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give me your name. And just a couple of Dennis Banks, National Field director of the american indian movement. So the American Indian movement was founded in 1968, as I understand. And can you give us just an overview of that period of time and the reasons that

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the movement was started in some of the personalities involved in that. And just give me an overview of that formative time. Well, you have to look at the formation of the american movement came as a result of a lot of emotions. A lot of the whole

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attitude of native people in this country had had come to a point where the abuse that we were going through was not going to be tolerated any longer. Uh, I was in prison in 1966, 1968 in May of 1968, I got out, but it was, it

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was a period of time that I was in prison that I began to look at the reasons why I wasn't in prison, not because of the conviction. I mean, I was in, I committed a burglary, I committed a crime, I went before the courts and I

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was sent into prison. Very, that's it, boom boom boom. But I was, my, my rap partner was a white guy and when we went up before the courts and he was sentenced to probation and I was sentenced to prison, I had to question that immediately. And

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so they took me to prison. I began to examine why, you know, if this is what happened to me, I'm not cry. I didn't cry because I got caught and I was taken to court and I was sent to prison. I mean that's and I could

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do the time. It didn't bother me. But what bothered me was the fact that this white man was set free. That's what I started to think about, examine of the 1000 prisoners in Minnesota state prison 510 where american indians chip was Lakota, Dakota's Winnebago, Those people

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from that whole upper midwest area and a lot of them were in jail for petty crimes, for pickpocketing for, for writing bad checks, shoplifting, shoplifting was a misdemeanor yet in Minnesota, they, they had um, almost like a three strikes and you're out clause with petty petty

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larceny. A lot of our people are going to prison because of shoplifting, stealing bread, stealing meat, stealing chicken, you know, frozen chickens, you know, something to eat and going to prison for that. I want to do. I wanted to be part, I wanted to looking at

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the newspapers every day and I could see these huge, huge crowds of people demonstrating civil rights demonstrations, huge demonstrations against the war in Vietnam and I felt that there was a movement, a great movement that was going on and I wanted to be part of that

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movement. I wanted to be part of a group of people that was going to stand up for native people. I wanted to be part. I wanted to be part. I wanted to move. I wanted to go and and and challenge the institutions and the policies that

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we're restricting us. We're putting us in prison, the all white jury system, the all white police system, the all white judges in Minneapolis, and they were sentencing our people to prison left and right. I wanted to find out more about the B I A. Why they

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weren't there to protect us and our hunting and fishing and why were being thrown off our own lakes in Minnesota by game wardens. Minnesota, game wardens, why they confiscated our nets and fishing these things. I wanted to find out and I wanted to challenge them. And

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so coming out of prison, I went knocking door to door when I got out and I wanted to have a meeting and address this situation well, and many apples. The big concern was police brutality. I mean, there was a lot of people being beaten, including myself

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many times, being beaten by police and so police brutality, we began to focus on, but not so much of the police brutality, slum slum conditions to live in high unemployment welfare, not so much that as the attitude of native people around this country that we're saying

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enough is enough, they were saying it's all over, we're not gonna take it, we've been pushed, you know, you draw an imaginary line behind you and you know, you're not gonna go beyond that line and to go beyond that would be suicidal And you pushed up

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against the wall and finally, that's where we were in 1968. The American Indian movement could have been formed in Phoenix Arizona, it could have been formed in, in Kansas or in upstate New York, it could have been formed in Washington State. Destiny was bringing us together

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and to the point where on July 28, 1968, one axis and then the other, the time had come and people all over this country felt that that was that was enough, it's time to stand up and fight. And so the american movement was formed where the

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eye, a lot of credit is given to me for, you know, thinking about it in prison because I came from prison. I came from the, from the prisons of this country, that's where I came from. I went to boarding schools, I went to, I went to

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the military, I was in the military for many years and then I was on skid row and then I went to prison. I came from those, those from those walks of life that are very hard. I walked very, you know, not because I wanted it to

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be hard. I wish I could have walked a life where there was no no beatings, no clubbing, no arrests, but but I took, I took the beatings, I took the knocks on the head and when you take so many And in a historical sense the massacres

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that have happened to our people over the last 500 years, 400 at that time, 470 some years. It was unbearable. And finally, you just decide that that's enough. That's where aim, that's how aim came about in 1968. I just happened to be the one that said,

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we need to do something and people said yes And we started moving. So, so not too long after a name was formed, there was another incident, there was an incident in San Francisco on Alcatraz Island, the occupation which happened November 20, 1969. Were you involved in

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that planning for that? And can you tell me how you found out about it? And then, um, your involvement during the occupation? I wasn't involved in the planning of the, of the occupation at all. When the occupation began in Minneapolis, we heard about it and we

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immediately moved as a coalition to come out here and support them. I it might have been six or seven days went by when we were finally, we landed here, uh, from Minneapolis and we immediately went out to the island and we stayed out there for a

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week to support them. And in the meantime, we're calling people calling all the people that we knew, you know, started organizing food drives or, you know, let's start supporting these people. So, the, the Richard oakes at that time. And john Trudell, we're out here. This is

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the first time that we had met these people. Um I believed in what these guys were saying. It was it was a land recovery. To me, it was land recovery. And it's not so much that it began with Alcatraz, is that Alcatraz highlighted, highlighted all across

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this country, the desperate moves that we were willing to take the pitt river people were occupying their place for for for years, you know, without any publicity and the occupation of lands up in Washington state. And Oregon was going on. Uh, but all of a sudden

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here was Alcatraz and the native community led by Richard Oakes um decided that the land also mus what was what was important to us. The land is important to us and the land recovery. The land reclamation movement began. And it highlighted the very belief that land

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without land where nobody, and to me that's what, that's why I see a lot of white people, they have no historical roots to this country and they're like lost their their their, you know, their constantly, they constantly are moving and in a very nomadic state, very

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nomadic state of mind, always moving. Um They Alcatraz represented that that need for us to move as well, aim came and supported him and with that the strength that we received from the occupation of Alcatraz, give us it validated what aim was about the pitt rivers

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validated, what aim was about. We in turn had to support them. And that was our position and that's that's what, that's what we've been about ever since. So what specifically did that occupation inspire you to do a didn't push you to do things you've been thinking

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about And did it, was it a catalyst for anything that you went on to do? Well, there was, there was other movements in this country. The black panthers was one of them. The black panthers had a indian patrol going, uh Black Patrol in Oakland going, which

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we, when we came out here, we studied it very closely and we had already started one in 1968 much, You know, they're they're started in 66. The black panther, the street patrol and 68, when we form we knew about it and we decided we were going

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to start a patrol of our own. And so 69 when we came here earlier, years later, we went, went over to Oakland and we talked with the black Panther party in a, in a solidarity move, we joined with them for the, for the evening. Um but

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they, the inspiration of what Alcatraz gave me was that no matter, no matter what the odds are, is that we must move forward. Matter of fact, in some cases, in spite of the odds, we must move forward. The odds and the obstacles before us to reclaim

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land. I mean, here was the Ogallala still resisting any kind of land claims against the Black Hills and they were saying, no, we don't want any money and we went out there to talk with them and they said we don't want any money, we want the

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land back. And here it is, 30 some years later. And they're still saying the same thing, even though they've been offered money for the land. So the, the taus pueblo at that time were fighting for the return of Blue Lake. Um We've met them, we met

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them earlier when am was being formed, we met the elders out there, told us of their struggle and told us of how the land while it was, Nixon would turn the land back over to them. And that's what Alcatraz. It was it was it was a

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good time in our history. It was a daring young men and women, mostly women were out at Alcatraz. Even though, you know, the media has always picked on, they looked for male leadership. And you know, all I wanted to do is stop some police brutality because

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I was being beaten. All I wanted to do was get some better conditions for our people. And but the media, you know, they focus in on on male leadership in this country. They've always done that. I don't know why. But um but but but but the

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support Alcatraz, I mean when we got out there, there was all the women were doing all the work and of course mary jane and my sister and everybody, all the women that came with us from Ames, I mean they pitched right in there and who was

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the media focusing on Dennis Banks and Quiet Belcourt. Um but there they are, they are the backbones to every movement that's been involved in history. Do you remember the thing is June 21, 1971 when the final occupiers were pulled off the island. Do you remember that?

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Remember what you felt when that happened? Well, I felt I felt a little sad that that it happened that way because of the lack of participation on our part, not, not aim. I'm saying generically that we as native people let it go. Um but but it

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was hard to sustain the, the, the occupation because the, the, the, the food in the community. Um, I mean we should have looking back now, we should have every one of us across this country, Minnesota South Dakota, Arizona and Mexico, we should have could have been

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shipping food out here, but we relied on the san Francisco bay area for that source of supply and eventually people were just like we were drying up like wearing out our own welcome in this area and there was a lot of Jonathan winters came out here.

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There was a lot of celebrities came um and celebrities that have come to the struggle and the fishing struggles. It was Dick Gregory, uh Marlon Brando um and jane fonda, I wounded me when we went to wounded knee. Brando support denying. I mean, refusing to accept

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the um, the Oscar for the 73. His portrayal of Godfather Angela Davis came out there, um Stokely Carmichael, um Dick Gregory and a number of people began to. All of the celebrities have helped out as much as they can. Um But still it was up to

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indian people, even though the celebrities bring news, it was still up to us to do the work. And somehow we we we didn't we didn't hang on to it. And in the end the marshals came out there and without any real fight or scuffle just recaptured

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the island. And that was it.