From Wounded Knee to Boarding Schools

Dennis Banks came to PVCC on Oct. 26 to speak on his life and actions with the American Indian Movement. Topics ranged from homesteading to the 1973 Siege of Wounded Knee to life at compulsory boarding schools for Native Americans.

While waiting for Banks to arrive, local speakers provided stories, speeches and a Q&A for the audience. When Banks arrived, students were encouraged to put away cell phones and notebooks and instead listen from the heart. “You will hear what you need to hear,” said his sister, Sheila, “and you will remember when you need to remember, perhaps a month or even a year from now.”

Banks is a decorated activist, the co-founder of the American Indian Movement as well as the author of It’s a Good Day to Die, an autobiography.