Dennis J. Banks, Naawakamig (1937–2017)
In a world where Native people had little power, American Indian Movement cofounder Dennis Banks was a force.
Antiwar protester Cindy Sheehan meets with Dennis Banks, who traveled 1,357 miles to show his support for Sheehan and the other activists, August 29, 2005, Crawford, TX. Taylor Jones / Getty
Naawakamig — “In the Center of the Universe ” — was his Anishinaabe name. But to most, he was known by his Anglo name: Dennis J. Banks.
Born on the Leech Lake Reservation in 1937 — Ojibwe territory in present-day Minnesota — Banks became a force in a world where Native people rarely mattered.
He cofounded the American Indian Movement (AIM) in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1968 and, along with AIM, played a starring role in the liberation of Wounded Knee in 1973 — a radical, insurgent moment of indigenous revolution. Under Banks’s leadership, AIM became the most powerful Native movement of the twentieth century, galvanizing indigenous people throughout the United States, Canada, and beyond.
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