Dennis Banks: “Take your truth and leave the room.”

GRIID file photo

“When we as human beings start destroying the very mother that provides for us, then we are not only destroying ourselves but the future of human beings. It’s going to be that way if change doesn’t start now. Not a political change, but some kind of uprising, some sort of anger. Something’s going to happen. I hope I see it in my lifetime because I want to hobble over there and be part of that change.” Dennis Banks, 11-22-2010

Despite his graying beard and slower pace, Dennis Banks commanded the respect of the audience assembled to hear the wisdom of this contemporary Native warrior and elder. He came to Grand Rapids Nov. 22 to speak as part of Grand Valley State University’s Intercultural Training for Native American Heritage Month.

A Native American activist and one of the founders of the American Indian Movement, AIM, Banks took part in the famous 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota and many other courageous actions for Native rights.

Banks, whose given name is Nowa Comig,  began with an anecdote about the car accident that broke his back last year. The doctor came into his hospital room to break the bad news, “There’s going to be a problem with you walking. That’s the truth.”

Banks told him, “Take your truth and leave the room.”

On Feb. 14, 2011, Banks will lead “The Longest Walk,” a 5,000+mile walk across the United States to raise awareness about diabetes prevention among native peoples.

Bury the dead

Banks then shared how he recently joined the Ojibwa people near Mount Pleasant, Michigan for very special ceremony. Central Michigan University had returned the human remains of 130 native people so they could be laid to rest in the way that their sacred belief requires. “Ironically other universities said that this was a dangerous precedent,” Banks said.

The University of Michigan is one institution holding the remains of thousands of native people. In California, Berkley has 25,000. In all, the remains of some half a million native people are under glass or storage boxes in universities and museums. “The American Indian Movement (AIM) is going to issue a statement about policies mandated by the federal government to return those bones to the native people. Some universities are going to resist.”

He then encouraged young people to tell universities holding these remains that they would not enroll there. “This should be a major concern to the conscience of America. What are we doing storing human beings? It’s time to give these things back. Our religious belief is that those bones have to be returned to the earth so the person can continue their journey.”

Support the troops

As a Viet Nam era war veteran, Banks lived the results of US Foreign Policy first-hand. “This latest war is the longest one the US has been involved in except the longest undeclared war–against native people. It’s still going on. There is absolutely no need morally for them (US troops) to be there (Afghanistan). Bring them home and get them out of harm’s way.”

“Why would people hate us in other countries? . . . Our foreign policy is getting us in trouble the last 30, 40, 50 years. Those who stay at home never see the damage. To try to make this entire world a Christian world—it’s not going to happen. Ask the question, ‘Why do they hate us?’ When native people go overseas, we are loved. They welcome American Indians. But if you’re white, there’s warnings . . . Terrorists? If we start defining terrorists that definition is going to come pretty close to home.”

Religious freedom

During the recent national brouhaha over the so-called Ground Zero mosque, Banks stood with Muslim Americans. He shared an MSNBC/Rachel Maddowclip about a handful of fanatical right wing pundits turning the New York City mosque issue into a campaign to outlaw the practice of Islam in the United States.

“I supported Muslims so that history is not overlooked. In the late 1700s there were many burnings of sweat lodges, longhouses, holy sites. Those who did the burning were US soldiers and militia. When I first started hearing about people protesting the mosque, I began to think ‘Why are these people protesting against Americans?’ The 1890 Massacre at Wounded Knee . . . Sand Creek, Colorado, the death marches of the Cheyenne people, chapter after chapter of American history . . .  America should have a memory. Why does it have to rely on Native American memory? What is sacred? The whole land is sacred . . .

We have closed up some churches on our reservations. Since then, no suicides. (It’s not that the churches caused the suicides, it’s) the conflict of who we are as native people. We are native people. Our DNA is we are native. Yes we’ve joined the different faiths but we are still native people. That’s the conflict going on inside of us.”

Love your mother

Banks then turned the talk to environmental issues. He shared how one of his enterprises on the reservation where he lives is tapping five kinds of trees for syrup, including maple syrup. Ten years ago, the tapping season lasted four weeks. The past few years, it has only lasted ten or twelve days. Power lines on the reservation prevent eagles and hawks from nesting and scare away the bears.

Army Corps of Engineers water control has killed off the reservations supply of medicinal herb and reduced the wild rice harvest. (The water is being used to irrigate urban golf courses.) “We try to stop them but they are coming with their bulldozers. Soon young people are going to rise up and say this is it. The very first lesson we should learn is ‘What is our relationship to this earth?’ It’s a breathing relationship but pretty soon there will be no more trees. When we as human beings start destroying the very mother that provides for us, then we are not only destroying ourselves but the future of human beings. It’s going to be that way if change doesn’t start now. Not a political change, but some kind of uprising, some sort of anger. Something’s going to happen. I hope I see it in my lifetime because I want to hobble over there and be part of that change.

This is our Mother Earth. She has been feeding us. What are we doing? We are killing our Mother. That’s a great, great sin. It will never be excused. Who knows? Mother Earth will destroy us all. She will have to do that to cleanse herself and get rid of us. We are shoveling our own graves. We can turn it around.”

“Take your truth and leave the room.”

How can we turn it around? We must identify the so-called truths propelling humanity towards certain destruction as lies. Sustainable capitalism. The “free” market. Corporate benevolence. Materialistic happiness. Fighting for freedom.

It’s time that people tell the powers that be to take their truth and leave the room.

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View the trailer of A Good Day to Die, a new documentary about Dennis Banks.