Category: Article Excerpts

“Those were exciting times — a lot of positive action went down with a really good community. I probably would have moved there, but I’m really not made for those winters.” – John Trudell on being president of  Minneapolis-based American Indian Movement 

“That whole time is honestly just a vague memory to me now. But I think the occupation, and the work of AIM at that time rekindled the spirit within native people and awareness for our plight. That sparked everything that came after it.”

“The government had every reason to cover it up then, and they still have every reason to.” – The Fire.

Continue reading “Native Activist/Poet John Trudell Pairs with the Pines | November 25, 2014”

I don’t trust them. I think the whole entire political system is corrupt, whether it’s the Republicans and George W. Bush, or the Democrats and Obama. I think they all serve the corporate fate. In general, the system is filled with lies and tokenism. As Native people, we’re so far down the list because we don’t have the numbers, and the politicians just show up for photo ops. When you look at the sovereignty, the economics, the cultural well-being of the Native people [Obama] hasn’t done one thing. He’s just like every other U.S. president. I think a lot of Native people are just glad to finally be acknowledged. You look at the time Obama has been in office, and the teen suicide rates on reservations are [still] out of control, the poverty is out of control. When you’re surrounded by these statistical dynamics, how can you have self-esteem? Being acknowledged is an illusion. It might make you feel good for a little while, but it doesn’t change the overall quality of life for our children. – John Trudell opinion of the Obama administration to Harlan McKosato ~

“About four or five or six years ago, I was presented with an opportunity to maybe kind of focus on something that would be of importance to me. “

“What I know about hemp is, I know that it can provide oxygen for a sky that’s being suffocated.” 

“I’m looking around what’s just going on socially, politically and environmentally see and everybody’s scattered you know either it’s anti-fracking or it’s anti-nukes or anti-oil see but these segments see and I look and then the same thing going on at the same time is about green economy, green economics, all this kind of alternative energy, all these things going on and I looked at hemp and hemp obviously to me is, I look at it as an earth medicine right, because it would be applicable in everyone in these anti positions. It would be something that would help alright, because I mean if you looked at hemp you know, the anti-fracking movement, they should be endorsing hemp. Growing hemp there’d be no need for the fracking.”

Continue reading “One of Civil Rights Activist John Trudell’s Last Interviews | February 22, 2014”

“I have thought about that short time I spent in San Bernardino and it’s almost like I planned it, but I didn’t. I had no plan and was just trying to figure out what I was going to do. Sort of killing time and waiting for my money from the G.I. bill,” 

“It was a rough time economically. No one would hire someone with long hair. In San Bernardino I was gaining an emerging consciousness.” 

“Some of the biggest changes have come in the cultural arts, where there are more Native American musicians, artists, and actors. It’s a whole new scene today. In the 1970’s we were a large connected movement. In the 1980’s, there were smaller movements with those wearing suits and ties. I think the younger people today understand what we did and appreciate it.”

“I learned how to write and read the news in front of a live camera. I learned camera production. Sound and lighting. I learned everything at SBVC. By the time I went to Alcatraz Island, I already knew how to talk into a microphone. It didn’t get to my head.” 

Continue reading “John Trudell Considers Stay In San Bernardino “Life’s Unplanned Turning Point.” | November 14, 2013″

“If voting is based on the concept you’ve got nothing to lose, well see, I think that needs to really be looked at. Because then what’s the point? You’ve got nothing to lose then what’s the point of even voting? You know, I mean from that concept. But to me, what I’m talking about with the voting is, non-voters being the largest political party because its obvious that no matter how much people vote the situation just continues to become favorable to the industrial ruling class, but not favorable to the citizens.”

“I’m not just trashing the voting system but I’m saying that there are times that nationally I don’t think its working.” 

“They make promises and they break them. They make promises. They break them. They make promises. They break them. And so why even waste your energy? Why feed your energy to that lie?” – Voting and Politics.

“I’ll settle for the promise I want to hear, you know, just give me a promise. You don’t give me a plan. Don’t give me anything coherent. Don’t give me anything that makes sense. Just give me a promise and trash the other guy for being bad. That seems to be the criteria that the voters put out there.” – On Voters

Continue reading “A Conversation with John Trudell | September 10, 2010”

“Believe me, I understand the reality of trying to pay health insurance,” Trudell said last week from his Southern California home. “It drives me up the wall. But when you look at all the politics about health care, we’re getting promises and manipulated math. No matter what the existing problems are, there are going to be millions of Americans without adequate health care. So if that’s the situation, let’s prioritize the women and children first. Any culture that does not protect the culture of women and children is not a culture.” 

“This isn’t about money or joining us or organizing,” he said. “It’s about participating in the democratic process by expressing our voice.” ~

“Believe me, I understand the reality of trying to pay health insurance. It drives me up the wall. But when you look at all the politics about health care, we’re getting promises and manipulated math. No matter what the existing problems are, there are going to be millions of Americans without adequate health care. So if that’s the situation, let’s prioritize the women and children first. Any culture that does not protect the culture of women and children is not a culture.”

“This isn’t about money or joining us or organizing. It’s about participating in the democratic process by expressing our voice.”

SOURCE: Austin American-Statesman

“I started out idealistic. I believed. But I got past that pretty quick with the lies and violence and brutality and character assassination every step of the way when all we were saying was, ‘Hey, we’re human beings, and we want to be treated that way.'” 

“Here we are now, 40 years later, and the problems are just as bad, if not worse, than they were then. The biggest mistake that I see about it is we didn’t understand the power of our own intelligence and we emotionally reacted to situations when we should have been coherently thinking.” 

“This truly is a time for us to think and use the power of our creative mind and our creative intelligence for something healthy.”~ 

“I started out idealistic. I believed. But I got past that pretty quick with the lies and violence and brutality and character assassination every step of the way when all we were saying was, Hey, we’re human beings and we want to be treated that way.” 

“I think we’re expressing more nationally through our culture and our art.”

“Here we are now, 40 years later, and the problems are just as bad, if not worse, than they were then. The biggest mistake that I see about it is we didn’t understand the power of our own intelligence and we emotionally reacted to situations when we should have been coherently thinking.”

“This truly is a time for us to think and use the power of our creative mind and our creative intelligence for something healthy.”~

“A culture is not a culture if it does not protect the women and children. It’s time for America to make a decision if it really is a culture or not.” -Give Love Give Life Show! – benefit for the Northern New Mexico Midwifery Center,

“If you’re calling to say yes, leave a message. If you’re not, don’t.” -Trduell’s voice-mail message.

“I can’t name specific individuals, but it was a deliberate act.”

Continue reading “John Trudell Doesn’t Go Halfway | September 27, 2007”

“I think that it’s one of the few truly effective mediums we have to help create and initiate social change. If real stories are told through film I think it can play a strong role. We really can’t depend on any institution to tell us what is going on…The reality is there and I think it emerges through the population through their culture and art.” – On how film can help change society. 

“I like the film. I think they did a good job. They laid my history in the context of a larger history. I’m really comfortable with that, rather than something just about me.” – On Trudell documentary film. 

“It’s about a perception of reality that is based upon the spiritual responsibilities of life. I think that the outside culture has had this perception of reality taken away from them. They didn’t lose it; it was taken away from them…I call it the consciousness of life. Now we’ve been surrounded by a mindset of fear, death and sedation.” – On American Indian culture. “Our cultural identity is stronger. It made our spirit stronger. … It rekindled the spirit in some kind of way. I think that’s the most significant gain that was made.” – On social movements of the 1970s having a positive effect on the life of American Indians today.~

“We need to truly understand the value of our intelligence. The power of our intelligence. Because it’s through our intelligence that we create our daily reality, and we create our daily reality by how we’ve been programmed to perceive or believe reality is. But it’s about energy everything, everything, we project electromagnetic thought into a vibratory energy field, reality, everything is about energy.”

“Cannabis is a medicine for the earth and we’re a part of the earth so therefore that’s the form of medicine it would provide for us. But I also think we need to understand that it is a medicine, and use it as a medicine, and not think in terms of it as a drug and not use it as a drug.” ~

“My grandparents didn’t teach me spirituality, they taught me wisdom. There’s a difference. The stories they told me were basically just lessons, although they may have been couched in different language. But the messages were simple. Do the right thing. Do the best you can with what you have. Respect life. We didn’t consider that religion, we considered it reality.”

“I left AIM in 1979 becuase I was just done. That part of my life was finished. My leaving AIM was inevitable even before the fire, it was just a matter of when. But after the fire I just didn’t have the energy. Reality had changed for me. I could not go back to their reality and I couldn’t bring them into my new reality. I had been exiled from their reality and there was no way I could go back. It was just so devastating that I knew I could never be in the same reality as them ever again.”

“Reality changes and you better change with it, or you lose. Ask the dinosours. I had a responsibility to those who were murdered. I had to survive what had been done. I had to find a way to endure.”

Continue reading “Brave Hearts, Rebel Spirits: A Spiritual Activists Handbook (Book) | 2003”

“In practical reality it’s spoken word with music behind it. But I really don’t have a description for it.” – Trudell on his work. 

“We’re of a generation that didn’t have any poets. The only poets that were dangled in front of us were dead, and we didn’t have our own, because the ones who were became rock stars—so they’re not recognized as poets but [as] singer/songwriters. But there’s a place for spoken word in our reality.”

[Words are] “the source of feeling and then the music becomes part of that feeling and carries it. The way it usually starts is that I get lines in my head, as in’Carry the Stone,’ where I was walking through airport security in London a few years ago and they were being unnecessarily rude, and I remarked to one of them, ‘The more evil the empire, the more paranoid the society’—which became a lyric in the song. It was just something I flipped off to them and then said, ‘Hey, that makes sense.’ It wasn’t something I was consciously thinking.”

Continue reading “Trudell Lets Words Do The Talking | 2002”

 “Whether we see the glass as half full or half empty, it’s to our advantage to recognize that there is water in the glass.” 

“Intelligence is our medicine, our protection, our healing,”

“If we want to change the world or change our lives we need to have an understanding of the value of our intelligence, and respect that value by using it as clearly, coherently and as often as we can.” 

Continue reading “A Tribal Voice of Song, Intelligence | March 14, 2002”

“My experience in life has taught me that no one does anything unless it serves their own self-interests, I don’t mean that cynically. I mean it clinically.” -John Trudell on promoting his music.

“What we did was pretty significant to me in many ways and I learned very much from it. I learned how we could function as a community. No one really expected the media thing to happen the way it did. It went global. It was an adventure.”

“We were the statistics America was talking about. The 44 year life expectancy, all this stuff.” 

“Whatever our struggle was about, whatever it is about, I learned that it’s the right struggle.” ~

SOURCE: Santa Cruz Sentinel

“It’s always good to go home. It’s strengthening to see your past and know you have someplace to go where you’re part of a people.” – On visit to the Santee Sioux reservation in Nebraska.  

“The real strengthening that came out of Alcatraz and that period of time was that it rekindled our spirit. It was a collective Native spirit. Our reality was re-energized and is now stronger than it’s been in a long time.” 

“I consider the electric guitar to be like a drum with strings. It became the drum of the Baby Boom generation. And the drum has always been the center of the tribe, a new electronic tribe.” 

Continue reading “An Indian Poet Rocks on the Rock | October 10, 1999”

“They need enemies. I watch my back, but I have my careless moments. I don’t think they’re watching me every day, but I do think they check up on me every now and then…And if something political or controversial is coming along, they might dabble in my life for a while to see if I have any relationship to this stuff…I don’t know how scary it is, but it tells me how insane they are. I’m no economic threat, no political threat, no military threat, but it tells me something about their paranoia, how disconnected from reality they are, and their insecurity with what they perceive to be their own power…If they have to pay all this attention to me, and all I do is think and talk … it tells me more about them.” -On being perceived as a threat by the U.S. government.

Continue reading “Anger ‘healthy’ for John Trudell | June 18, 1999”

“For us, as a native people, our real truths and the reality of who we are are much more effectively conveyed through culture and art than through politics and economics. Politics and economics are imposed on us. We can’t be as real. Art comes from us. So our truths become more real.” – Trudell on the best way to convey the experience of native peoples today  

“In the technology-driven world, the electric guitar is the new drum. When they amplified that guitar and rock “n’ roll came out of it, it became the new drum. Its shape is different and you play it different, but the effect is the same.” – Trudell on guitars.

Continue reading “Indian Activist Now Speaks Through His Music, Poetry | April 2, 1999”

“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.” – Regarding writing his first lyrics.

” His writing found its way on tape with friend and guitarist Jesse Ed Davis composing backing tracks for two albums. Unable to sign with any record label, Trudell formed Peace Music and released the songs on mail-order cassettes. In 1986, “a.k.a. Grafitti Man” wound up in the hands of Bob Dylan, who called it the best record of the year. 

Continue reading “The Hutchinson News | April 16, 1998”

“Hope came out last, but why did it come out last if the box was supposed to be filled with evil? I always wondered about that when I first read the story. Did that mean that Hope was an evil? Should we not hope? Maybe we should pray more than we hope — because at least when we’re praying, we’re participating.” 

“We need to take responsibility as individuals and let that evolve into leadership. Instead, it’s clarity of thought that’s important. That’s what should be passed on.”

Continue reading “Spirit Of Survival – Leader Turns Activism to Art | March 23, 1997”

“I learned a lot from the political activist days. It was very valuable to me. But at some point in all of this, I personally came to the conclusion that maybe we can speak our truths more realistically, individually and collectively from our culture and art. That’s really who we are. The political system that surrounds us, it’s something that is there and we have to acknowledge it and deal with it. But it didn’t emanate from us. so it’s not really who we are.”

“It’s the most natural way. It’s encoded in the DNA for us. To go into a sweat ceremony, it’s you, the earth and the willows, the darkness, fire and some water and prayers. It’s a much different experience than dressing up in your Sunday best and going to a temple. The right to pray the way we pray. I do not see how anyone could deny that. That to me is anti-spirit and anti-Christ.” – On Sweat Ceremonies

SOURCE: Albuquerque Journal

“One of the things I feel on the part of my audience is that they’re willing to hear it, even if they don’t agree with it. What I do, it’s culture, it’s music, it’s art. I’m not trying to tell anybody to follow my line of thinking.”

“Between the right and left and political jingoisms, the world has evolved to where there is a corporate, multinational world order…even the illusion of democracy is starting to disappear. There’s a planetary ruling-class rich, and everyone else is here to serve them.”

Continue reading “Trudells Truths | February 24, 1995”

“The entire history of the Indian is genocide. It’s alien terminology, and it messes with our identity. We are older than America. We’ve been part of the land. We are ancestral.” – To Trudell, the term “Indians” means only the last few hundred years of his people’s heritage, by no means its entirety.

“When the fire happened, it absolutely changed reality; it altered reality for me forever, and beyond forever.”

“I don’t belong in this world any more. It’s not changed for them, but it was altered for me forever.”

“Hoping and wishing are heroin for the thought process; we need more time thinking and doing.”

“I wore politics as an identity, but I came to understand it as a limited identity…This is all about my perceptions. I’m headed in a direction, and I will continue to see where it takes me.”

“I write lines. I don’t write poetry. I don’t write lyrics. Some of the lines become poetry, and some of the lines become lyrics, but I always write what I have to say. If I sat down to write a song, I would have to pay attention to the math of music.” ~

“The entire history of the Indian is genocide. It’s alien terminology, and it messes with our identity. We are older than America. We’ve been part of the land. We are ancestral.”

“When the fire happened, it absolutely changed reality; it altered reality for me forever, and beyond forever.”

“I don’t belong in this world any more. It’s not changed for them, but it was altered for me forever.”

Continue reading “After Personal Tragedy, Indian Activist Turns to Poetry | December 1, 1994”

“I don’t think politics allows us to speak the truth. Because in order to maintain some semblance or pretense of unity or pretense of getting along, people have to suppress their realities.”

“I don’t trust anyone enough to go sit in a psychiatrist’s office and let them go through my brain. Yet, I’ve got to rant.” 

“This society, they refuse to recognize who we are. We’re not Indians–Indians live in India. And we’re not Native Americans–Native Americans are anyone born in the United States of America. We’re the People. We’ve always called ourselves The People. In my way and manner and fashion, maybe I’m trying to address that. So if anyone hears any of this in any way and it helps them remember they’re a human being, then I’m doing my job.”  

SOURCE: Sentinel

“I don’t think politics allows us to speak the truth. Because in order to maintain some semblance or pretense of unity or pretense of getting along, people have to suppress their realities.”

“I don’t trust anyone enough to go sit in a psychiatrist’s office and let them go through my brain. Yet, I’ve got to rant.” 

“This society, they refuse to recognize who we are. We’re not Indians–Indians live in India. And we’re not Native Americans–Native Americans are anyone born in the United States of America. We’re the People. We’ve always called ourselves The People. In my way and manner and fashion, maybe I’m trying to address that. So if anyone hears any of this in any way and it helps them remember they’re a human being, then I’m doing my job.”  ~

SOURCE: Sentinel

“I need to record another album. I’m doing a little writing. But I write because I have to write.”

“It’s about being human beings in a technological world. We can’t avoid (technology), but we’ve allowed it to feed off us, eat our spirit. We can alter this. If we live in the illusion of reality, we become the illusion. Let’s try to be coherent and seek clarity. Through that we will understand ourselves.”

“It’s not about hope, it’s about hangin’ in there. It’s not about consistency, it’s about persistency.” ~

SOURCE: The Seattle Times

“There are no words to explain [my feelings]. I’ve tried many times, but those words just don’t exist.”

“I started writing as a result of that [fire]. In my realities it was the parting gift from Tina. So when she gave me that, I hung on to that because I didn’t have a lot of things to hang on to.”

“I don’t think politics allows us to speak the truth, because in order to maintain some semblance or pretense of unity or pretense of getting along, people have to suppress their realities.”

“It’s all therapy for me. I don’t trust anyone enough to go sit in a psychiatrist’s office and let them go through my brain. Yet I’ve got to rant.” – On his poetry.

“I’m not sure, because at times I hear a lot of positive feedback but nobody will put me on their stage. I just know that some people like it and some people don’t, some people get it and some people don’t. So I don’t really concern myself. I do it because I have to.”

“This society, they refuse to recognize who we are. We’re not Indians – Indians live in India. And we’re not Native Americans – Native Americans are anyone born in the United States of America. We’re The People. We’ve always called ourselves The People.”

“In my way and manner and fashion, maybe I’m trying to address that. So if anyone hears any of this in any way and it helps them remember they’re a human being, then I’m doing my job.” ~

SOURCE: Dallas Morning News

“There are no words to explain [my feelings]. I’ve tried many times, but those words just don’t exist.”

“I started writing as a result of that [fire]. In my realities it was the parting gift from Tina. So when she gave me that, I hung on to that because I didn’t have a lot of things to hang on to.”

“I don’t think politics allows us to speak the truth, because in order to maintain some semblance or pretense of unity or pretense of getting along, people have to suppress their realities.”

Continue reading “Former American Indian Advocate Writes His Poetry To Ease His Pain | Oct. 27, 1994”

“I just think I express my consciousness. I wrote a song about women, but I’m not a woman. I wrote a song about the Earth. I’m a part of the Earth.” 

“I get confronted with that a lot, ‘You’re too angry.’ My anger frightens them more than homelessness. All I can say to those people is goodbye. We don’t want them in our way later.” 

“They have rage in their name, but it tells you where the rage is directed.” – On Rage Against the Machine. ~

SOURCE: Statesman Journal

“I just think I express my consciousness. I wrote a song about women, but I’m not a woman. I wrote a song about the Earth. I’m a part of the Earth.” 

“I get confronted with that a lot, ‘You’re too angry.’ My anger frightens them more than homelessness. All I can say to those people is goodbye. We don’t want them in our way later.” 

“They have rage in their name, but it tells you where the rage is directed.” – On Rage Against the Machine. ~

SOURCE: Statesman Journal

“My family was killed in February 1979. Somebody burned down the house where my wife, Tina, my mother-in-law and my three children were living on the Shoshone Paiute Reservation in Duck Valley, Nevada. It happened about 12 hours after I burned an American flag on the steps of the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the government said the fire started in the fireplace and was an accident. But I had some people investigate it and discovered that it wasn’t an accident, but a fire of ‘suspicious origin.’ Soon after that I started writing. When I look at it now, I needed something to hang on to.”

“After the fire, I needed to look at what was going on because I was no longer in the same world.”

“I was entirely in a different world. It gave me a chance to step back and look at all the things that were going on around me and start to understand how I was going to, let’s just say, participate.”

“One of the things we accomplished in the political movement of the 60s is that the spirit was rekindled. The government, through its paramilitary war of deceit, smashed our political unity. But what happened is that simultaneously came the reawakening of the memory, our ancestral memory.” 

“It’s important to communicate because somebody’s got to say something. Silence is dangerous. What’s missing in this society is people speaking their feelings. That’s how the spirit speaks to human beings. This is a time historically when we need everybody to communicate about how we feel. That’s all I’m doing.” ~

SOURCE: Petaluma Argus Courier

“My family was killed in February 1979. Somebody burned down the house where my wife, Tina, my mother-in-law and my three children were living on the Shoshone Paiute Reservation in Duck Valley, Nevada. It happened about 12 hours after I burned an American flag on the steps of the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the government said the fire started in the fireplace and was an accident. But I had some people investigate it and discovered that it wasn’t an accident, but a fire of ‘suspicious origin.’ Soon after that I started writing. When I look at it now, I needed something to hang on to.”

Continue reading “Ghost Dancer | April 15, 1994”

“I look back at that period and I still really don’t know how I got through it. The world literally changed. On Feb. 11, 1979, I was in one world. On Feb. 12, the world looked the same, but it was completely different. The best I can remember it or see it, I went off into madness. I went a lot of places. I went to the future, to the past, in people’s minds. I went everywhere. I didn’t try to fight it, I just went where it took me and trusted I would get through it. When I started writing poetry, that was a real outlet. If I hadn’t, who knows what would have happened?”

Continue reading “John Trudell Hasn’t Lost His Activist Edge | September 16, 1993”

“When I began writing poetry in the early eighties I felt music was dying because the same old stuff was being sung about. What I felt was needed was an infusion of human energy.”

“It’s obvious people can no longer depend on institutions of civilization to tell them the truth, so the only way it can be expressed is through art and culture.”

“Music is dangerous when it expresses feelings and coherency.” 

Continue reading “His Aim Still True | August 27, 1993”

“These movies address the reality of what Native Americans go through.” 

“I’ve always played by the rules even when the game is rigged and I’ve had problems with the law, especially after I questioned laws that are unfair.”

“The government expected a violent reaction from me in these movies but didn’t get it. They wanted violence so they could arrest me. I’ve seen what happens to those who get arrested and question the law.” 

“I served in the military in the 1960s because I had no other way of making a living. I saw racism in the military, not only toward the Vietnamese but also toward minority groups by their fellow Americans.” 

“The government waged war against AIM, and the FBI was specifically after me.”

“If the flag is desecrated, it is supposed to be burned. Desecration can also mean injustice and racism.”

Continue reading “Trudell Merges Real Life, Movie Roles | July 31, 1992”

“That is the value of the film. This is reality. This happened to us. Incident at Oglala is a history book, but it’s also a current social issues book. It’s talking about one of the faces of a democracy, one that you don’t ordinarily see.”

“In May I got a call from the casting people. I made an agreement to play Jimmy. Then I didn’t think about it anymore. That was my approach. It was up to me to be as real as I could be. I decided I was Jimmy Looks Twice.”

“My reality is to go and see where it takes me as an individual — do what I can and do the best that I can.” ~

“What happened to my family tells me that I was closer to the truth than even I knew.”

“Not having a permanent address sounds great, but it has its drawbacks, believe me.”

“What my FBI file reflects to me is their absurdity…Seventeen thousand pages is a lot of trees to assassinate to spy on someone. On the other hand, I don’t know how many agents I’m keeping off the streets, but if they’re spying on me, at least they’re not out killing someone else.”

Continue reading “Trial By Fire American Indian Movement Co-Founder John Trudell Finds a Life Line in Words and Music | June 17, 1992”

“The violent rap we got laid on us, it was all our people that died. You don’t see no long list of feds and death squad members and any of these other people. You don’t see any long list of their dead. You see a long list of our dead, and you look at that list and every one of them’s got an Indian name.”

Continue reading “Native American Poet Actor John Trudell | June 9, 1992”

“This fire took off too damn fast, and it was very intense. My family was murdered. This must be dealt with and that’s not some emotional ranting coming out of me. I can’t say all the things that I know at this time, but I know who knows and it’s only a matter of time. This cannot pass silently into the night. I can’t bring them back but in my own mind I can’t let the ones who did this just go away.”

“The government will try to discredit or propagandize but I think the public will relate to the injustices shown and there’ll be a ripple effect.” – On documentary film Incident at Oglala. 

“The government perjured itself to get Leonard back into the country from Canada and then made up ballistics evidence that convicted him. But if the people think the government just does this to Indians, then they’re being irresponsible with their thinking process. It’s become a method of operation [against all races] in America.” ~

SOURCE: The San Francisco Chronicle

“It was murder. They were murdered as an act of war.” – On the killing of his wife, three children and mother-in-law. 

“They waged war against us. They hunted us down. They killed, jailed, destroyed, by any means necessary. They saw that magical thing that happened with Alcatraz…all of a sudden this spirit was popping up and gaining momentum through AIM, and this is why the spirit-hunters, those who hunt free thought, came after us.” – On the U.S. government and FBI. 

Continue reading “‘Accidental’ Deaths of Family Still Plague Native Actor | May 8, 1992”

“Whatever their reasons. Hollywood, or the entertainment industry, is saying something about Indians. I don’t see the rest of the media knocking down any doors to do that. Actually, we wouldn’t even be having these kinds of discussions if Hollywood hadn’t done this. For me, the issue around ‘Thunderheart’ is, hey, these things did happen. This type of warfare and storm-trooper activity took place, and it took place in this country, and it took place against a certain segment of the population because of their political, racial and cultural identities. And I respect the idea that the people involved in this project expressed that.”

Continue reading “Films About Indians Now the Rage In Hollywood | May 03, 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”

“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”

“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”

“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”