Dennis Banks being interview during Winona's Frozen River Film Festival
Dennis Banks is a Native American leader, teacher, lecturer, activist, and author. He was born in 1937 on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation in Northern Minnesota.
At an early age he was removed from his home and sent to boarding schools, run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in which native Indian languages were forbidden.
In 1968, he co-founded the American Indian Movement (AIM) along with a number of other Native American men in Minneapolis Minnesota. AIM was established to protect the traditional ways of Native Americans and to become involved in legal cases in order to protect Native American treaty rights such as hunting, fishing, trapping, and gathering wild rice.
Dennis Banks - 1970's photo
In 1969, AIM members participated in the occupation of Alcatraz Island, where demands were made that all federal surplus property be returned to Indian control.
In 1972, AIM organized and led the Trail of Broken Treaties Caravan across the United States to Washington, D.C., calling attention to the plight of Native Americans. The refusal of congressional leaders to meet with the Trail of Broken Treaties delegation led to the 1972 takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs offices in Washington, D.C.
Under the leadership of Banks, AIM led a protest in Custer, South Dakota, in 1973 against the judicial process that found a non-Indian innocent of murdering an Indian. As a result of his involvement in the 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1973, and his activities at Custer, Banks and 300 others were arrested. Banks was acquitted of charges stemming from his participation in the Wounded Knee takeover, but was convicted of riot and assault stemming from the confrontation at Custer. Refusing to serve time in prison, Banks went underground but later received amnesty from Governor Jerry Brown of California.
Diversity Foundation's Ed Lhones and Lyle Rustad with Dennis Banks, and producer/directors Lynn Salt and David Mueller
Between 1976 and 1983, Banks earned an associate of arts degree at the University of California, Davis, and taught at Deganawidah-Quetzecoatl (DQ) University (an all-Indian controlled institution), where he became the first American Indian university chancellor. In the spring of 1979, he taught at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.
After Governor Brown left office, Banks received sanctuary on the Onondaga Reservation in upstate New York in 1984. While living there, Banks organized the Great Jim Thorpe Run from New York City to Los Angeles, California. A spiritual run, this event ended in Los Angeles, where the Jim Thorpe Memorial Games were held and where the gold medals that Thorpe had previously won in the 1912 Olympic games were restored to the Thorpe family.
In 1985, Banks left the Onondaga Reservation to surrender to law enforcement officials in South Dakota, and served 18 months in prison. When released, he worked as a drug and alcohol counselor on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
In 1987, Banks was active in convincing the states of Kentucky and Indiana to pass laws against desecration of Indian graves and human remains. He organized reburial ceremonies for over 1,200 Indian grave sites that were disturbed by graverobbers in Uniontown, Kentucky.
In 1988, Banks organized and led a spiritual run called the Sacred Run from New York to San Francisco, and then across Japan from Hiroshima to Hakkaido. Also in 1988, his autobiography Sacred Soul was published in Japan, and won the 1988 Non-fiction Book of the Year Award.
He had key roles in the films War Party, The Last of the Mohicans (1992), and Thunderheart (1992).
Dennis Banks signing books at the Winona Frozen River Film Festival - Jan. 2011
In 2006, Banks led Sacred Run 2006 from San Francisco's Alcatraz Island to Washington, D.C. The runners followed the ancient Native American tradition of bringing a message of "Land, Life and Peace" from village to village. They travelled about 100 miles every day, and entered Washington, D.C. on Earth Day, April 22, 2006. Along the way, they took a southern route, in solidarity with those who are rebuilding after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Major events were held in Albuquerque, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Knoxville, and Washington, D.C. Over the past years since "The Longest Walk" in 1978, Sacred Runs have become an international movement.
"A Good Day To Die"
Movie Poster
Banks stays involved in American Indian issues, including AIM, and travels the globe lecturing, teaching Native American traditions, and sharing his experiences.
His autobiography Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement, was published in 2004.
In 2010-2011 Dennis Banks was the subject of the award winning documentary "A Good Day To Die" produced and directed by David Mueller and Lynn Salt.
Dennis Banks Interview at the Frozen River Film Festival
