By Tony Evans
For the Express
"Trudell," the long-awaited documentary about a central figure in the political and spiritual struggle known as the American Indian Movement, will be presented Sunday, March 13, in Ketchum, by the Environmental Resource Center.
Boise State University film studies instructor Heather Rae took 13 years to complete the film about John Trudell, blending archival footage with Trudell's own spoken-word musical poetry to tell an inspiring story about the rise of modern Native American consciousness. Trudell's friends, including Robert Redford and Jackson Brown, are featured in the documentary, which was produced with the help of singer Bonnie Raitt and actor and UN Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie.
Originally drawn to Trudell through his music and poetry, Heather Rae was chosen by Trudell over contenders such as TV mogul Ted Turner and pioneer verite filmmaker D.A Pennebaker to tell his life story.
The story begins on the Santee Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota, follows his experiences in Vietnam and through the 1969-71 Indian occupation of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, which marked the beginning of The American Indian Movement (AIM).
Trudell eventually became the outspoken chairman of AIM during a period of intense struggle between the Federal Bureau of Investigation, AIM members, and rival non-traditional Indian groups in the contest for native sovereignty and human rights. Many lives were lost, including two FBI agents at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1975.
In 1979, Trudell's mother-in-law, wife and three children were killed in an arson attack on his wife's Duck Valley Reservation in southwest Idaho, just south of Mountain Home. The cause of the fire remains unknown. After this tragedy the American Indian Movement remained leaderless, although chapters exist today in many states.
Sun Valley Writer's Conference board member Peter Matthiessen's exhaustive account of this tragic period in American history, "In The Spirit of Crazy Horse," was banned from publication for eight years by a lawsuit filed by the FBI, which was eventually settled in a landmark decision in The U.S. Supreme Court in favor of Mathiessen and Viking Publishers.
The book follows the activities of John Trudell, Russell Means, Dennis Banks, Leonard Peltier, and many others, including courtroom testimony between members of AIM and the FBI. Trudell later played a part in the movie "Incident at Ogalala" alongside Sam Shepard and Val Kilmer, which dramatizes the events surrounding the AIM struggle in South Dakota.
Trudell covers a lot of ground in his poetry and song beyond the struggle for Native Rights. Speaking by telephone this week he said, "It's time for everyone to slow down and use their intelligence clearly and coherently. Everyone is reacting these days to fear and anxiety, to psychological pain, which has been indoctrinated into them. We have to realize that we are programmed by a society to be fearful, to have guilt and low self-esteem. We are not born this way."
"Trudell" will be screened at the nexStage Theater on Sunday, March 13, at 5 p.m. Tickets will be available on the door priced at $15, or $25 for two.
Courtesy Appaloosa Pictures
