Dennis Banks obit

 

American Indian Movement co-founder Dennis Banks, former NKY resident, dies at 80

He was not on the list.

Dennis Banks, co-founder of the American Indian Movement, called Northern Kentucky home for the better part of the 1990s.

Banks, best known for leading the siege on Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1973, died Sunday night at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He was 80. His family announced the death on Banks' Facebook page and said four days of services would begin Wednesday at the American Indian Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Banks moved to Northern Kentucky in 1990 after meeting the woman who would become his fourth wife, Alice Lambert, a photographer from Florence.

They married in 1991. She gave birth to their only child – his 20th – in 1992 and named him Minobiqkuad (Good Arrow) "Mino" Banks.

In a 1996 Enquirer profile, the couple said they drove a 13-year-old Honda and lived in a one-bedroom house in Dayton, Kentucky, that had a leaky basement.

The couple later divorced.

Banks met his fourth wife when he came to Kentucky to join the effort to end desecration of an Indian burial ground in Uniontown, about four hours southwest of Cincinnati. Relic hunters had dug up 1,200 graves in 1987 and 1988. Ten men were charged with misdemeanors. The case and Banks' high-profile involvement – he spoke at public meetings and met with members of the Legislature and then-Lt. Gov. Brereton Jones – led Kentucky to become the first state to make grave desecration a felony.

Banks is best known for the 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee, where he and follow American Indian Movement co-founder Russell Means attempted to call attention to the historical injustices suffered by Native Americans. Two people died and 300 were arrested after the armed takeover.

"Before Wounded Knee, we said there had to be a massive education movement to teach white America of the legal responsibilities Congress has to Native people," Banks told The Enquirer in 1996.

"The government owes Native people a great deal in exchange for the natural resources that were taken from our land."

While deployed in Japan, Banks married a woman named Machiko. After they had been together for two years, Machiko had a daughter, Michiko. Banks left Japan after being court martialed by the Air Force for being AWOL (Absent Without Official Leave). He never saw Machiko or Michiko again. He returned to Japan several times, but Machiko had remarried and Michiko was at university in Northern Japan.

In 1973 Banks went to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota when the local Lakota civil rights organization asked for help in dealing with law enforcement authorities in nearby border towns. Residents of Pine Ridge believed the police had failed to prosecute the murder of a young Lakota man. Under Banks' leadership, AIM led a protest in Custer, South Dakota in 1973 against judicial proceedings that had resulted in the reduction of charges of a white man to a second degree offense for murdering a Native American.

AIM became involved in the political faction wanting to oust Richard Wilson, the elected chairman of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Opponents believed that he was acting autocratically, including recruiting a private police force. A failure of an impeachment proceeding against him led to a large protest. Banks and other AIM activists occupied Wounded Knee. After a siege of 71 days by federal armed law enforcement, which received national attention, the occupation was ended. A U.S. marshal was shot and paralyzed in March. A Cherokee and an Oglala Lakota were fatally shot in April 1973 by federal agents. Civil rights activist Ray Robinson, who had joined the protesters, disappeared during the occupation and is believed to have been murdered.

While on their reservation in New York, Banks organized the Great Jim Thorpe Longest Run from New York to Los Angeles; the goal was to gain restoration of the gold medals which Thorpe had won at the 1912 Olympics for the Thorpe family.

In 2006, Banks led Sacred Run 2006, a spiritual run from San Francisco's Alcatraz Island to Washington, D.C. The runners followed the ancient Native American tradition of bringing a message of "Land, Life and Peace" from village to village. They traveled around 100 miles every day and entered Washington, D.C., on Earth Day, April 22, 2006. Along the way, they took a southern route in solidarity with those who were rebuilding after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Major events were held in Albuquerque, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Mississippi, a civil rights site; Knoxville, and Washington, D.C.

Since "The Longest Walk" in 1978, Sacred Runs have developed as an international movement. Sacred Run 2006 had runners from Japan, Australia, Ireland, and Canada, as well as many from the United States. In 2008, the International "The Longest Walk 2" followed the Sacred Run 2006 route, as well as the original route of 1978 walk. Dennis Banks delivered a "Manifesto for Change" to Representative John Conyers (D-MI).

In August 2016, Banks received the vice presidential nomination of the Peace and Freedom Party, a socialist political party with ballot access in California. He appeared on the California ballot with presidential nominee Gloria La Riva.

 

Filmography

War Party (1988) - Ben Crowkiller / Dead Crow Chief

The Last of the Mohicans (1992) - Ongewasgone

Thunderheart (1992) - Himself

Older Than America (2008) - Pete Goodfeather (final film role)

American Experience (2009, TV Series documentary - We Shall Remain: "Part V - Wounded Knee") - Himself

A Good Day to Die (2010, Documentary) - Himself

Nowa Cumig: The Drum Will Never Stop (2011, Documentary) - Himself

California Indian (2011) - Himself