Extremely Eloquent, Therefore Extremely Dangerous - John Trudell: In His Own Words

Spoken Word Tour – Evergreen State College – Olympia, WA. | 1994

I’d like to first of all thank you for being here. I’m glad I’m here. And if I say anything that you don’t agree with, let’s just leave it at that. It’s not about anything other than whatever comes out, comes out. I’m gonna start with some poems.

[John Trudell reads one of his poems]

Just so we have an understanding. I come from the tribes, I have that much of my identity. And when I look at what’s happening here, in the Western Hemisphere, I can’t forget that tribal memory. I may not know the language, I may not know many things, but I do know many things also. But what I remember with my genetic memory, which is the basis of many of my realities, is that the way that people need to live with this hemisphere, with the earth in reality, but with this hemisphere, is the people need to live with the earth. Not on it. Not from it. With it. To me democracy is the enemy of the tribes. To me, technologic industrial civilization is the enemy of the tribes. It is the enemy of the natural world, to me. The concept of male dominating gods, to me is the enemy of the natural world.

Interview with Andre Tababoo | 1994

ANDRE TABABOO: You have been involved with the American Indian Movement since the early 1970s. What has been your experience? Where do you see us now?

JOHN TRUDELL: We are part of an evolution. The cultural spirit is still very strong amongst the people and I think we are still quite active. The Movement is about consciousness. Political structures, they’re at different levels and forms, you use them for a while, then you use another one. It’s the spirit I’m concerned about.

After Personal Tragedy, Indian Activist Turns to Poetry | December 1, 1994

“The entire history of the Indian is genocide. It’s alien terminology, and it messes with our identity. We are older than America. We’ve been part of the land. We are ancestral.”

“When the fire happened, it absolutely changed reality; it altered reality for me forever, and beyond forever.”

“I don’t belong in this world any more. It’s not changed for them, but it was altered for me forever.”

Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say | November 29, 1994

ALIBI: You’ve lived many lives so far during this earthly lifetime. You’ve been a Marine during Vietnam, an AIM member, involved in battles with the federal government and have endured subsequent personal tragedies. You’ve been in documentaries and have acted in movies. You’re a poet/musician and now you’ve just published a book of conversation, lyrics and poetry. Where do you think this continuum of experiences is taking you?

JOHN TRUDELL: Into madness. I mean, don’t rule it out, right? I’m not really sure. In my own mind I’m headed in a direction. I can’t really deﬁne that direction. It just seems that all of these things are consistent. These are just like worlds I’ve been through. But each world seems to put me dead center in the next one. In reality, we, at this given moment in time, are an accumulation of all of our experiences. That is a part of our physical identity within this life. We’re all affected differently by our experiences, but in the end that’s what we are: a continuum of every experience we’ve had since we entered into this life and probably, way in our DNA, a continuum of other experiences.

A Man of Realities | November 23, 1994

“I don’t think politics allows us to speak the truth. Because in order to maintain some semblance or pretense of unity or pretense of getting along, people have to suppress their realities.”

“I don’t trust anyone enough to go sit in a psychiatrist’s office and let them go through my brain. Yet, I’ve got to rant.”

“This society, they refuse to recognize who we are. We’re not Indians–Indians live in India. And we’re not Native Americans–Native Americans are anyone born in the United States of America. We’re the People. We’ve always called ourselves The People. In my way and manner and fashion, maybe I’m trying to address that. So if anyone hears any of this in any way and it helps them remember they’re a human being, then I’m doing my job.” ~

SOURCE: Sentinel

Activist/Poet John Trudell to Perform | November 11, 1994

“I need to record another album. I’m doing a little writing. But I write because I have to write.”

“It’s about being human beings in a technological world. We can’t avoid (technology), but we’ve allowed it to feed off us, eat our spirit. We can alter this. If we live in the illusion of reality, we become the illusion. Let’s try to be coherent and seek clarity. Through that we will understand ourselves.”

“It’s not about hope, it’s about hangin’ in there. It’s not about consistency, it’s about persistency.” ~

SOURCE: Seattle Times

Former American Indian Advocate Writes His Poetry To Ease His Pain | Oct. 27, 1994

“There are no words to explain [my feelings]. I’ve tried many times, but those words just don’t exist.”

“I started writing as a result of that [fire]. In my realities it was the parting gift from Tina. So when she gave me that, I hung on to that because I didn’t have a lot of things to hang on to.”

“I don’t think politics allows us to speak the truth, because in order to maintain some semblance or pretense of unity or pretense of getting along, people have to suppress their realities.”

KLOS-FM | October 10, 1994

FRANK SONTAG: I have John in studio across from me and John, I want to welcome you to Impact this morning.

JOHN TRUDELL: Glad to be here man.

So you’re a late-nighter, and you said you like the night.

I’m a slave to the night. I like the night world.

We are slaves. A lot of us are slaves to other things as well.

Everybody’s a slave.

What do you mean?

Artist Refuses to Apologize for His Anger | April 16, 1994

“I just think I express my consciousness. I wrote a song about women, but I’m not a woman. I wrote a song about the Earth. I’m a part of the Earth.”

“I get confronted with that a lot, ‘You’re too angry.’ My anger frightens them more than homelessness. All I can say to those people is goodbye. We don’t want them in our way later.”

“They have rage in their name, but it tells you where the rage is directed.” – On Rage Against the Machine. ~

SOURCE: Statesman Journal

Ghost Dancer | April 15, 1994

“My family was killed in February 1979. Somebody burned down the house where my wife, Tina, my mother-in-law and my three children were living on the Shoshone Paiute Reservation in Duck Valley, Nevada. It happened about 12 hours after I burned an American flag on the steps of the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the government said the fire started in the fireplace and was an accident. But I had some people investigate it and discovered that it wasn’t an accident, but a fire of ‘suspicious origin.’ Soon after that I started writing. When I look at it now, I needed something to hang on to.”

California State University/ Hayward | 1994

“We’re all children of earth. It’s about the DNA, the ancestors and the descendants. Us. We have the responsibility to take care of the life that this planet is.”

“We’re not here to run high tech economic slave states, and pretend that that’s not what’s going on. We’re not here to mentally beat one another up, or be abusive towards one another, or ourselves. That’s not why we’re here. We’re here to take care of life. We need to understand about our spirit. We have a spirit. We are Spirit. But see, the religious mindset of the male-dominating god doesn’t recognize spirit. It recognizes religion. And authority. And chain of command. And obedience. But it doesn’t recognize spirit.”

Nye Beach Hotel Interview with E. K. Caldwell | October 23, 1993

“As we take on these labels, we must remember that they describe what we do, not who we are. We are the People—we are human beings—that’s who we are. We have to accept all the parts of us as being part of a whole. When I called myself a ‘political activist’ and started saying that’s who I was, then that’s all I saw. I didn’t see a lot of important things, and I missed a lot of things. I was locked in there and looked at only a part of me as being the total. It’s the same with the label ‘writer’ or any other label. It limits us if we confuse what we do with who we are. At the basic core of reality, we’re human beings. If we don’t forget that, it will help make our way a little better. We are the People. Our ancestors and the ancient ones were the People. And I am just one of the People, doing the best I can with the best I’ve got.” – On being labeled a radical, militant, political activist, visionary, subversive, poet and writer.

John Trudell Hasn’t Lost His Activist Edge | September 16, 1993

“I look back at that period and I still really don’t know how I got through it. The world literally changed. On Feb. 11, 1979, I was in one world. On Feb. 12, the world looked the same, but it was completely different. The best I can remember it or see it, I went off into madness. I went a lot of places. I went to the future, to the past, in people’s minds. I went everywhere. I didn’t try to fight it, I just went where it took me and trusted I would get through it. When I started writing poetry, that was a real outlet. If I hadn’t, who knows what would have happened?”

His Aim Still True | August 27, 1993

“When I began writing poetry in the early eighties I felt music was dying because the same old stuff was being sung about. What I felt was needed was an infusion of human energy.”

“It’s obvious people can no longer depend on institutions of civilization to tell them the truth, so the only way it can be expressed is through art and culture.”

“Music is dangerous when it expresses feelings and coherency.”

Farm Aid VI | April 24, 1993.

“I can’t let this opportunity pass without remarking on a couple of things. I come from the tribes. And we are in support of anyone that understands the relationship to the earth, and to the land. And we see what’s happening to the farmers. You’re the new Indians. They will drive you off your land. But the Cavalry is a banker now. It’s a mortgage. And they talked about giving 3.4 billion dollars to the Soviets and I think they should give it here and let the multinational corporate state invest in the Soviet Union, because that’s who wants to make the profit.”

“The other thing. I’m from the tribes. And a terrible thing happened in Waco, Texas on Monday. And there is no excuse. There is no rationalization for doing what was done to those people in that house.”

John Trudell, Native American Activist/Poet/Singer | 1992

IINTERVIEWER: On the notion of the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ first voyage to the New World being an opportunity to re-evaluate the history of the Americas.

JOHN TRUDELL: Among indigenous peoples, we don’t need to re-evaluate. This predatory energy arrived on our hemisphere 500 years ago and there’s only one evaluation…it has been genocidal and destructive to all living aspects of the hemisphere. And that behavior has not changed at all. It still continues on its destructive path. Many indigenous peoples will protest this anniversary and tell their truths. I haven’t found many people in the circles I move in who endorse it or find anything to celebrate.

Trudell Merges Real Life, Movie Roles | July 31, 1992

“These movies address the reality of what Native Americans go through.”

“I’ve always played by the rules even when the game is rigged and I’ve had problems with the law, especially after I questioned laws that are unfair.”

“The government expected a violent reaction from me in these movies but didn’t get it. They wanted violence so they could arrest me. I’ve seen what happens to those who get arrested and question the law.”

“I served in the military in the 1960s because I had no other way of making a living. I saw racism in the military, not only toward the Vietnamese but also toward minority groups by their fellow Americans.”

“The government waged war against AIM, and the FBI was specifically after me.”

“If the flag is desecrated, it is supposed to be burned. Desecration can also mean injustice and racism.”

Trudell Lends Voice to Native American Cause | July 15, 1992

“That is the value of the film. This is reality. This happened to us. Incident at Oglala is a history book, but it’s also a current social issues book. It’s talking about one of the faces of a democracy, one that you don’t ordinarily see.”

“In May I got a call from the casting people. I made an agreement to play Jimmy. Then I didn’t think about it anymore. That was my approach. It was up to me to be as real as I could be. I decided I was Jimmy Looks Twice.”

“My reality is to go and see where it takes me as an individual — do what I can and do the best that I can.” ~

True to His Calling | June 28, 1992

Phone Interview:

JOHN TRUDELL: I’ve not agreed with them about that. I’ve felt that people are open to hearing much more than they’re allowed to hear, and that people have a right to hear these things and make up their own mind. So I feel vindicated in some ways.

INTERVIEWER: There’s a line in Baby Boom Che: “Rock ‘n’ roll is based on revolution.” Tell me about your Influences, as far as rock ‘n’ roll goes — when you started listening, some of the artists, and why.

I started listening to Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Bo Didley, the Everly Brothers and Brenda Lee way back when all this first started. When I came in contact with this phase of music I sure liked it a lot more than the music I had been hearing before.

Trial By Fire American Indian Movement Co-Founder John Trudell Finds a Life Line in Words and Music | June 17, 1992

“What happened to my family tells me that I was closer to the truth than even I knew.”

“Not having a permanent address sounds great, but it has its drawbacks, believe me.”

“What my FBI file reflects to me is their absurdity…Seventeen thousand pages is a lot of trees to assassinate to spy on someone. On the other hand, I don’t know how many agents I’m keeping off the streets, but if they’re spying on me, at least they’re not out killing someone else.”

Native American Poet Actor John Trudell | June 9, 1992

“The violent rap we got laid on us, it was all our people that died. You don’t see no long list of feds and death squad members and any of these other people. You don’t see any long list of their dead. You see a long list of our dead, and you look at that list and every one of them’s got an Indian name.”

Indian Leader/Film Consultant Loses Family Amid Turmoil | May 17, 1992

“This fire took off too damn fast, and it was very intense. My family was murdered. This must be dealt with and that’s not some emotional ranting coming out of me. I can’t say all the things that I know at this time, but I know who knows and it’s only a matter of time. This cannot pass silently into the night. I can’t bring them back but in my own mind I can’t let the ones who did this just go away.”

“The government will try to discredit or propagandize but I think the public will relate to the injustices shown and there’ll be a ripple effect.” – On documentary film Incident at Oglala.

“The government perjured itself to get Leonard back into the country from Canada and then made up ballistics evidence that convicted him. But if the people think the government just does this to Indians, then they’re being irresponsible with their thinking process. It’s become a method of operation [against all races] in America.” ~

SOURCE: The San Francisco Chronicle

Incident At Oglala (Film) | 1992

“They were there to make trouble.”

“You’ve got two FBI agents, there to serve a warrant, that they don’t have, on someone who’s not there. It’s pretty thin.”

“In 1972 during the Nixon election we went to DC and we ended up occupying the Bureau of Indian Affairs national headquarters. We kept it for like a week but it was highly embarrassing to the Nixon administration. We had gone too far. It seemed like by January of 1973 that the FBI had sent some people into Pine Ridge to start training the BIA and tribal police on how to deal with subversives or counter-subversive activity, whatever the thing is. They started bringing heavy weapons in. Now this is before the Wounded Knee Occupation…it’s like they had picked this as the grounds to have this stand off.”

‘Accidental’ Deaths of Family Still Plague Native Actor | May 8, 1992

“It was murder. They were murdered as an act of war.” – On the killing of his wife, three children and mother-in-law.

“They waged war against us. They hunted us down. They killed, jailed, destroyed, by any means necessary. They saw that magical thing that happened with Alcatraz…all of a sudden this spirit was popping up and gaining momentum through AIM, and this is why the spirit-hunters, those who hunt free thought, came after us.” – On the U.S. government and FBI.

Films About Indians Now the Rage In Hollywood | May 03, 1992

“Whatever their reasons. Hollywood, or the entertainment industry, is saying something about Indians. I don’t see the rest of the media knocking down any doors to do that. Actually, we wouldn’t even be having these kinds of discussions if Hollywood hadn’t done this. For me, the issue around ‘Thunderheart’ is, hey, these things did happen. This type of warfare and storm-trooper activity took place, and it took place in this country, and it took place against a certain segment of the population because of their political, racial and cultural identities. And I respect the idea that the people involved in this project expressed that.”

From Activist to Poet to Performer, Trudell Sets His Message to Music | April 24, 1992

“I’ve always been able to work from the stage. From activist stage, I just spoke and said whatever I had to say. When the writing started, I would just read it. Then I had the interest into going into musical aspects. When that happened in ’86, I liked the result of work we did in the studio.”

“We never had a problem with their audience. Maybe by the third song, they would catch on that I was not going to start singing. They started paying more attention when they realized I was just going to stand there and say these things.” – Opening for Midnight Oil in 1988.

Trudell Draws from Personal Tragedy | April 17, 1992

INTERVIEWER: You claim that the fire that killed your family was set on purpose by the US government. Do you have any evidence to support that?

JOHN TRUDELL: The fire wasn’t an accident. When the fire happened on Feb. 12, 1979 the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the government — whoever their federal fire people are — had stated the fire was an accident, that it had started in the fireplace. This was not true. When I came back home, I had some other people look at it and they said it was physically impossible that the fire was an accident, but I can’t discuss the particulars right now. In good time, it will be settled, because this was mass murder.

Using Music as a Soapbox | April 17, 1992

“When I basically look at politics, it’s too competitive and confrontational. It’s the nature of it. It’s very territorial, and at some point you have to adhere to the party line.”

“Through the music, the edge is taken off, and I think that we need to find a way to communicate with each other as human beings, without those edges.”

“My main means of communication is through this form. It’s the most effective leaflet I’ve found.”

Sounds Triumph Over Tragedy – Trudell Channels Passion Toward Career and a Cause – Trudell Meshes Poetry, Music On New Album | April 17, 1992

“It was a character I could identify with.” – On Thunderheart.

“I happened to be in Oklahoma when the firefight with the FBI started. I drove up to South Dakota the next morning. I was very concerned about the people living in that camp and very skeptical of the government’s side of the story.”

“There were no FBI agents that became nice guys. In reality, it wasn’t even close to that.” – On Val Kilmer’s character in Thunderheart.

“It speaks to the paranoia of those in power, because I know how I lived my life. I didn’t do anything that would justify 17,000 pages. At my most extreme, I did nothing to warrant that kind of coverage.” – On FBI file.

Indian Activist’s Life Mirrors Role in Thunderheart | April 14, 1992

“That was one of the things I liked about the role. My character is mentioned a lot. I’m the central theme, but I don’t have to back it up with too much acting.”

“I didn’t rise up in armed rebellion against the American government. I supported the people that did, and I didn’t separate myself from them, but I never physically did that. I always spoke whatever my mind was and I organized with whatever abilities I had.”

“The fire was consistent with the history of democracy and its treatment of the Indigenous peoples. If we place this in a historical perspective, what they did was they attacked a winter camp and killed the women and children.”

From Los Angeles by Phone w/ Larry Katz | April, 1992

LARRY KATZ: The Boston Herald calling John Trudell?

JOHN TRUDELL: Yeah, speaking.

John, how are you?

Just fine man.

Good. Hey, I been listening to your album a lot. Really enjoying it.

Well I’m glad to hear that. I really am.

Land is Soul of Thunderheart | April 3, 1992

“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

Thunderheart Role Befits Actor Trudell | April 2, 1992

“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.”

The Ballads of an Angry Man – Native American Activist Trudell Puts Stormy History to Song | January 16, 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

An Interview with John Trudell. Older Than America: Resisting The Predator | Winter, 1991-92

Faye Brown/Dale Kakkak: You began writing in 1979, writing words down on paper. How did this evolve into producing music?

John Trudell: I started writing poetry in ’79 but prior to that, I used to write a lot of statements for press releases and political things. When I started writing poetry, I was spending a lot of time around musicians and it wasn’t a conscientious effort on my part. I just started writing poetry. It turned out that I was in this world of musicians and I was spending a lot of time with Jackson (Browne) and so maybe after a couple of years I just got the notion to put poetry to music. I thought it would work and that’s what turned into my first release, Tribal Voice.

Musician John Trudell: Less Rock and More Talk | March 22, 1991

“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

Indian Activist Turned Poet | May 14, 1990

“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.”

Trudell Draws Power from the Earth, Sky and Elements | June 25, 1989

“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

American Indian Movement’s Tactics Change with Times | June 11, 1987

“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

A Letter to the People by John Trudell | April 28, 1987

We would like to express this thought. We must be careful of the illusions. The attack against our liberation struggle is intense. The insanity of greed and genocide is spreading a war against the natural world unparalleled in human history. We are only a minute part of the natural world. Yet how we handle ourselves and this situation can either create a balance or aid and abet the enemy in our destruction. The enemy attack depends on our reactions to feed its justification. In this generation, the enemy has controlled the economic and political environment since our arrival to this life. Through this control, the enemy has conditioned us to react. React to his initiative of greed. The Industrialist is the enemy. His power is money and exploitation. Brutality is his nature.

Trudell’s Poetry Carries Sense of Restless Urgency | November 1, 1985

“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.”

Indian Poet Urges Return to Natural World | September 25, 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

Vancouver Interview: Nuclear Weapons | 1983

IINTERVIEWER UNKNOWN: What I want to talk to you about is your own personal life, where you found your inspiration, and what you see is the true nature of the problem that is before us today with regards to nuclear weapons and everything else that is associated with nuclear weapons, which is environmental degradation, exploitation of native peoples throughout the world.

JOHN TRUDELL: Well. Where I lived my life or how I came to any conclusions in my life is, I’ve just lived as what is called an Indian. In America. And my experiences in America have been both in the U. S. America and Canada America. And anything that I am, it came from that experience. And you know I never put too much thought into this word, inspiring. I’ve never really looked at it like that. It just that there are certain realities that we just have to deal with. Because when we ‘re looking at what the problem against us is. It’s greed. And it’s the machine age. The entire industrialized world is totally out of balance. We live in a natural world and everything’s in balance in the natural world. It’s how all the different pieces fit together that makes the balance of the natural world. But we look at the societies that we live in. There is no balance. Everyone’s off balance. Everyone’s confused and everyone feels powerless, or something.

Delegates Call For Solidarity | September 24, 1982

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

Take Back the Earth (also known as the Thanksgiving Day Speech) | November, 1980

We’re faced with a very serious situation in this generation. There are insane people, who wish to rule the world. They wish to continue to rule the world on violence and repression. And we are all the victims of that violence and repression. We as the indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere have been resisting this violence and this oppression for five hundred years. We know that the black people have been resisting it for at least that long. And we know that the white people have had to endure thousands of years. And now it’s come full swing to this generation that we live in.

Poll Discovers More Racism Than Expected | November 3, 1980

“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

For Himself, His People: Activist Continuing Indians’ Old Fight | August 23, 1980

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.”

Black Hills International Survival Gathering (Closing Speech) | July 18-27, 1980

I’d like to welcome you all here tonight. And I’d like to talk tonight. And I would like to talk in honor of all of our women warriors. Those who are here and those who have left us for another world, that are with our ancestors. And I would like to honor a man named Leonard Peltier. And I would like to talk in honor of the Earth, which is a very sacred place. And it is the only place that we have.

I would like the people to understand that our mother Earth is the female manifestation of the creation. And that we must show proper respect to her. We cannot show the proper respect to the women. We cannot show the proper respect to the elders. We cannot show the proper respect to the children. We cannot show the proper respect to ourselves, if we ignore our mother earth.

Black Hills International Survival Gathering | July 18-27, 1980

I’d like to thank all of you for coming to this place, and I would like to give thanks for being welcomed here myself. I would like to talk tonight in honor of all of us in the struggle who have lost our relations to the Spirit World. And I would like to talk in honor of the wind, one of the natural elements. This is a survival gathering and one of the things I hope that you all learn while you’re here is, you learn to appreciate the energy and power that the elements are, the sun, the rain and the wind, and that you go away from here understanding that this is power and this is the only true real power. This is the only true real connection we will ever have to power, our relationship to Mother Earth.

16,000 at Anti-Nuke Rally | May 26, 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