POLITICAL MATTERS: December 2017
By Mordecai Specktor Remembering Dennis Banks When I started writing about American Indian issues, about 40 years ago, I began hearing stories about Dennis Banks, a co-founder of the American Indian Movement (AIM). In the aftermath of the recent police killings of young, unarmed, people of color in the Twin Cities –Jamar Clark, Philando Castile, […]
American Indian activist Dennis Banks dies
BY JOHN COLLINS/MPR NEWS Dennis Banks, a key figure in the American Indian rights movement that started in Minneapolis in the late 1960s, died Oct. 29th from complications following a surgery. Born on Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota in 1937, Banks served in the U.S. Air Force, was discharged, and then did a stint […]
A brief history of American Indian boarding schools
American Indian boarding schools, which operated in Minnesota and across the United States beginning in the late nineteenth century, represent a dark chapter in U.S. history. Also called industrial schools, these institutions prepared boys for manual labor and farming and girls or domestic work. The boarding school, whether on or off a reservation, carried out […]