Speech - Extremely Eloquent, Therefore Extremely Dangerous

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.

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.

Why Peltier is on Trial | Mid-Winter, 1976-77

[NOTES: Rallies in support of Leonard Peltier’s campaign against extradition from Canada were held all over North America. At one of them, in California, John Trudell, national chairman of the American Indian Movement, spoke. These are excerpts from his speech, explaining the background of Peltier’s case.]

To understand the Leonard Peltier case, we have to understand what was going on at Pine Ridge long before any FBI were shot. For two years, Indians were being killed, Indian after Indian after Indian. Indians were being wiped out on the Pine Ridge Reservation, but no one cared enough to stop it. We looked at the list of dead people and we saw the Indian names. We saw the FBI’s failure to solve these crimes. We saw that prior to the arrival of the FBI on the reservation, that kind of violence did not exist. So we understood we were involved in an organized campaign of violence against us. A decision was made at Oglala that if people had to shoot back at law enforcement officials in order to save the lives of innocent people, then they would shoot back.

Before We Were Indians | Early Autumn, 1975

This statement is by John Trudell, national chairman of the American Indian Movement, issued in September, 1975.

We are human beings. Alcohol makes us drunks. Pride and history make us “The People.” I wish everyone would think about this. Before we were “Indians”, we were “The People.” For the Europeans to justify with their humanitarian beliefs the oppression that they have put on our people, they had to create a false label for us. They had to call us something that was not human. Something other than what we actually were. When Columbus came here and thought he was in India, he called us ” Indians” and so we have been “Indians” for only a brief period of time in the history of our people. Our people have been on this land for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. Our people are the product of this land. We can refer to ourselves as the indigenous, the sovereign people, the native people, or native Americans, but we are “The People” as we relate to being “The People”, as long as we act accordingly.

We’ve got to have a commitment so strong | Early Summer, (July) 1974

Prior to the International Treaty Conference, the American Indian Movement held a meeting in Cumberland, Wisconsin to work out its directions, internal strengths, and to set priorities. There, John Trudell, national chairman of the American Indian Movement, spoke on changes which must take place within the movement and AIM if change was going to come about in the lives of native peoples. This is an excerpt from his speech.

When we talk about discipline for the American Indian Movement, commitment is just about the number one thing to think about. We’ve got to have commitment so strong that when we get mad at each other, we overlook it. We’ve got to have commitment so strong that we don’t take no for an answer. We’ve got to have commitment so strong that we will not accept their rhetoric and lies for an answer. We’ve got to have commitment so strong we will live and we will die for our people.