Extremely Eloquent, Therefore Extremely Dangerous
John Trudell: In His Own Words
“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.”
Continue reading “After Personal Tragedy, Indian Activist Turns to Poetry | December 1, 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
“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
“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.”
Continue reading “Former American Indian Advocate Writes His Poetry To Ease His Pain | Oct. 27, 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
“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.”
Continue reading “Ghost Dancer | April 15, 1994”“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?”
Continue reading “John Trudell Hasn’t Lost His Activist Edge | September 16, 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.”
Continue reading “His Aim Still True | August 27, 1993”“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.”
Continue reading “Trudell Merges Real Life, Movie Roles | July 31, 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.” ~
“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.”
Continue reading “Trial By Fire American Indian Movement Co-Founder John Trudell Finds a Life Line in Words and Music | June 17, 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.”
Continue reading “Native American Poet Actor John Trudell | June 9, 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
“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.
Continue reading “‘Accidental’ Deaths of Family Still Plague Native Actor | May 8, 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.”
Continue reading “Films About Indians Now the Rage In Hollywood | May 03, 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.
Continue reading “From Activist to Poet to Performer, Trudell Sets His Message to Music | April 24, 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.”
Continue reading “Using Music as a Soapbox | 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.
Continue reading “Sounds Triumph Over Tragedy – Trudell Channels Passion Toward Career and a Cause – Trudell Meshes Poetry, Music On New Album | April 17, 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.”
Continue reading “Indian Activist’s Life Mirrors Role in Thunderheart | April 14, 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
“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.”
Continue reading “Thunderheart Role Befits Actor Trudell | April 2, 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
“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
“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.”
Continue reading “Indian Activist Turned Poet | May 14, 1990”“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
“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
“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.”
Continue reading “Trudell’s Poetry Carries Sense of Restless Urgency | November 1, 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
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
“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
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.”
Continue reading “For Himself, His People: Activist Continuing Indians’ Old Fight | August 23, 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
“They said we are a revolutionary movement dedicated to the overthrow of the U.S. government. We are activists concerned with conditions on our reservations. We are advocating the establishment of law and order…The conditions are getting worse and worse for our people in the ‘States…The violence is worse, the jailings are worse, the poverty is worse. Our land base is dwindling. The political attacks are worse.”
“If any people are going to be skeptical about what is happening, let them ask what they would do in my shoes. We understand that the odds are against us, that people don’t want to believe they are coexisting with a country like that.”
SOURCE: The Province
“Kill the wild Indians. It is the way they wage war on us now.”
“We are not a threat. We are not the enemy of the Canadian people. We just want our rights, our natural rights.”
“They lie about everything. They lied about Cambodia, Watergate and pay-offs to corporations. They also lie about us, saying we are radical and militant.” ~
SOURCE: Nanaimo Daily News
“We are not your enemy, we never have been.”
“[Americans of all races] have such a low spirit that they will allow themselves to be ruled by liars and exploiters.”
“[In South Dakota] the new Indian is white.” ~
SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes Vol. 11 No. 3
American Indian Movement (AIM) leader John Trudell warned the [New Mexico anti-nuclear movement] gathering that just because they knew their cause was righteous did not mean that they would overcome the oppressor.
“We are worried that if the people do not come together in a conscientious and purposeful way in this movement, there may not be another time. If you are going to fight the enemy through the anti-nuclear movement, let’s fight them that way, because if we don’t we may have lost touch with our future. This is not just an anti-nuclear movement, this is a movement to free ourselves from the enemy. It is necessary that we have an understanding of our spiritual identity, but this is not a religious crusade. Religion will not free us. It has been the ruling class way to separate you from your true spiritual identity.” ~
SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes Vol. 11 No. 3
Regarding uranium mining and energy development in South Dakota. John Trudell addressed the issue as seen by Indians on South Dakota reservations. His remarks pinpointed the emotional side of the issue.
The government is allowing the beginning of the death cycle. They are tampering with human life when they want to bring that stuff out of the ground. And the phrase ‘maximize profits’ is the culprit. The people of South Dakota should have a hard talk with their governor. While he was telling you he was protecting you from the Indians, he was receiving letters of intent from TVA and Union Carbide to start mining here. [Bill] Janklow is going to make South Dakota a graveyard. The governor and the legislature will blame each other while they sell you down the river. [Mining plans] are an attack against the earth. South Dakota is being termed a National Sacrifice Area and they are telling you it’s in the name of progress. Beware of this thing called the Department of Energy and beware of this, it has its own police force. In the final analysis radiation is not bigoted, it will rub us all out. It will rub out everything. Women will especially have to make a hard commitment. And it would be in your best interest to get politicians to make a public commitment. ~
SOURCE: Lead Daily Call
John Trudell, gave a rousing speech about the use of racism by the corporations and the press to keep people divided. He said to non-Native supporters in the audience: ‘‘We want you to understand, we are not your enemy, we never have been. We have been made to not respect each other.’’ ~
SOURCE: Black Panther Intercommunal News Service, Vol. XIX No.9
“We’re walking around now…to go to Washington, D.C., to talk to…the people who will listen and express to them (that) we don’t want any trouble. We’re not out to make any trouble, but we do want to be able to speak what’s in our minds…and we want to tell these people…you ‘ve bothered us long enough. Why don’t you just, please, leave us alone. Honor the laws that have been agreed upon between our people and let us live.”
“It’s hard, sometimes, to get people to listen to what we’re saying because when we say what we say, we have to criticize the government.” ~
SOURCE: The Decatur Herald
“We aren’t any military threat or economic threat. Let’s get off this old mentality. We don’t want to own Exxon. We just don’t want Exxon to own us. That’s all it’s all about.” ~
SOURCE: Divided But Not Conquered
“What the government did to Peltier is the way that an oppressor must work, because Leonard represents the sovereignty that Indians speak of, sovereignty in the sense that we don’t have to be oppressed anymore, by any man or government, sovereignty in the sense that we understand that we are a natural part of the creation and that no man or government have a right to change that natural order. Sovereignty in a sense that we understand that all struggles of liberation will not be successful until the people control the land.” ~
SOURCE: The Daily Princetonian
“Peltier wasn’t tried by his peers. The judge played the role of prosecutor and found Peltier guilty before the jury did.”
“In the last century stories of cowboys and Indians were a popular theme for those who wanted to take our land. In our generation there is now the FBI and the Indian, because today technology needs the resources that are on our limited land base. So the FBI is now the 7th Cavalry for the corporate interests of America.”
“This accounts for the drive of the FBI against AIM because we stand in the way of their objectives.” ~
SOURCE: California Aggie, Vol. 95, No. 24.
“They want to put Leonard on trial for an idea that he represents, not for any crimes that he has committed.”
“There are too many dead people who couldn’t be here to testify.” ~
SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes, Vol. 9 No. 1
“The commitment of our people must be 100%. For without a struggle, we will have nothing.” ~
SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes, Vol. 8 No. 4.
“We’re as natural to the land as the trees that stand outside your window.”
“Three hundred and eighty-four treaties have been signed and 384 were broken. No one ever stood trial for breaking those laws. When a person is charged with committing a crime in your society he is not brought to our society to be tried.”
“Our culture has been changed in such a way that it can never go back to what it was.”
Continue reading “Open Fire: Or The FBI’s History Lesson | November, 1976”“Racism and double standards of justice are the real threat to the Internal Security of this nation-state. AIM people are just trying to survive as human beings. As for these senators calling us violent, that is an unfunny joke. These representatives of a social system that produces napalm, tactical squads, M-16s, racism, class exploitation, etc., calling us violent is the rhetoric of liars and hypocrites.” ~
SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes, Vol. 8 No. 4
“We have grouped together by our religions and beliefs to educate our own people, and to try to educate white people. We don’t want to be statistics. We believe all lives are sacred and everybody is entitled to dignity.” ~
SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes, vol. 8 No. 3.
“There is protection in the pipe. There is power in the pipe that is spiritual power. We accept the fact that we have to have lawyers, but there’s a lot of protection in the pipe too.”
“I’d rather have 50 interested people than 500 just curious people.” ~
SOURCE: Des Moines Tribune.
Banks July 4th message: “I do not celebrate today, instead I mourn for all my brothers and sisters whose lives have been lost fighting for our freedom. On this so-called day of independence I ask you America, what does the concept of freedom mean to Anna Mae Aquash, and to Buddy La Mont, to Frank Crow Dog, and to Little Joseph Stuntz, all of whom were killed by the federal gun…”
John Trudell reemphasizing Banks’ message: Our enemy is the FBI. They no longer wear the uniform of the Seventh Calvary, but their actions are the same. All that has changed is technology. We must not talk to the FBI. They are the enemies of the people. They are the murderers. The thieves. We want to be liberated from their corrupt value system. Today, July 4, is just one more day of oppression. Free the People! ~
SOURCE: The Black Panther. Vol 15, No.13.
“When the tribal chairman and tribal judge in Owyhee attempted to legally exercise jurisdiction for their community, they were attacked by the Bureau of Indian Affairs[BIA], they were lied about and called names by the BIA and its employees. Through high pressure tactics: promises of jobs and pay-offs (grants and loans to individuals), the bureau and its agents had these two men illegally removed from office. Jurisdiction to Indian people is the right to shape and mold one’s own destiny; the future for the children of tomorrow. The cities of Reno, Carson City, or any other town or city government exercise that right, why can’t tribal governments?”
“It’s too bad taxpayers allow their money to be wasted like this.”
SOURCE: Nevada State Journal