Dennis Banks
Dennis Banks | |
---|---|
Naawakamig | |
Born | Leech Lake Indian Reservation, Minnesota, United States | April 12, 1937
Died | October 29, 2017 | (aged 80)
Nationality | Ojibwe, American |
Occupation(s) | Teacher, lecturer, activist, author |
Children | 20[1] |
Dennis Banks (April 12, 1937, in Ojibwe – October 29, 2017) was a Native American activist, teacher, and author. He was a longtime leader of the American Indian Movement, which he co-founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1968 to represent urban Indians. He was a pre-eminent spokesman for Native Americans. His protests won government concessions and created national attention and sympathy for the oppression and deplorable endemic social and economic conditions for Native Americans.[2]
Early life
Born on Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota in 1937, Dennis Banks was also known as Nowa Cumig (Naawakamig in the Ojibwe Double Vowel System).
Banks's mother abandoned him to be raised by grandparents. But, he was separated from that family, too, when he was taken at the age of 5 to live at a federal
When he was 17, Banks joined the
"What I saw at Sunagawa really changed direction in my life."
— Dennis Banks, A Good Day to Die[7]
Activism
Work with AIM
Banks was a champion of Native pride, who defied authority and spoke for the Nation's oldest minority. In 1968, Banks co-founded the American Indian Movement (AIM) in Minneapolis.[8] AIM sought to ensure and to protect the civil rights of Native Americans living in urban areas[9] and to protest the treatment of Native Americans and the nation's history of injustices against its indiginoeous peoples.[2] Banks felt that a point had been reached in history, where Native Americans could not tolerate any longer the abuse and Native American mothers could not tolerate any longer the mistreatment that goes on on reservations.[10]
Banks participated in the 1969–1971
Banks also traveled to Germany, where he, together with AIM co-founder Vernon Bellecourt, set up an AIM office in West Berlin and also traveled behind the Iron Curtain to meet with East German AIM supporters.[11]
Trail of Broken Treaties
In 1972, he assisted in the organization of AIM's "Trail of Broken Treaties", a caravan of numerous activist groups across the United States to Washington, D.C., to call attention to the plight of Native Americans. The caravan members anticipated meeting with United States Congress leaders about related issues, but government officials, most notably Harrison Loesch, the Interior Department Assistant Secretary responsible for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), refused to meet with delegates.[12] Banks helped lead a takeover of the BIA offices.[13] Activists seized and occupied the headquarters of the Department of Interior.; in the process some vandalized the offices of the BIA. Many valuable Indian land deeds were destroyed or lost during the occupation.[citation needed] Over 9000 tons of documents were removed by AIM members and hidden by the Hatteras Tuscarora and Lumbee in Robeson County, N.C. The FBI would find the documents and many were returned to the BIA.
Some thirty years later, Banks returned to Robeson County, North Carolina. where he reconnected with Hatteras Tuscarora/Lumbee Attorney and Activist JoJo Brooks Shifflett. Banks and Shifflett remained in a committed relationship during the last years of his life.[citation needed]
Wounded Knee incident
Wounded Knee was the scene of the last major conflict of the so-called American Indian Wars, in which 350 Lakota men, women, and children were massacred by United States Army in 1890. It was the deadliest mass-shooting in US history.[2] In 1973, Banks returned to Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, when the local Lakota civil rights organization asked for help in dealing with law enforcement authorities in nearby border towns. Residents of Pine Ridge believed the police had failed to prosecute the murder of a young Lakota man. Under Banks' leadership, AIM led a protest in Custer, South Dakota in 1973 against judicial proceedings that had resulted in the reduction of charges of a white man to a second degree offense for murdering a Native American.[citation needed]
AIM became involved in the political faction wanting to oust
Thirty resident families returned to the village to find that their homes and businesses had been destroyed by the federal agents. The town was never rebuilt. Banks was the principal negotiator and leader of the Wounded Knee occupation. Subsequent investigation of Wilson found questionable accounting practices, and Wilson had sold off tens of thousands of acres of the reservation to mining companies. As a result of involvement in Custer and Wounded Knee, Banks and 300 others were arrested by the federal government and faced trial. He was acquitted of the Wounded Knee charges, but was convicted of incitement to riot and assault stemming from the earlier confrontation at Custer.[citation needed]
Aquash murder and trial
Refusing the prison term, Banks jumped bail and worked with
Banks was given amnesty in California by then-Governor Jerry Brown, who refused to extradite him to South Dakota to face the charges related to activities in the 1973 Custer protests. He also received financial support from actor and AIM sympathizer Marlon Brando.[16]
In January 2003, a federal grand jury indicted Arlo Looking Cloud and John Graham in the murder of Aquash. Since 2004, they have been convicted by federal and state juries; each is serving a life sentence.
In 2008, Vine Richard "Dick" Marshall was indicted by a federal grand jury for aiding and abetting the murder of Aquash; he was alleged to have provided John Graham with a gun. He was acquitted of the charge. In 1975, he had been serving as one of Banks' bodyguards. Aquash was brought to Marshall's house on the Pine Ridge Reservation in December 1975 before being taken to the site of her murder.[17] Authorities continue to investigate the Aquash murder. In 2014, The New York Times Magazine spoke to Banks for an in-depth feature about the murders of Aquash and Ray Robinson.[1]
Education and career
During his time in California from 1976 to 1983, Banks earned an
After Governor Brown left office, in 1984 Banks received
In 1985, Banks left Onondaga to surrender to federal law enforcement officials in South Dakota. He served 18 months in prison related to the 1973 charges for the Custer riot. After his release, he worked as a drug and alcohol counselor on the
In 2006, Banks led Sacred Run 2006,
Since "The Longest Walk" in 1978, Sacred Runs have developed as an international movement. Sacred Run 2006 had runners from Japan, Australia, Ireland, and Canada, as well as many from the United States. In 2008, the International "The Longest Walk 2" followed the Sacred Run 2006 route, as well as the original route of 1978 walk. Dennis Banks delivered a "Manifesto for Change" to Representative John Conyers (D-MI).
Banks was a member of the board of trustees for Leech Lake Tribal College, a public, two-year college located just outside Cass Lake, Minnesota.[5]
Politics
In August 2016, Banks received the vice presidential nomination of the Peace and Freedom Party, a party with ballot access in California, which identified itself as socialist and feminist.[22][9] He appeared on the California ballot with presidential nominee Gloria La Riva.[23]
Marriage and family
While deployed in Japan, Banks married a woman named Machiko. After they had been together for two years, Machiko had a daughter, Michiko. Banks left Japan after being court martialed by the Air Force for being AWOL (Absent Without Official Leave). He never saw Machiko or Michiko again. He returned to Japan several times, but Machiko had remarried and Michiko was at university in Northern Japan.[24]
According to birth records from Minnesota, Banks had one child with wife Elladean (Ellie) Banks: Red Elk (born June 7, 1970), and seven children with wife Jeanette Banks: Janice (born March 2, 1962), Darla (born February 18, 1963), fraternal twins Deanna Jane and Dennis James (born April 20, 1964), Tatanka Wanbli (born September 7, 1971).
At Pine Ridge Reservation, Banks met Darlene Kamook Nichols, who was 17 and still in high school. He was 32. After she graduated, they started seeing each other and married. They had three daughters and a son together: Tokala, Tiopa, Tasina and son Tacanunpa Banks.[24] They later divorced. (Kamook Nichols remarried and is now known as Darlene Ecoffey.)
In Salt Lake City he had a daughter, named Arrow, with Angie Begay (Navajo).[24]
In 1989, Banks met a photographer named Alice Lambert. She gave birth to Minoh Biqwad on October 10, 1992.
Banks has several stepchildren: Roland (Kawliga) Blanchard, Beverly Baribeau, Glenda Roberts, Denise Banks, Pearl Blanchard, and Danielle Louise Dickey. (Dickey was murdered in 2007 on the
Banks had 20 children and more than 100 grandchildren.[5] Mr. Banks was in a committed relationship with Lumbee Attorney and Native Rights Activist, JoJo Brooks Shifflett in the later years of his life and at the time of his death.
Death
Banks died at the age of 80 of complications from pneumonia following heart surgery on October 29, 2017, in Rochester, Minnesota.[10]
Works
Filmography
- War Party (1988) - Ben Crowkiller / Dead Crow Chief
- The Last of the Mohicans (1992) - Ongewasgone
- Thunderheart (1992) - Himself
- Older Than America (2008) - Pete Goodfeather (final film role)
- American Experience (2009, TV Series documentary - We Shall Remain: "Part V - Wounded Knee") - Himself
- A Good Day to Die (2010, Documentary) - Himself
- Nowa Cumig: The Drum Will Never Stop (2011, Documentary) - Himself
- California Indian (2011) - Himself
Discography
The musical release Still Strong (1993) features Banks' original songs, as well as traditional Native American songs. He also participated as a musician on such albums as Peter Gabriel's Les Musiques du Monde and Peter Matthiessen's No Boundaries.[citation needed]
In 2012, Banks joined forces with Golden Globe and Grammy Award-winning artist Kitarō in celebration of the Earth on the CD Let Mother Earth Speak. The project contains a message of international peace, intertwined with stories and life lessons from Banks, and featuring the music of Kitaro. The album was released on September 11, 2012, on Domo Records.[citation needed]
Autobiography
- Banks, Dennis and ISBN 0-8061-3580-8
References
- ^ a b c Eric Konigsberg, "Who Killed Anna Mae?", The New York Times Magazine, April 25, 2014
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
- ^ Stock, Catherine McNicol (2020). "Table of Contents: Nuclear Country". www.upenn.edu. Archived from the original on August 13, 2020. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
- S2CID 148700838– via researchgate.net.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
- ^ "A Good Day To Die | Journeyman Pictures". www.journeyman.tv. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
- '^ n-activist-dennis-banks/454089543/ "American Indian Movement founder Dennis Banks dies at 80". Star Tribune. October 30, 2017. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
- ^ a b "Dennis Banks, Dennis Banks, Native American Activist And Wounded Knee Occupier, Dies At 80". NPR. October 30, 2017. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
- ^ a b c McFadden, Robert D. (October 30, 2017). "Dennis Banks, American Indian Civil Rights Leader, Dies at 80". The New York Times. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
- ^ "Kindred by Choice | H. Glenn Penny". University of North Carolina Press. pp. 191, 193. Retrieved March 9, 2024.
- ^ Banks, Dennis and Erdoes, Richard: Ojibwa Wizard: Dennis Banks And The Rise Of The American Indian Movement, p. 134.
- ^ "American Indigenous activist Dennis Banks dead at 80 | CBC News". CBC. Associated Press. October 30, 2017. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
- ^ Deborah Kades, "Native Hero", Wisconsin Academy Review (2005); accessed October 30, 2017.
- ^ "On Feb. 24, 1976, a rancher in South Dakota was installing a fence on land situated along the edge of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation when he spotted a body at the bottom of a 30-foot embankment. [...] The back of her head was matted with blood, and there was a single bullet wound at the base of her skull. She had been shot at close range." Eric Konigsberg: Who Killed Anna Mae?, nytimes.com, April 25, 2014
- ^ "In Los Angeles, Marlon Brando, an AIM sympathizer, lent Banks a motor home and $10,000 for food and gas." Eric Konigsberg: Who Killed Anna Mae?, nytimes.com, April 25, 2014
- ^ "U.S. indicts Richard Marshall in Aquash murder case", News from Indian Country, August 26, 2008 Archived October 23, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Dennis Banks Arrested" (PDF). Akwesasne Notes. 8 (Early Spring 1976) (1): 15.
- ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
- ^ Curnutte, Mark. "American Indian Movement co-founder Dennis Banks, former NKY resident, dies at 80". The Enquirer. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
- ^ SACRED RUN 2006 – San Francisco to Washington, D. C., 2/10/06–4/22/06 (Earth Day)
- ^ Winger, Richard (August 13, 2016). "Peace & Freedom Party Nominates Gloria LaRiva for President". Ballot Access News. Retrieved August 14, 2016.
- ^ "Meet Dennis Banks - Gloria La Riva for President 2016 — Vote Socialist!". Gloria La Riva for President. Retrieved August 14, 2016.
- ^ a b c Dennis Banks and Richard Erdoes, Ojibwa Warrior, University of Oklahoma Press, 2005