Dennis Banks

Dennis Banks (1937–2017) was an Anishinaabe activist and co-founder of the American Indian Movement. He helped lead the occupations of Alcatraz Island in 1969 and Wounded Knee in 1973.

Clyde Bellecourt: Clyde Bellecourt was an Ojibwe activist and co-founder of the American Indian Movement. He co-founded AIM with Banks and helped organize its early Minneapolis campaigns.
Occupation of Alcatraz: The occupation of Alcatraz was an Indigenous-led protest that held the island from 1969 to 1971. Banks joined the occupation in its early phase, linking AIM to the Red Power movement.
Red Power movement: The Red Power movement was a mid-20th-century Indigenous rights movement emphasizing sovereignty, treaty rights, and cultural renewal. Banks’s organizing helped bring its direct-action politics into national view.
Leech Lake Indian Reservation: Leech Lake Indian Reservation is an Ojibwe reservation in north-central Minnesota. Banks was born on the reservation, in the community of Leech Lake.
Russell Means: Russell Means was an Oglala Lakota activist and prominent American Indian Movement leader. Means became a leading AIM figure alongside Banks during the Wounded Knee occupation.
Occupation of Wounded Knee: The 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee was a 71-day protest by Oglala Lakota activists and American Indian Movement members. Banks helped lead the standoff that made him a nationally known AIM figure.
American Indian Movement: The American Indian Movement is an Indigenous rights organization founded in Minneapolis in 1968. Banks’s most enduring public role was as one of AIM’s co-founders and organizers.
Anishinaabe: Anishinaabe is a collective name for related Indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes region, including the Ojibwe. Banks identified as Anishinaabe, grounding his activism in Indigenous community and sovereignty.
Vernon Bellecourt: Vernon Bellecourt was an Ojibwe activist and American Indian Movement leader. He worked with Banks in AIM’s organizing and national advocacy.
Trail of Broken Treaties: The Trail of Broken Treaties was a 1972 Indigenous caravan and protest that culminated in the occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs building. Banks helped organize the campaign, which demanded federal action on treaty rights.

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History of Native Americans in the United StatesRelated: His organizing connected urban Native activism with demands for treaty rights and self-determination.