- Born
- Died
- John Trudell was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to a Santee Sioux father and Mexican Indian mother. After a stint in the Navy (and Vietnam) from 1963 to 1969, he became involved with the American Indian Movement, becoming National Chairman in 1973. He held that position until 1979; it was then that his wife Tina, mother-in-law, and three children ages one, three, & five, were burned to death in a "fire of suspicious origin" on their Nevada reservation which was nonetheless never investigated. Beginning in the early 1980's, Trudell began to channel his anger and emotion through poetry, music, and acting.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Amy Ernano
- SpousesTina Manning(1972 - February 12, 1979) (her death, 3 children)Fenicia Ordonez(1968 - ?) (divorced)
- He was the National Chairman of the American Indian Movement from 1973 to 1979; he resigned the position after the deaths of his wife, Tina Manning Trudell, their three children, and Tina's mother Leah Manning, in a suspicious fire on their reservation in Nevada. However, he remained the Movement's national spokesman for many years afterward.
- His father was a Santee Dakota (Sioux) American Indian, and his mother was of Mexican Indian descent.
- Children, with Tina: Ricarda Star (March 8, 1973 - February 12, 1979), Sunshine Karma (December 16, 1975 - February 12, 1979), Eli Changing Sun (November 21, 1977 - February 12, 1979). Tina was also pregnant at the time of her death, with a boy who was to be named Josiah Hawk. Josiah's name is included beneath Tina's on her tombstone.
- He had been in a relationship with actress Marcheline Bertrand for several years at the time of her death in 2007; Bertrand was an executive producer of the 2005 documentary about his life, Trudell (2005) .
- He was a close friend of Kris Kristofferson, who wrote the 1995 song "Johnny Lobo" about Trudell.
- Don't trust anyone who isn't angry.
- Every human being is a raindrop. And when enough of the raindrops become clear and coherent they then become the power of the storm.
- But I think we really need to put serious thought into understanding that we are dealing with a disease. You know, it's like here's this predatory energy on this planet and this predatory energy feeds upon the essence of the spirit, feeds upon the essence of the human being--the spirit. Now, this predatory energy can take fossil fuel and other resources out of the earth, turn it into fuel to run a machine system. But in order for there to be a need for that system and in order for that system to work, they have to mine our minds to get at the essence of our spirit.
- This new God, and all God's children, God didn't have a lot then but they were very mean so their numbers expanded through terror, but God's children was their job and the objective was to subdue the earth for this God. So in order to achieve that objective, they had to create sexism. See, sexism has got to do with how we live with the earth and racism because now the earth was property, you know, and all spiritual value was away. It was away from the earth. Real spiritual value was now a religious perceptional thing and so it wasn't all- encompassing. It wasn't just a part of the reality anymore.
- The great lie is that it is "civilization". It's not civilized. It has been, literally, the most bloodthirsty, brutalizing system ever imposed upon this planet. That is not civilization. That's the great lie, is that it represents "civilization". . .or if it does represent "civilization" and it's truly what civilization is, then the great lie is that civilization is good for us.
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