Extremely Eloquent, Therefore Extremely Dangerous
John Trudell: In His Own Words
“It places the struggles of the Indian people in a contemporary historical setting. This story addresses the reality of a traditional political struggle that took place…the government responded with hatred and violence to destroy that political voice.”
~
SOURCE: Argus Leader
“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”“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
“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
“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”“The only true, real connection we will ever have to power is our relation to the Mother Earth. We are a natural part of the Earth; we are not separate from it. The Earth is our mother. The Earth is a spirit and we are an extension of that spirit. We are spirit. We are power.”
SOURCE: Rapid City Journal
“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
“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”“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
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
“Whites are catching up to us Natives in this treatment. You’re accepting too much now and you have every right not to accept it.”
SOURCE: Calgary Herald
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”“Nature is letting us see that the way that ash flows is the way radiation flows and we better understand that no matter where we live, we can’t escape its effects.” – On lesson from Mount St. Helens eruption.
SOURCE: North East Bay Independent and Gazette
“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
“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
“We are not your enemy, we never have been.”
“[Americans of all races] have such a low spirit that they will allow themselves to be ruled by liars and exploiters.”
“[In South Dakota] the new Indian is white.” ~
SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes Vol. 11 No. 3
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
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
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
“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
“We aren’t any military threat or economic threat. Let’s get off this old mentality. We don’t want to own Exxon. We just don’t want Exxon to own us. That’s all it’s all about.” ~
SOURCE: Divided But Not Conquered
“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
“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.
“They want to put Leonard on trial for an idea that he represents, not for any crimes that he has committed.”
“There are too many dead people who couldn’t be here to testify.” ~
SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes, Vol. 9 No. 1
“The commitment of our people must be 100%. For without a struggle, we will have nothing.” ~
SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes, Vol. 8 No. 4.
“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”“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
“We have grouped together by our religions and beliefs to educate our own people, and to try to educate white people. We don’t want to be statistics. We believe all lives are sacred and everybody is entitled to dignity.” ~
SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes, vol. 8 No. 3.
“There is protection in the pipe. There is power in the pipe that is spiritual power. We accept the fact that we have to have lawyers, but there’s a lot of protection in the pipe too.”
“I’d rather have 50 interested people than 500 just curious people.” ~
SOURCE: Des Moines Tribune.
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.
“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
“I don’t believe in civil rights. It’s human rights I am for.”
“The solution to our country’s problems isn’t jail, or alcohol, or churches, or higher education, but people.”
“We, the Indians of the nation are tired of being lied about. We’re tired of being portrayed as seen in the John Wayne westerns.”
“When the Indians stayed on their reservations and got drunk, and fought and shot and killed between themselves, it was ok. Now that we try to organize and call the political system corrupt, they call us militant, radical, Communists, and subversive.”
Continue reading “Indian Activist Raps Role of Whites in Rights Denial | October 7, 1975”“It is impossible for Chicanos and minorities to get justice in this white man’s world. When they tell us that they are working for us through legislation they are giving you nothing but bullshit.” ~
SOURCE: Colorado Springs Gazette
“Under the concept of the Constitution of the United States of trial by my peers. I should be tried on the reservation.” ~
SOURCE: Nevada State Journal
“The FBI should explain to us the deaths of people who have been killed on the Pine Ridge Reservation. When we start seeing justice delivered in those terms, then maybe our people will lay down their arms. But all these FBI agents who grew up watching John Wayne like to play cowboys and Indians. This time it backfired. They ran into someone who didn’t want to play. We’re tired of being the only ones killed. You can only push so long and when people have nothing to lose, they fight back.” ~
SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes. Vol. 7, No. 3.
“The American Indian Movement does not apologize for the two dead Federal Bureau of Investigation agents.”
“We’re tired of being the only ones killed.”
“We’ve heard accusations, now let’s see the proof. The press should demand to see the evidence.” – On alleged AIM involvement in shooting of agents on Pine Ridge.
“A fascist tactic. The state has no jurisdiction on the reservation.” – On Bill Janklow bringing state law officers onto the reservation. ~
SOURCE: Rapid City Journal
“They’re going to use this as a justification for shooting our people and locking them up. They’re using it to attack our credibility. They’ve already convicted us.” – On FBI casting blame on AIM for Pine Ridge shootings. ~
“There is nothing respectful about making people be what they don’t want to be. A white political structure is deciding our way of life. Right now, if we don’t go the white man’s way we become a statistic on alcoholism, suicide, or low level education.”
“I don’t want to talk about violence. Ask the people who make the guns and the bombs about violence. If we defend with violent tactics it’s because we are presented with them.”
“We are not troubled with inner tribal differences as other organizations are. We’re just getting by, which is something all Indians are familiar with.” ~
SOURCE: Life (newspaper), University of Utah. Logan. V.72, No.73
“Civil rights are rights men legislate against you after they take away your human rights.”
“I do not consider AIM to be a militant organization compared to United States arms policy.”
“They talk about broken laws, we talk abut 389 broken treaties. Either all these laws mean something or all laws must be invalid.”
“Wars are being fought against a defenseless people every day. White people say these wars ended with their grandfathers.” ~
SOURCE: Student Life (newspaper), University of Utah. Logan. V.72, No. 73
John Trudell the 29-year old chairman of the American Indian Movement, describes his organization as “the extension of the old renegade Indian membership.” Trudell, a Sioux living on the Duck Valley Reservation near the Idaho-Nevada border, was interviewed last week by reporter Thomas J. Lewis of The Idaho Statesman.
“AIM is maturing a little bit,” Trundell said. “We’re coming to the point now where we have a fluid membership.”
“The real question and issue is what about the system that uses the illegal tactics when it comes to its not dealing with issues like alcoholism and other problems. Those are the tactics we’re concerned with.”
Continue reading “AIM Maturing, Chairman Says, Despite Criticism. | April 21, 1975”“The action was successful. Fairchild can no longer openly and quietly exploit Indian people. We have shown the people how Fairchild operates on the reservation. But Fairchild is just one of the many corporations which operates this way.” ~
SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes
“We feel we started with nothing, now we have the tribe willing to negotiate with the company over the dismissal of 140 employees and a federal audit has been promised of on the job training funds paid to the Fairchild Camera and Instruments Co.”
Conference was called to “get the media to get off our case and to start concentrating on Fairchild.”
“I don’t try to see it from the corporate viewpoint. Besides, no job in America is worth costing people their respect.”
“Yes there’ll be some negative reaction on the part of businesses, but it may be good for the reservation in the long run.”
“All the media coverage I see on this thing is that AIM gets amnesty. AIM did not ask for amnesty. That was never one of our issues or demands. The issues are Fairchild and the exploitation of the Navajo Tribe.” ~
SOURCE: Clovis News Journal
“The [Fort Laramie] treaty was broken for 100 years before America began talking about its validity. When Indians were herded onto reservations in the 1800’s it created the illusion the war was over. But the war is not over and will never be over until we have justice.” ~
“They use the law today like they used the cavalry years ago. They are using the law to destroy us.” ~
SOURCE: The Black Panther Newsletter. Vol 12, Iss 13.
“[Federal action was done purposely to provoke the Lincoln group to do things] that would turn public opinion against us. We didn’t ask to be here in Lincoln. We were forced to come.” ~
SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes. P.13
“If the government wants us to respect the law they’ve got to respect it also.”
“We are not guilty of any crimes, but Nixon is. Yet, the President now says if Nixon is convicted he may pardon him.” ~
SOURCE: Lincoln Journal Star
“We want it known that we will no longer wait for their revelations. We have some revelations of our own for the church. We have peace within ourselves and love for our people.” ~
SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes. P. 12
“We have been condemned for being militant and violent, but in the American Indian Movement, we have not killed anyone, yet many of our people have died. We have not taken anyone and locked them up in prisons, but many of our people have been put in jails. We have not sold alcohol to people on reservations. We have not taken the young children away from their parents and put them in mission schools. We have not taken racist education and put it inside of our boarding schools. We have done none of these things, and yet we are the ones condemned for being militant and violent and radical. It was militancy and it was violence, and it was radicalization that forced these things upon us and it did not come from our communities.” ~
SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes Vol. 6 No. 1 p.11
“This conspiracy to destroy the Indian people is being conducted through the use of alcohol, drugs, the judicial system and federal bureaucracy. This conspiracy is targeted not only at AIM, we have only to look at the oppressive conditions of our Indian peoples throughout America to recognize the realness of this conspiracy.” ~
SOURCE: Idaho State Journal
AIM supporters were thoroughly confused by the shooting, split in loyalties, and unsure what to do next. Statements by AIM leadership reflected the uncertainty and by September 4, a statement by John Trudell, national co-chairman (with Carter Camp) could say only that “the central leadership committee of AIM, having thoroughly evaluated all aspects of the shooting, has determined that the shooting was conspiratorial in nature.” Trudell described the conspiracy as aimed at the destruction of Indian people “through the use of alcohol, drugs, the judicial system, and the federal bureaucracy.” Trudell said that AIM refused to aid this conspiracy, and that it was asking members to return to their home communities to carry on with the business of program development for the liberation of native peoples in their own home communities. ~
SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes. p. 8.