John Trudell

The problem with people with power is that they tend to get really freaked out when the people they have power over try to take it away. This is what we say in the sixties and seventies with the civil rights movement. Intelligent people, who just happened not to be white, came into the public spotlight and scared the hell out of powerful people when the upset the status quo. They did this, by asking for equal rights.

We all know the names of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm-X, but the Native American's civil rights leader was pushed aside and ignored. John Trudell is a man who surprisingly few people have heard of. He marched, preached, and fought just as hard as the other civil rights leaders but his struggle was not nearly as successful. How did the government successfully put down his movement? How did he get kept out of the history books? How did this man, who is just as brilliant and dangerous to the people of power as the black leaders survive when others were killed?

To answer the last question, he almost did not. John Trudell's wife and children were killed when fire was set to their house while he was away. For a time, this stopped him from fighting. This may very possibly saved his life but at a horrible cost.

John Trudell makes many statements that are universally true. The powerful maintain their power by keeping the people divided. A divided enemy cannot win against an organized one. By turning our struggle for liberty a racial war we create lines that can divide us. Indians don't want to help the black people and the same is true for the other factions. If they were to work together they would be a louder voice. If they were to support each other they could watch each other's backs. But instead they remain divided and they are weakened.

The dominant capitalistic power that dominates our world is willing to make more money and gain more power whatever the cost. This causes the powerful people to make decisions that are bad for everyone. Most of these decisions are bad for themselves as well. Short sighted waste brings about instant gratification with long term consequences. The ability to make sacrifices for a better tomorrow is something we all need to work at. To do less is a disservice to ourselves and our children.