Neeta Lind
Dennis Banks, flanked by family members at a ceremony in 2013. A member of the Ojibwe, he co-founded the American Indian Movement, and was a life-long teacher, lecturer, author and activist for Native American justice.
Prominent American Indian activist Dennis Banks passed on into the spirit world this week, leaving a legacy of civil rights changes for native people. He was eighty years old.
Banks, a Leech Lake Ojibwe from northern Minnesota, began his journey of activism in the late 1960s. Concern about police brutality toward native people led him to co-found the American Indian Movement (AIM), which became known as the Red Power Movement.
In 1969, AIM and Banks appeared on the national radar when they helped a group of native students in San Francisco seize the abandoned Alcatraz prison, calling attention to continued civil rights abuses of Indians.
In 1969, Banks appeared on the national radar when he helped a group of native students in San Francisco seize the abandoned Alcatraz prison, calling attention to civil rights abuses of Indians.
Banks was highly active in AIM during the 1970s. He helped plan and participate in the famed Trail of Broken Treaties caravan to Washington, D.C., in 1972. Scores of native people from around the nation motored to the U.S. Department of Interior building to call out massive corruption within in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which administers tribal services based on treaties between tribes and the federal government. This led to a takeover of the Interior building.
In 1973, Banks and other AIM members were called to the Pine Ridge Sioux Indian reservation in South Dakota, the poorest region in Indian Country. This time, the corruption charges were leveled at the Pine Ridge tribal government and its chairman. For seventy-one days, AIM and its supporters occupied a small, run-down church in the town of Wounded Knee, refusing to surrender to federal authorities. The occupation began a turning point in the consciousness of the country about the historical and current mistreatment of American Indians. Moreover, it stirred pride within the hearts of Indian people, who had been demoralized by the federal government and society at large for generations.
When the standoff ended, Banks and other AIM members faced charges in federal district court. The prosecutions were unsuccessful.
AIM served as a bright, burning beacon for greater justice on behalf of native people. Some of the changes it demanded did take place—from jobs and education programs for Indians in cities to greater accountability for tribal leaders. Before AIM, many Indians never understood their unique heritage and citizenship. AIM reminded native people that they were more than people of color. They were people of first nations. And AIM made many tribal government leaders more proactive in demanding the federal government live up to its treaty obligations..
While some of his colleagues went on to other pursuits once the flame of AIM dimmed, Banks continued to educate natives and non-natives. Always the activist, he helped organize sacred runs throughout the country, including one in 1984 to demand that the medals of famed Indian Olympian Jim Thorpe be returned. And though he never shared any political aspirations, in 2016 he became the Peace and Freedom Party’s nominee for Vice President of the United States.
Beyond his passion for justice, he was was also genuinely interested in tribal traditions, languages and ceremonies.
Though Banks was not shy of crowds or the camera, he preferred to organize behind the scenes. Beyond his passion for justice, he was was also genuinely interested in tribal traditions, our languages and ceremonies. I remember during the 25th Anniversary of the Occupation of Wounded Knee, Banks was hard to find at a feast. While some AIM leaders displayed their charm and charisma, working the crowds, I found Banks in the back of the gymnasium with a group of young Indian men. He was teaching them traditional Indian songs on the drum.
Mark Anthony Rolo is an enrolled member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians and the author of the memoir, My Mother Is Now Earth.