Dennis Banks

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Dennis Banks (born April 12, 1937), a Native American leader, teacher, lecturer, activist and author, is an born on  in northern. Banks is also known as Nowa Cumig (Naawakamig in the Double Vowel System). His name in the means "In the Center of the Ground." He has been a longtime leader of the American Indian Movement, which he cofounded in 1968 with Native Americans in.

Work with AIM
In 1968 Banks co-founded the American Indian Movement (AIM) in Minneapolis. They were seeking to ensure and protect the civil rights of Native Americans living in urban areas, whom they believed were being discriminated against by law enforcement. Their related goals became to protect the traditional ways of Indian people and to engage in legal cases protecting treaty rights of Natives, such as hunting and fishing, trapping, and wild rice farming.

Banks participated in the 1969-1971 occupation of Alcatraz Island, initiated by Indian students from San Francisco of the Red Power movement, and intended to highlight Native American issues and promote Indian sovereignty on their own lands. In 1972 he assisted in the organization of AIM's "Trail of Broken Treaties", a caravan of numerous activist groups across the United States to Washington, D.C. to call attention to the plight of Native Americans. The caravan members anticipated meeting with United States Congress leaders about related issues; but government officials, most notably, the Interior Department Assistant Secretary responsible for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), refused to meet with delegates. The activists seized and occupied the headquarters of the Department of Interior and vandalized the offices of the BIA. Many valuable Indian land deeds were destroyed or lost during the occupation.

Banks went to in  in 1973 when the local 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 in 1973 against judicial proceeding that reduced the charges to a second degree offense against a white man accused of murdering a Native American.

AIM became involved in the political faction wanting to oust the elected chairman of the,. A failure of an impeachment proceeding against him led to a large protest. Banks and other AIM activists led an armed takeover and occupation of Wounded Knee. After a siege of 71 days by federal armed law enforcement, which received national attention, the occupation was ended. Banks was the principal negotiator and leader of the Wounded Knee forces. Subsequent investigation of Wilson found questionable accounting practices, but no evidence of criminal offenses.

As a result of involvement in Custer and Wounded Knee, Banks and 300 others were arrested and faced trial. He was acquitted of the Wounded Knee charges, but was convicted of incitement to riot and assault stemming from the earlier confrontation at Custer.

Education and career
During his time in California from 1976 to 1983, Banks earned an from the. He taught at Deganawida Quetzecoatl University (DQU), a Native American-controlled institute of alternative, where he became the first American Indian. In 1978 he established the first from Davis to, which is now an annual event. In the spring of 1979, he taught at.

After Governor Brown left office, in 1984 Banks received sanctuary from the Onondaga Nation in upstate. While in New York, Banks organized the Great Longest Run from New York to Los Angeles; the goal was to restore the s Thorpe had won at the  to the Thorpe family.

In 1985 Banks left Onondaga to surrender to law enforcement officials in South Dakota. He served 18 months in prison related to the 1973 charges for the Custer riot. After his release, he worked as a drug and alcohol counselor on the. During 1987, in Uniontown, Kentucky were halted in their digging for artifacts in American Indian grave sites. Banks organized the reburial ceremonies. His activities resulted in the states of Kentucky and Indiana passing strict legislation against grave desecration.

In 2006, Banks led Sacred Run 2006, a spiritual run from San Francisco's Alcatraz Island to  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 are rebuilding after hurricanes Katrina and. Major events were held in Albuquerque, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Mississippi, Knoxville, and Washington, D.C.

Over the past 30 years since "The Longest Walk" in 1978, Sacred Runs have become an international movement. Sacred Run 2006 had runners from Japan, Australia, Ireland, and Canada, as well as many from the United States. International "The Longest Walk 2" followed in 2008 the Sacred Run 2006 route, as well as the original route of 1978 walk, ending with the "Manifesto for Change" delivered by Dennis Banks to Representative.

Banks is a member of the Board of Trustees for Leech Lake Tribal College, a public, two-year college located just outside Cass Lake, Minnesota. He participates in governance of and fundraising for the college, which has a student body that is primarily Native American.

Other activities
Banks has had roles in the movies ' (1988), ' (1992),  (1992), and (2008).

The musical release Still Strong (1993) features Banks' original work as well as traditional Native American songs. He can also be heard on other albums: 's Les Musiques du Monde and 's No Boundaries.

Marriage and family
According to birth records from Minnesota, Dennis has seven children: Janice Banks (born 2 March 1962), Darla Banks (born 18 February 1963), twins Deanna Jane and Dennis James Banks (born 20 April 1964), Red Elk Banks (born 7 June 1970), Tatanka Wanbli Banks (born 7 September 1971), and Minoh Bikwad Banks (born 10 October 1992).

At Pine Ridge Reservation Banks met, who was 17 and still in high school. He was 32. After she graduated, they started seeing each other and married. They had four daughters and a son together: Tokala, Tiopa, Tashina and Tatanka. They later divorced. (Kamook Nichols remarried and is now known as Darlene Ecoffey).

Banks had one stepdaughter, Danielle Louise Dickey. She was murdered in 2007 on the in North Dakota. He has a granddaughter named Migizi Roberts from Minneapolis Minnesota.

Discography
In 2012, Dennis Banks joins forces with Golden Globe and Grammy Award-Winning artist in celebration of our Earth in the new CD, "." The project contains a message of international peace intertwined with stories and life lessons from Dennis Banks featuring the musical sensitivity and prowess of Kitaro. This album was released on September 11, 2012 from.

Autobiography

 * Banks, Dennis & Yuri Morita (1993).Seinaru　Tamashii: Gendai American Indian Shidousha no Hansei, Japan, Asahi Bunko.
 * Banks, Dennis & Richard Erdoes (2004). Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement, Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-3580-8