Dennis Banks

Dennis Banks emerged from a childhood in government boarding schools to become one of the most recognizable and forceful faces of Native American resistance in the 20th century. Co-founding the American Indian Movement (AIM) in Minneapolis in 1968, he channeled the frustration of urban Indians into direct action. Banks was a strategic organizer, helping to lead the Trail of Broken Treaties caravan to Washington, D.C., and the seminal 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973—a siege that transfixed the nation and forced a conversation about treaty rights and systemic neglect. His activism came at a personal cost, involving years of legal battles and fugitivity, but he never softened his message. In later life, Banks focused on education and cultural renewal, running spiritual runs across the country and teaching traditional ways. He lived a life of relentless confrontation, not for notoriety, but to carve a space for Indigenous sovereignty in the modern American consciousness.