Tragedy | April 17, 1992

INTERVIEWER: You claim that the fire that killed your family was set on purpose by the US government. Do you have any evidence to support that? 

JOHN TRUDELL: The fire wasn’t an accident. When the fire happened on Feb. 12, 1979 the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the government — whoever their federal fire people are — had stated the fire was an accident, that it had started in the fireplace. This was not true. When I came back home, I had some other people look at it and they said it was physically impossible that the fire was an accident, but I can’t discuss the particulars right now. In good time, it will be settled, because this was mass murder. 

Continue reading “Trudell Draws from Personal Tragedy | April 17, 1992”

Using Music as a Soapbox | April 17, 1992

“When I basically look at politics, it’s too competitive and confrontational. It’s the nature of it. It’s very territorial, and at some point you have to adhere to the party line.” 

“Through the music, the edge is taken off, and I think that we need to find a way to communicate with each other as human beings, without those edges.” 

“My main means of communication is through this form. It’s the most effective leaflet I’ve found.” 

Continue reading “Using Music as a Soapbox | April 17, 1992”

Sounds Triumph Over Tragedy – Trudell Channels Passion Toward Career and a Cause – Trudell Meshes Poetry, Music On New Album | April 17, 1992

“It was a character I could identify with.” – On Thunderheart. 

“I happened to be in Oklahoma when the firefight with the FBI started. I drove up to South Dakota the next morning. I was very concerned about the people living in that camp and very skeptical of the government’s side of the story.” 

“There were no FBI agents that became nice guys. In reality, it wasn’t even close to that.” – On Val Kilmer’s character in Thunderheart. 

“It speaks to the paranoia of those in power, because I know how I lived my life. I didn’t do anything that would justify 17,000 pages. At my most extreme, I did nothing to warrant that kind of coverage.” – On FBI file. 

Continue reading “Sounds Triumph Over Tragedy – Trudell Channels Passion Toward Career and a Cause – Trudell Meshes Poetry, Music On New Album | April 17, 1992”

Indian Activist’s Life Mirrors Role in Thunderheart | April 14, 1992

“That was one of the things I liked about the role. My character is mentioned a lot. I’m the central theme, but I don’t have to back it up with too much acting.”

“I didn’t rise up in armed rebellion against the American government. I supported the people that did, and I didn’t separate myself from them, but I never physically did that. I always spoke whatever my mind was and I organized with whatever abilities I had.” 

“The fire was consistent with the history of democracy and its treatment of the Indigenous peoples. If we place this in a historical perspective, what they did was they attacked a winter camp and killed the women and children.”

Continue reading “Indian Activist’s Life Mirrors Role in Thunderheart | April 14, 1992”

From Los Angeles by Phone w/ Larry Katz | April, 1992

LARRY KATZ: The Boston Herald calling John Trudell?

JOHN TRUDELL: Yeah, speaking. 

John, how are you? 

Just fine man. 

Good. Hey, I been listening to your album a lot. Really enjoying it. 

Well I’m glad to hear that. I really am. 

Continue reading “From Los Angeles by Phone w/ Larry Katz | April, 1992”

Thunderheart Role Befits Actor Trudell | April 2, 1992

“I know what I’ve done, and I think the FBI murdered a lot of trees unnecessarily. What is really freaky is that anyone would take that much time to spy on someone else, especially in a free society.” – On FBI file. 

“It’s hard to trust a bunch of Hollywood people, but once we sat down and talked, these were no longer Hollywood people. I trusted their integrity and finally had to ask myself if I trusted my instincts more than I trusted my paranoia. My paranoia tells me not to trust Hollywood, but I went with my instincts. Besides, this was too important a story not to trust them. I liked that this was a story in a contemporary setting, not a historical setting, which is usually where you find the People. And I liked that it was based on the facts of what happened. I liked that somebody was finally telling the truth.” 

Continue reading “Thunderheart Role Befits Actor Trudell | April 2, 1992”

The Ballads of an Angry Man – Native American Activist Trudell Puts Stormy History to Song | January 16, 1992

“We see the FBI as an extension of Custer’s Seventh Cavalry. The justification they use to go after us (AIM activists) is that we’re revolutionaries but . . . we are not a revolutionary group. We are a part of a race of people who have been struggling against invaders for 400 years.” 

“If we are to continue to survive, to endure, we must keep our spirit connection to our people who came before us; in this earth is where our power lies. We engage with the U.S. government over the natural creation.” ~

SOURCE: Austin American-Statesman

An Interview with John Trudell. Older Than America: Resisting The Predator | Winter, 1991-92

Faye Brown/Dale Kakkak: You began writing in 1979, writing words down on paper. How did this evolve into producing music?

John Trudell: I started writing poetry in ’79 but prior to that, I used to write a lot of statements for press releases and political things. When I started writing poetry, I was spending a lot of time around musicians and it wasn’t a conscientious effort on my part. I just started writing poetry. It turned out that I was in this world of musicians and I was spending a lot of time with Jackson (Browne) and so maybe after a couple of years I just got the notion to put poetry to music. I thought it would work and that’s what turned into my first release, Tribal Voice.

Continue reading “An Interview with John Trudell. Older Than America: Resisting The Predator | Winter, 1991-92”

Musician John Trudell: Less Rock and More Talk | March 22, 1991

“We are the wolf…we need to understand how close we are to extermination, to extinction.”

“There’s no magic solution. But the first step to ending war is to make peace with (the) Earth.” 

“We are murdering the air, murdering the water…violence is coming back to the societies that perpetuate it. The Earth doesn’t belong to us. We’re just supposed to be taking care of it.”

“We may not survive, but the planet will.”

“Humanity is not the pearl in paradise, but only a part of paradise.” 

SOURCE: Anchorage Daily News

Indian Activist Turned Poet | May 14, 1990

“Suddenly, these lines came into my head, ‘Gently the rains of purification wash my mind.’Something told me to write them down and I’ve been writing since then. I wrote a set of 20 lines. It was not something I expected. Then I started writing and I started writing a lot. And I saw, well, there’s some reason I’m doing this and I’ll see where the writing takes me.” 

Continue reading “Indian Activist Turned Poet | May 14, 1990”

American Indian Movement’s Tactics Change with Times | June 11, 1987

“I have been a part of this now for almost 20 years, and I see how strong we were when we started, all that emotion, that good intention, and then I saw us go through this conflict with the US. Government.” 

“I was a part of it, so I am not turning my back on the responsibility. I have to face reality, and the reality is that today we have less control over our land than in the 1960’s. The people are just as poor as they were.” ~

SOURCE: Desert Sun

A Letter to the People by John Trudell | April 28, 1987

We would like to express this thought. We must be careful of the illusions. The attack against our liberation struggle is intense. The insanity of greed and genocide is spreading a war against the natural world unparalleled in human history. We are only a minute part of the natural world. Yet how we handle ourselves and this situation can either create a balance or aid and abet the enemy in our destruction. The enemy attack depends on our reactions to feed its justification. In this generation, the enemy has controlled the economic and political environment since our arrival to this life. Through this control, the enemy has conditioned us to react. React to his initiative of greed. The Industrialist is the enemy. His power is money and exploitation. Brutality is his nature.

Continue reading “A Letter to the People by John Trudell | April 28, 1987”

Trudell’s Poetry Carries Sense of Restless Urgency | November 1, 1985

“Man is so arrogant that he thinks he can destroy the earth, but all man can do is destroy his ability to live on the earth.”

“I’m still surprised by it now [poetry]. It’s a way of expressing some emotions. To me it’s like therapy in a way, and where I’ll go with it probably depends on how much therapy I’m gonna need…comes from the things I have seen and felt, or experienced by having been a part of someone else who was going through it. I don’t have to search for the edges to experience this. I think somebody pushed me on the edge and left me there years ago. When I turned around there was edges all over. Edges are all about the industrial illusion that takes us further and further away from the reality of who we are.” 

Continue reading “Trudell’s Poetry Carries Sense of Restless Urgency | November 1, 1985”

Indian Poet Urges Return to Natural World | September 25, 1985

“In the industrial society, we believe that creating the biggest bomb and spreading the most destruction and terrorism is power, but it is not.” 

“We are part of the natural world. The Earth is our mother. We abuse the Earth, our mother. We can’t solve the problems of racism and sexism…because they are perpetuated through the way we treat the Earth.” 

“The contradiction of education is that it seems like we’re being fed data and statistics to help machines run, not knowledge that will help us to be able to live.”

“We must remember that the Earth is our mother and our life. The Earth is consciousness. If we would clean our minds and get in touch with the consciousness of the Earth, our power and sense of identity would come back.”

“As soon as they told us that there was only one God and that he was a jealous God, everyone started turning against the Earth. It was under the one-God system that people were brought under control. It is incredible the number of wars and human sacrifices that were made.” ~

SOURCE: The Daily Tar Heel

Vancouver Interview: Nuclear Weapons | 1983

IINTERVIEWER UNKNOWN: What I want to talk to you about is your own personal life, where you found your inspiration, and what you see is the true nature of the problem that is before us today with regards to nuclear weapons and everything else that is associated with nuclear weapons, which is environmental degradation, exploitation of native peoples throughout the world. 

JOHN TRUDELL: Well. Where I lived my life or how I came to any conclusions in my life is, I’ve just lived as what is called an Indian. In America. And my experiences in America have been both in the U. S. America and Canada America. And anything that I am, it came from that experience. And you know I never put too much thought into this word, inspiring. I’ve never really looked at it like that. It just that there are certain realities that we just have to deal with. Because when we ‘re looking at what the problem against us is. It’s greed. And it’s the machine age. The entire industrialized world is totally out of balance. We live in a natural world and everything’s in balance in the natural world. It’s how all the different pieces fit together that makes the balance of the natural world. But we look at the societies that we live in. There is no balance. Everyone’s off balance. Everyone’s confused and everyone feels powerless, or something.

Continue reading “Vancouver Interview: Nuclear Weapons | 1983”

Delegates Call For Solidarity | September 24, 1982

Calling for solidarity of oppressed minorities, delegations from Asian, Pacific Island and North American tribes testified Wednesday at the First American Indian International Tribunal at Deganawidah-Quetzalcoatl University (DQ) University. John Trudell representing the Society of the People Struggling to be Free.

“[Native Americans] are the ancient heartbeat of the western hemisphere. We will outlast the colonists, if we remember who we are.” 

“We are in a struggle to free the natural world. We are a part of the land, and we must remember it.” ~

SOURCE: California Aggie

Take Back the Earth (also known as the Thanksgiving Day Speech) | November, 1980

We’re faced with a very serious situation in this generation. There are insane people, who wish to rule the world. They wish to continue to rule the world on violence and repression. And we are all the victims of that violence and repression. We as the indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere have been resisting this violence and this oppression for five hundred years. We know that the black people have been resisting it for at least that long. And we know that the white people have had to endure thousands of years. And now it’s come full swing to this generation that we live in.

Continue reading “Take Back the Earth (also known as the Thanksgiving Day Speech) | November, 1980”

For Himself, His People: Activist Continuing Indians’ Old Fight | August 23, 1980

A private investigator hired by Trudell to find the cause of the blaze has refused to hand over a copy of his investigation report to Trudell, even though the investigator has been paid. 

“He doesn’t know what we know about the blaze.”

“He’s trying to cover up the fact that a group of people set the blaze, and nothing else caused it.” 

“What happened to my family made me realize I am an extension of my people’s past. It was Wounded Knee and diseased blankets all over again.” 

Continue reading “For Himself, His People: Activist Continuing Indians’ Old Fight | August 23, 1980”

Black Hills International Survival Gathering (Closing Speech) | July 18-27, 1980

I’d like to welcome you all here tonight. And I’d like to talk tonight. And I would like to talk in honor of all of our women warriors. Those who are here and those who have left us for another world, that are with our ancestors. And I would like to honor a man named Leonard Peltier. And I would like to talk in honor of the Earth, which is a very sacred place. And it is the only place that we have.

I would like the people to understand that our mother Earth is the female manifestation of the creation. And that we must show proper respect to her. We cannot show the proper respect to the women. We cannot show the proper respect to the elders. We cannot show the proper respect to the children. We cannot show the proper respect to ourselves, if we ignore our mother earth.

Continue reading “Black Hills International Survival Gathering (Closing Speech) | July 18-27, 1980”

Black Hills International Survival Gathering | July 18-27, 1980

I’d like to thank all of you for coming to this place, and I would like to give thanks for being welcomed here myself. I would like to talk tonight in honor of all of us in the struggle who have lost our relations to the Spirit World. And I would like to talk in honor of the wind, one of the natural elements. This is a survival gathering and one of the things I hope that you all learn while you’re here is, you learn to appreciate the energy and power that the elements are, the sun, the rain and the wind, and that you go away from here understanding that this is power and this is the only true real power. This is the only true real connection we will ever have to power, our relationship to Mother Earth.

Continue reading “Black Hills International Survival Gathering | July 18-27, 1980”

Interview With John Trudell | October, 1979

KATHY (BHA): Why did you decide to request political asylum in Canada instead of somewhere else?

JOHN TRUDELL: We came to Canada because Leonard Peltier came to Canada in 1976 asking for political asylum. Members of the Canadian Justice Department, in collusion with members of the FBI and United States Justice Department, illegally extradited Leonard Peltier back to the U.S.

They were able to do this because they could hide behind the criminal charges that Leonard had filed against him. Now, in order to extradite Leonard back to the U.S., in violation of extradition law, the FBI committed perjury within the Canadian Court System. And this was done with the knowledge of some Crown attorneys. Extradition attorneys. When we come to Canada ourselves, we want to bring this issue back up. That not only has Peltier been illegally convicted in the U.S., he was illegally sent back to the U.S. by the Canadian Government that was in power at that time. We wish to bring this issue back up in front of the Canadian people on the whole Peltier case, Daryl and myself. 

Continue reading “Interview With John Trudell | October, 1979”

American Indian Activists Afraid to Go Home | September 5, 1979

“They said we are a revolutionary movement dedicated to the overthrow of the U.S. government. We are activists concerned with conditions on our reservations. We are advocating the establishment of law and order…The conditions are getting worse and worse for our people in the ‘States…The violence is worse, the jailings are worse, the poverty is worse. Our land base is dwindling. The political attacks are worse.”

“If any people are going to be skeptical about what is happening, let them ask what they would do in my shoes. We understand that the odds are against us, that people don’t want to believe they are coexisting with a country like that.” 

SOURCE: The Province

Indian Activist Accuses U.S. of ‘Kill the Indian’ Mentality | September 5, 1979

“Kill the wild Indians. It is the way they wage war on us now.” 

“We are not a threat. We are not the enemy of the Canadian people. We just want our rights, our natural rights.”

“They lie about everything. They lied about Cambodia, Watergate and pay-offs to corporations. They also lie about us, saying we are radical and militant.” ~

SOURCE: Nanaimo Daily News

Land Rights, Not Uranium Mines | Summer, 1979

American Indian Movement (AIM) leader John Trudell warned the [New Mexico anti-nuclear movement] gathering that just because they knew their cause was righteous did not mean that they would overcome the oppressor.

“We are worried that if the people do not come together in a conscientious and purposeful way in this movement, there may not be another time. If you are going to fight the enemy through the anti-nuclear movement, let’s fight them that way, because if we don’t we may have lost touch with our future. This is not just an anti-nuclear movement, this is a movement to free ourselves from the enemy. It is necessary that we have an understanding of our spiritual identity, but this is not a religious crusade. Religion will not free us. It has been the ruling class way to separate you from your true spiritual identity.” ~

SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes Vol. 11 No. 3

Conference Brings Out Pros, Cons On N-Energy. | April 25, 1979

Regarding uranium mining and energy development in South Dakota. John Trudell addressed the issue as seen by Indians on South Dakota reservations. His remarks pinpointed the emotional side of the issue. 

The government is allowing the beginning of the death cycle. They are tampering with human life when they want to bring that stuff out of the ground. And the phrase ‘maximize profits’ is the culprit. The people of South Dakota should have a hard talk with their governor. While he was telling you he was protecting you from the Indians, he was receiving letters of intent from TVA and Union Carbide to start mining here. [Bill] Janklow is going to make South Dakota a graveyard. The governor and the legislature will blame each other while they sell you down the river. [Mining plans] are an attack against the earth. South Dakota is being termed a National Sacrifice Area and they are telling you it’s in the name of progress. Beware of this thing called the Department of Energy and beware of this, it has its own police force. In the final analysis radiation is not bigoted, it will rub us all out. It will rub out everything. Women will especially have to make a hard commitment. And it would be in your best interest to get politicians to make a public commitment. ~

SOURCE: Lead Daily Call

The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service | 1979

John Trudell, gave a rousing speech about the use of racism by the corporations and the press to keep people divided. He said to non-Native supporters in the audience: ‘‘We want you to understand, we are not your enemy, we never have been. We have been made to not respect each other.’’ ~

SOURCE: Black Panther Intercommunal News Service, Vol. XIX No.9

John Trudell: Excerpts from an Interview | 1978

We are still going to them and asking them to recognize our sovereignty, like we go to them and ask them for program money. Like we go to them and ask them for everything it is that we need. We still do that too much.

If the movement continues to grow we can work on defining our values and our philosophies so that we can understand them more specifically than just in the terms that our ancestors were very spiritual people and were good people. We cannot live in the glory of our ancestors. We must create our own way to go.

Continue reading “John Trudell: Excerpts from an Interview | 1978”

Indians Making ‘Longest Walk’ for Grievances of U.S. | May 16, 1978

“We’re walking around now…to go to Washington, D.C., to talk to…the people who will listen and express to them (that) we don’t want any trouble. We’re not out to make any trouble, but we do want to be able to speak what’s in our minds…and we want to tell these people…you ‘ve bothered us long enough. Why don’t you just, please, leave us alone. Honor the laws that have been agreed upon between our people and let us live.”

“It’s hard, sometimes, to get people to listen to what we’re saying because when we say what we say, we have to criticize the government.” ~

SOURCE: The Decatur Herald

The Emergence of the American Indian Movement: Resisting the Government | November 10, 1977

“What the government did to Peltier is the way that an oppressor must work, because Leonard represents the sovereignty that Indians speak of, sovereignty in the sense that we don’t have to be oppressed anymore, by any man or government, sovereignty in the sense that we understand that we are a natural part of the creation and that no man or government have a right to change that natural order. Sovereignty in a sense that we understand that all struggles of liberation will not be successful until the people control the land.” ~

SOURCE: The Daily Princetonian

White Jury Convicts Aim Leader | May 5, 1977

 “Peltier wasn’t tried by his peers. The judge played the role of prosecutor and found Peltier guilty before the jury did.”

“In the last century stories of cowboys and Indians were a popular theme for those who wanted to take our land. In our generation there is now the FBI and the Indian, because today technology needs the resources that are on our limited land base. So the FBI is now the 7th Cavalry for the corporate interests of America.”

 “This accounts for the drive of the FBI against AIM because we stand in the way of their objectives.” ~

SOURCE: California Aggie, Vol. 95, No. 24.

Highlights of the Minnesota Citizens’ Review Commission on the FBI Hearings:  Part 3 – John Trudell Testimony | March 3, 1977.

ABOUT

John Trudell testimony from recent hearings held by the Minnesota Citizens’ Review Commission on the FBI. The commission, a coalition of some 20 Minnesota organizations put together an independent hearing panel including DFL chairpersons Rick Scott and Ruth Caine. Union leaders, representatives of church and community groups as well as private citizens also participated. The panel took testimony on alleged FBI abuses in the area supervised by the Minneapolis office – Minnesota and the Dakotas. Much of the testimony centered around alleged FBI violations on South Dakota Indian reservations. One whole day was devoted to testimony concerning the Pine Ridge shootout in June 1975. The shootings resulted in the deaths of two FBI agents and one Indian, Joe Stuntz. No one has yet been charged with Stuntz’s death. Two Indians, Dino Butler and Robert Robideau, were charged with the murder of the FBI agents, but they were acquitted last fall. One other man charged was never indicted for lack of evidence, and another, Leonard Peltier, will go on trial in Fargo, North Dakota this month.

Continue reading “Highlights of the Minnesota Citizens’ Review Commission on the FBI Hearings:  Part 3 – John Trudell Testimony | March 3, 1977.”

Why Peltier is on Trial | Mid-Winter, 1976-77

[NOTES: Rallies in support of Leonard Peltier’s campaign against extradition from Canada were held all over North America. At one of them, in California, John Trudell, national chairman of the American Indian Movement, spoke. These are excerpts from his speech, explaining the background of Peltier’s case.]

To understand the Leonard Peltier case, we have to understand what was going on at Pine Ridge long before any FBI were shot. For two years, Indians were being killed, Indian after Indian after Indian. Indians were being wiped out on the Pine Ridge Reservation, but no one cared enough to stop it. We looked at the list of dead people and we saw the Indian names. We saw the FBI’s failure to solve these crimes. We saw that prior to the arrival of the FBI on the reservation, that kind of violence did not exist. So we understood we were involved in an organized campaign of violence against us. A decision was made at Oglala that if people had to shoot back at law enforcement officials in order to save the lives of innocent people, then they would shoot back.

Continue reading “Why Peltier is on Trial | Mid-Winter, 1976-77”

Open Fire: Or The FBI’s History Lesson | November, 1976

“We’re as natural to the land as the trees that stand outside your window.”

“Three hundred and eighty-four treaties have been signed and 384 were broken. No one ever stood trial for breaking those laws. When a person is charged with committing a crime in your society he is not brought to our society to be tried.”

“Our culture has been changed in such a way that it can never go back to what it was.”

Continue reading “Open Fire: Or The FBI’s History Lesson | November, 1976”

Who Are the Real Terrorists? | Late Autumn, 1976

“Racism and double standards of justice are the real threat to the Internal Security of this nation-state. AIM people are just trying to survive as human beings. As for these senators calling us violent, that is an unfunny joke. These representatives of a social system that produces napalm, tactical squads, M-16s, racism, class exploitation, etc., calling us violent is the rhetoric of liars and hypocrites.” ~

SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes, Vol. 8 No. 4

Interview with John Trudell: A.I.M. Leader Details F.B.I Repression | July 17, 1976

In the aftermath of last week’s successful July 4th Coalition rally in San Francisco, THE BLACK PANTHER conducted an exclusive interview with John Trudell, the national director of the American Indian Movement (AIM). In the interview, Trudell talked at length about the current trial of AIM activist Bob Robideau and  Dino Butler in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and the savage FBI repression AIM has had to endure since its inception. The following are excerpts from that interview. 

BLACK PANTHER: John, what are the latest developments in the trial of Bob Robideau and Dino Butler?

JOHN TRUDELL: The defense has subpoenaed FBI head Clarence Kelley, Senator Frank Church, Representative Otis Pike and a man whose name I can’t remember…He’s the head of public relations for the FBI. I’m very surprised about this because it is the first time where we are going to get the head pig, Kelley, down to where we can at least ask him some questions. It’s an indication that serious question are beginning to be raised about the whole issue of the FBI’s involvement in the suppression of people’s movements in this American state. The FBI has been operating outside of the law from the beginning of the Indian movement and now it is accelerating its tactics.

Continue reading “Interview with John Trudell: A.I.M. Leader Details F.B.I Repression | July 17, 1976”

7,000 Rally at S.F. People’s Bicentennial. Trudell Reading Message from Dennis Banks Who Was Being Held in San Francisco Jail. | July 10, 1976 

Banks July 4th message: “I do not celebrate today, instead I mourn for all my brothers and sisters whose lives have been lost fighting for our freedom. On this so-called day of independence I ask you America, what does the concept of freedom mean to Anna Mae Aquash, and to Buddy La Mont, to Frank Crow Dog, and to Little Joseph Stuntz, all of whom were killed by the federal gun…”

John Trudell reemphasizing Banks’ message: Our enemy is the FBI. They no longer wear the uniform of the Seventh Calvary, but their actions are the same. All that has changed is technology. We must not talk to the FBI. They are the enemies of the people. They are the murderers. The thieves. We want to be liberated from their corrupt value system. Today, July 4, is just one more day of oppression. Free the People! ~

SOURCE: The Black Panther. Vol 15, No.13.

Trudell Demands Explanation | March 20, 1976

“When the tribal chairman and tribal judge in Owyhee attempted to legally exercise jurisdiction for their community, they were attacked by the Bureau of Indian Affairs[BIA], they were lied about and called names by the BIA and its employees. Through high pressure tactics: promises of jobs and pay-offs (grants and loans to individuals), the bureau and its agents had these two men illegally removed from office. Jurisdiction to Indian people is the right to shape and mold one’s own destiny; the future for the children of tomorrow. The cities of Reno, Carson City, or any other town or city government exercise that right, why can’t tribal governments?”

“It’s too bad taxpayers allow their money to be wasted like this.”

SOURCE: Nevada State Journal

Tim McGovern interview of John Trudell | January 11, 1976

John Trudell is the national chairman of the American Indian Movement, the highest elected official in AIM. In this interview he talks about the Wounded Knee Uprising of 1971, its aftermath, and media coverage of that event and others. In addition, Trudell tells how he thinks institutions in America, like the Catholic Church, the educational system, and the FBI are used as repressive tools. Before the interview I asked Trudell how long he’d been with AIM. His response was, “all my life. We just weren’t organized yet.”

Continue reading “Tim McGovern interview of John Trudell | January 11, 1976”

Interview with John Trudell | Akwesasne Notes, 1975

[NOTE: John Trudell statements compiled from an interview conducted by Runa Simi.]

On the evening of July 17, I had an argument with John Gray, the man who runs the trading post. We argued about his high prices, his credit practices, the way he treats the people, and his racist attitude toward the community of people he’s supposed to be serving. We had an argument and it got out of hand and I fired a pistol through the ceiling and I left.

Continue reading “Interview with John Trudell | Akwesasne Notes, 1975”