Category: Article Excerpts

“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.” – Regarding writing his first lyrics.

” His writing found its way on tape with friend and guitarist Jesse Ed Davis composing backing tracks for two albums. Unable to sign with any record label, Trudell formed Peace Music and released the songs on mail-order cassettes. In 1986, “a.k.a. Grafitti Man” wound up in the hands of Bob Dylan, who called it the best record of the year. 

Continue reading “The Hutchinson News | April 16, 1998”

“Hope came out last, but why did it come out last if the box was supposed to be filled with evil? I always wondered about that when I first read the story. Did that mean that Hope was an evil? Should we not hope? Maybe we should pray more than we hope — because at least when we’re praying, we’re participating.” 

“We need to take responsibility as individuals and let that evolve into leadership. Instead, it’s clarity of thought that’s important. That’s what should be passed on.”

Continue reading “Spirit Of Survival – Leader Turns Activism to Art | March 23, 1997”

“I learned a lot from the political activist days. It was very valuable to me. But at some point in all of this, I personally came to the conclusion that maybe we can speak our truths more realistically, individually and collectively from our culture and art. That’s really who we are. The political system that surrounds us, it’s something that is there and we have to acknowledge it and deal with it. But it didn’t emanate from us. so it’s not really who we are.”

“It’s the most natural way. It’s encoded in the DNA for us. To go into a sweat ceremony, it’s you, the earth and the willows, the darkness, fire and some water and prayers. It’s a much different experience than dressing up in your Sunday best and going to a temple. The right to pray the way we pray. I do not see how anyone could deny that. That to me is anti-spirit and anti-Christ.” – On Sweat Ceremonies

SOURCE: Albuquerque Journal

“One of the things I feel on the part of my audience is that they’re willing to hear it, even if they don’t agree with it. What I do, it’s culture, it’s music, it’s art. I’m not trying to tell anybody to follow my line of thinking.”

“Between the right and left and political jingoisms, the world has evolved to where there is a corporate, multinational world order…even the illusion of democracy is starting to disappear. There’s a planetary ruling-class rich, and everyone else is here to serve them.”

Continue reading “Trudells Truths | February 24, 1995”

“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.” – To Trudell, the term “Indians” means only the last few hundred years of his people’s heritage, by no means its entirety.

“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.”

“Hoping and wishing are heroin for the thought process; we need more time thinking and doing.”

“I wore politics as an identity, but I came to understand it as a limited identity…This is all about my perceptions. I’m headed in a direction, and I will continue to see where it takes me.”

“I write lines. I don’t write poetry. I don’t write lyrics. Some of the lines become poetry, and some of the lines become lyrics, but I always write what I have to say. If I sat down to write a song, I would have to pay attention to the math of music.” ~

“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 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: The 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.”

“It’s all therapy for me. 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.” – On his poetry.

“I’m not sure, because at times I hear a lot of positive feedback but nobody will put me on their stage. I just know that some people like it and some people don’t, some people get it and some people don’t. So I don’t really concern myself. I do it because I have to.”

“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: Dallas Morning News

“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

“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.”

“After the fire, I needed to look at what was going on because I was no longer in the same world.”

“I was entirely in a different world. It gave me a chance to step back and look at all the things that were going on around me and start to understand how I was going to, let’s just say, participate.”

“One of the things we accomplished in the political movement of the 60s is that the spirit was rekindled. The government, through its paramilitary war of deceit, smashed our political unity. But what happened is that simultaneously came the reawakening of the memory, our ancestral memory.” 

“It’s important to communicate because somebody’s got to say something. Silence is dangerous. What’s missing in this society is people speaking their feelings. That’s how the spirit speaks to human beings. This is a time historically when we need everybody to communicate about how we feel. That’s all I’m doing.” ~

SOURCE: Petaluma Argus Courier

“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”

“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

“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”

“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