Ojibwa Warrior

Dennis James Banks was born on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota on April 12, 1937. When he was 5 years old, he was taken from his family and sent to a series of government schools for Indians. He ran away often and at the age of 17, he returned to Leech Lake. Unable to find work, he joined the Air Force and was stationed in Japan. While there, he married a Japanese woman, had a child with her, and went absent without leave. He was arrested and returned to the United States. After being discharged, he moved to Minneapolis where he was arrested in a burglary and went to jail for two and a half years.

After being released in 1968, he co-founded the American Indian Movement to fight the oppression and endemic poverty of Native Americans. He led often-violent insurrections to protest the treatment of Native Americans and the nation's history of injustices against its indigenous peoples. These included a six-day takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, an armed 71-day occupation of the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, and a protest in Custer, South Dakota over a white man being charged with involuntary manslaughter instead of murder after killing an Indian man. The protest became a face-off with Custer police that resulted in the murdered man's mother being beaten by officers. In 1975, Banks was found guilty of riot and assault with a deadly weapon for his role in the riot in Custer. Facing up to 15 years in prison, he jumped bail. He was a fugitive for nine years before finally turning himself in and serving 14 months in prison.

Once released, he moved to the Pine Ridge Reservation to work as a drug addiction and alcoholism counselor. He appeared in several movies and documentaries including War Party, Thunderheart, The Last of the Mohicans, Older Than America, We Shall Remain, Part V: Wounded Knee, A Good Day to Die, and Nowa Cumig: The Drum Will Never Stop. His autobiography, Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks and the Rise of the