During a recent visit to Albuquerque, poet and Native leader John Trudell sat down for an interview about native people’s past and future. Trudell is a former national chairman of the American Indian Movement. He lost his family in the war being waged against indigenous people. Born on February 15, 1946 in Omaha, Nebraska, Trudell grew up on and around the nearby Santee Chicano/Mexicanos Sioux reservation.(His father was Santee, his mother’s tribal roots were in Mexico).
Interviewer: It has been 509 years since the invasion of these lands. What form do you see the struggle for Indigenous rights taking right now? Or do you even see the Native Pride movement still existing?
John Trudell: We have to understand, in the evolution of our people, there is a reason why we are who we are. I don’t think its a matter of being proud. It’s a matter of living as native people. A matter of being who we are. We represent several generations as survivors of genocide. We are physically still here and we all carry parts of the original dream memory within us. You see, in the real world all parts are different, but it’s how the parts fit together to create a balance. Things change – that’s the nature of reality. So we must live as today yet retain who we are. Our responsibility is to recognize and not judge. Because that is what Native factionalism is all about – arrogance, pride and judgment.
Right now there is a movement among Chicano/Mexicanos to reclaim their Indiigenous roots. What do you think about this?
I think anytime we start remembering and reclaiming who we are, we need to be glad for this remembering and recognizing. Then I think we should be grateful, happy and thankful for who we are and go easy on the pride. Isn’t it better to be grateful and happy than it is to be proud? Pride is of the ego – happiness is of the spirit. In our need to identify ourselves, we must remember that our humanity must be more active than pride. Humility is of the being, and pride is of the human.
What do you think it’s going to take to create a unified movement among Indigenous people?
The first thing we need to realize is that none of us are Indians. No, we are older than the concept. Native American? We are older than the concept. And fighting over who is the leader is so non-traditional, so non-native. We don’t need any leaders. That’s the problem we had in the 60s. We were acting like leaders, calling ourselves Indians, and pushing pride.
So if it’s not going to be pride, then what do we need to have?
More humility and less pride. A part of this rejoining is knowing that we all have our own ways and that any rejoining has to respect that. We need to think in terms of evolution rather than revolution – that places a more realistic perspective on it. The genocide we endured happened over the course of approximately 20-25 generations, and we are driving ourselves wild trying to produce a solution to our problems in one generation. A main memory from the original dream is that we are spirits and we are human, and we are the descendants of humans who thanked the creator every day for life. They were grateful. Humble.
Right now, Disney Studios is working on a film about Mexican Revolutionary Emiliano Zapata. Zapata was a native Nahuatl speaker from the village of Anenecuilco. He is still revered to this day as the greatest indigenous Mexican hero next to Kuauhtemok. It was recently announced that Antonio Banderas, a white Spaniard, would be starring in the film as Zapata. What do you think of this? What do you think of non-natives playing natives in films?
It’s arrogance. I just want to see what kind of movie they make. My real issue
with it is that there are more natives playing Natives now – but it’s still the same old shit. It’s when we start writing and directing the stories that things will change.
So do you think it’s an issue of control?
Exactly, like with Zapata. If a native didn’t write it, then I know that it will be more distorted than if a native wrote it. I’m not surprised that they cast a white man, they are not any more sympathetic now than they were years ago.
With the advent of digital video and the ability to set up an editing studio in your own house, do you see more Native filmmakers dismissing Hollywood altogether?
It’s possible to do it, but I don;t know of any organization that is organized to do it. Even with all this new technology, the digital cameras and the computers, it all costs money. I’m not saying this is not a solvable problem, but it’s going to take the people who want it to happen to make it happen.
Do you have anything to say to all the brothers and sisters who might be reading this?
If People have a problem with you, with what you are doing and who you are, let that be their problem, not your problem. We have to know what to absorb and what to deflect.
Thanks for taking the time to talk to me.
Thanks for listening. ~