John Trudell is the national chairman of the American Indian Movement, the highest elected official in AIM. In this interview he talks about the Wounded Knee Uprising of 1971, its aftermath, and media coverage of that event and others. In addition, Trudell tells how he thinks institutions in America, like the Catholic Church, the educational system, and the FBI are used as repressive tools. Before the interview I asked Trudell how long he’d been with AIM. His response was, “all my life. We just weren’t organized yet.”
Continue reading “Tim McGovern interview of John Trudell | January 11, 1976”Tag: 1975
Interview with John Trudell | Akwesasne Notes, 1975
[NOTE: John Trudell statements compiled from an interview conducted by Runa Simi.]
On the evening of July 17, I had an argument with John Gray, the man who runs the trading post. We argued about his high prices, his credit practices, the way he treats the people, and his racist attitude toward the community of people he’s supposed to be serving. We had an argument and it got out of hand and I fired a pistol through the ceiling and I left.
Continue reading “Interview with John Trudell | Akwesasne Notes, 1975”Indian Activist Raps Role of Whites in Rights Denial | October 7, 1975
“I don’t believe in civil rights. It’s human rights I am for.”
“The solution to our country’s problems isn’t jail, or alcohol, or churches, or higher education, but people.”
“We, the Indians of the nation are tired of being lied about. We’re tired of being portrayed as seen in the John Wayne westerns.”
“When the Indians stayed on their reservations and got drunk, and fought and shot and killed between themselves, it was ok. Now that we try to organize and call the political system corrupt, they call us militant, radical, Communists, and subversive.”
Continue reading “Indian Activist Raps Role of Whites in Rights Denial | October 7, 1975”Chicanos Mourn Their Injustices | September 17, 1975
“It is impossible for Chicanos and minorities to get justice in this white man’s world. When they tell us that they are working for us through legislation they are giving you nothing but bullshit.” ~
SOURCE: Colorado Springs Gazette
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.
Continue reading “Before We Were Indians | Early Autumn, 1975”A Statement from John Trudell | Early Autumn, 1975
NOTE: This summer, shortly after the shooting of the FBI agents at Pine Ridge, John Trudell was arrested at his home in Nevada. This is a statement of the legal struggle which he is waging and facing. He requires assistance to cover legal fees.
I’m charged with assault with a deadly weapon and commission of a crime on an Indian reservation because of an incident that happened at a trading post in Owyhee, Nevada. But the real issue comes down to a jurisdictional question, because the way the federal law is set up, if an Indian is accused of committing a crime against a white on a reservation, that Indian is taken into federal custody and tried in federal court on felony charges. If a white commits a crime on a reservation, the white is also taken into federal custody and tried in federal court on felony charges. If an Indian commits a crime against an Indian on the reservation, nine times out of ten it is sent back by federal attorneys to tribal court to be dealt with. So we’re talking about racism being perpetuated by federal law. It’s an automatic crime for an Indian to stand up against a white on a reservation, no matter what that white does to you. The laws are set up so that anyone operating a business on a reservation can violate every law on the books and rob the people, but if the people stand up against the non-Indian for his violations, the people face a special federal law automatically guaranteeing a trip to federal court. Whereas if the Indians are fighting against each other, it is resolved in tribal court.
Continue reading “A Statement from John Trudell | Early Autumn, 1975”Indian Leader Challenges U.S. Jurisdiction in Case | August 23, 1975
“Under the concept of the Constitution of the United States of trial by my peers. I should be tried on the reservation.” ~
SOURCE: Nevada State Journal
The Shooting Of Russell Means | Late Summer, 1975
“The FBI should explain to us the deaths of people who have been killed on the Pine Ridge Reservation. When we start seeing justice delivered in those terms, then maybe our people will lay down their arms. But all these FBI agents who grew up watching John Wayne like to play cowboys and Indians. This time it backfired. They ran into someone who didn’t want to play. We’re tired of being the only ones killed. You can only push so long and when people have nothing to lose, they fight back.” ~
SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes. Vol. 7, No. 3.
AIM Doesn’t Apologize for Two Dead Agents | June 30, 1975
“The American Indian Movement does not apologize for the two dead Federal Bureau of Investigation agents.”
“We’re tired of being the only ones killed.”
“We’ve heard accusations, now let’s see the proof. The press should demand to see the evidence.” – On alleged AIM involvement in shooting of agents on Pine Ridge.
“A fascist tactic. The state has no jurisdiction on the reservation.” – On Bill Janklow bringing state law officers onto the reservation. ~
SOURCE: Rapid City Journal
Pine Ridge Parley Sought by Indians | June 29, 1975
“They’re going to use this as a justification for shooting our people and locking them up. They’re using it to attack our credibility. They’ve already convicted us.” – On FBI casting blame on AIM for Pine Ridge shootings. ~
Trudell Speaks Out | April 28, 1975
“There is nothing respectful about making people be what they don’t want to be. A white political structure is deciding our way of life. Right now, if we don’t go the white man’s way we become a statistic on alcoholism, suicide, or low level education.”
“I don’t want to talk about violence. Ask the people who make the guns and the bombs about violence. If we defend with violent tactics it’s because we are presented with them.”
“We are not troubled with inner tribal differences as other organizations are. We’re just getting by, which is something all Indians are familiar with.” ~
SOURCE: Life (newspaper), University of Utah. Logan. V.72, No.73
AIM Speaker Describes His Struggle | April 28, 1975
“Civil rights are rights men legislate against you after they take away your human rights.”
“I do not consider AIM to be a militant organization compared to United States arms policy.”
“They talk about broken laws, we talk abut 389 broken treaties. Either all these laws mean something or all laws must be invalid.”
“Wars are being fought against a defenseless people every day. White people say these wars ended with their grandfathers.” ~
SOURCE: Student Life (newspaper), University of Utah. Logan. V.72, No. 73
AIM Maturing, Chairman Says, Despite Criticism. | April 21, 1975
John Trudell the 29-year old chairman of the American Indian Movement, describes his organization as “the extension of the old renegade Indian membership.” Trudell, a Sioux living on the Duck Valley Reservation near the Idaho-Nevada border, was interviewed last week by reporter Thomas J. Lewis of The Idaho Statesman.
“AIM is maturing a little bit,” Trundell said. “We’re coming to the point now where we have a fluid membership.”
“The real question and issue is what about the system that uses the illegal tactics when it comes to its not dealing with issues like alcoholism and other problems. Those are the tactics we’re concerned with.”
Continue reading “AIM Maturing, Chairman Says, Despite Criticism. | April 21, 1975”Navajos Occupy Fairchild Plant | Early Spring, 1975
“The action was successful. Fairchild can no longer openly and quietly exploit Indian people. We have shown the people how Fairchild operates on the reservation. But Fairchild is just one of the many corporations which operates this way.” ~
SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes
From AIM Occupation: Audit, Debate Promised | March 5, 1975
“We feel we started with nothing, now we have the tribe willing to negotiate with the company over the dismissal of 140 employees and a federal audit has been promised of on the job training funds paid to the Fairchild Camera and Instruments Co.”
Conference was called to “get the media to get off our case and to start concentrating on Fairchild.”
“I don’t try to see it from the corporate viewpoint. Besides, no job in America is worth costing people their respect.”
“Yes there’ll be some negative reaction on the part of businesses, but it may be good for the reservation in the long run.”
“All the media coverage I see on this thing is that AIM gets amnesty. AIM did not ask for amnesty. That was never one of our issues or demands. The issues are Fairchild and the exploitation of the Navajo Tribe.” ~
SOURCE: Clovis News Journal