Clyde Bellecourt
Encyclopedia
Clyde Howard Bellecourt (born May 8, 1936) is a White Earth Ojibwe civil rights
organizer noted for co-founding the American Indian Movement
(AIM) in 1968 with Dennis Banks
, Herb Powless, and Eddie Benton Banai, among others. His older brother, the late Vernon Bellecourt
, was also active. Clyde was the seventh of 12 children born to his parents (Charles and Angeline) on the White Earth Indian Reservation
in northern Minnesota
.
His Ojibwe name is Nee-gon-we-way-we-dun which means "Thunder Before the Storm."
In his youth, Clyde fought against the forces of authority, because he did not think they respected his family and other Indians. As a child, he could hear his parents speaking in low tones late at night in a language he did not understand. When he asked what they were saying, he was told to think about his education and do as well as he could. The years in school were not pleasant. As a boy, he attended a reservation mission
school run strictly by Benedictine nuns.
After the Bellecourt family moved to Minneapolis Twin Cities, the boy Clyde continued to act up in school, receiving detentions. He ultimately incurred more serious charges, resulting in a conviction and sentence to the adult correctional facility at St. Cloud. On his 25th birthday, he was transferred to Stillwater Prison prison
in Stillwater
, where he served out the remainder of his sentence.
According to Bellecourt's first-person account of this time, he was in solitary confinement for a discipline infraction when he heard someone outside his cell singing and calling his name. He looked out the peep-hole into the eyes of Eddie Benton Banai. Having witnessed Bellecourt's ability to organize the Indian inmates, Banai had come to persuade him to help form an Indian cultural group. After negotiation with his caseworker Donahue, Bellecourt agreed to help, on the conditions that he would be moved from solitary to what was called the Honors Dormitory, be allowed to work in the power plant, and to pursue completion of his Boiler Engineer License.
In the following weeks, Bellecourt gathered 82 of the 128 Indian inmates then in Stillwater to come to the first meeting of the Indian American Folklore Group. It became the model for an Indian cultural renaissance within prisons across the country. The Folklore Group met weekly, using History of the Ojibwe Nation by William Whipple Warren as their text, and led by Banai as instructor. Given a drum by an “anonymous” benefactor, the group began having powwows. Sometimes family members and visitors were allowed to participate.
In some cases for the first time, the American Indian men began to learn about their tribal history, culture, and spirituality. Bellecourt's life was changed by his participation. In 1964 the young man returned to Minneapolis determined to help Indians heal through learning their culture and spirituality. He helped found the American Indian Movement
(AIM).
, Herb Powless, and Eddie Benton Banai in Minneapolis. Bellecourt was elected the group’s first chairman. They began to monitor arrests of American Indians made by the local police department to ensure their civil rights and treatment with dignity and respect.
In 1972 Bellecourt and others organized a peaceful march on Washington D.C. in order to demand new legislation to remove the Bureau of Indian Affairs
(BIA) as an agency of the Department of the Interior. They supported establishing a Federal Indian Commission, reporting directly to the president, in order to ensure that Indian interests were considered in all aspects. Bellecourt and the other planners originally planned a peaceful tour of Washington landmarks and meeting with leading government officials to present their “20 points,” as a list of their grievances. The activists ended up storming and occupying the BIA Headquarters before beginning negotiations for their 20 points. They called for ending the corruption and mismanagement of the BIA. Bellecourt, along with other AIM, leaders, led the negotiations with the federal government. The Indian activists abandoned the BIA building in exchange for the gas money necessary to return home. Their occupation caused the loss and destruction of irreplaceable Indian land deeds.
In 1973 AIM activists were invited to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
in South Dakota by its local civil rights organization to aid in securing better treatment from law enforcement in the border towns, which had been slow to prosecute attacks against Lakota. Protesting discrimination against the Lakota in border towns and the failed impeachment of the elected tribal chairman, Richard Wilson
, AIM led an occupation of the Town of Wounded Knee, within the reservation. They were also protesting the poor living conditions on that reservation. FBI agents and U.S. Marshals soon surrounded the town. Bellecourt became a negotiator. Eventually, he, Means, and Carter Camp held a meeting with a representative for the US President. They negotiated an audit of Wilson's operation of tribal finances, and investigation of abuses by his private militia, the Guardians of the Oglala Nation
(GOONs).
After leaving Pine Ridge, Bellecourt and Means were arrested in Pierre, South Dakota
, with a bond set at $25,000. They were served a restraining order against approaching closer than 5 miles to the town of Wounded Knee. After being released on bond, Bellecourt went on a fundraising tour across the United States, trying to raise money for the activists still occupying Wounded Knee.
After the occupation of Wounded Knee ended, Bellecourt hosted seminars and other public appearances. He claimed that, “the seminar represents the beginning of an educational effort by AIM and a turning point for the organization which hope to avoid…violent confrontations in the future.” Throughout the rest of his speaking tour about Wounded Knee and the BIA takeover, Bellecourt would maintain that Christianity, the Office of Education, and the Federal Government were enemies to Indians. He defended AIM actions at the BIA and Wounded Knee, saying, “We are the landlords of the country, it is the end of the month, the rent is due, and AIM is going to collect.”
Since 2005, the Clyde H. Bellecourt Scholarship Fund has awarded $222,687 in 22 college scholarships to both graduate and undergraduate American Indian students who are studying in the fields of Education, American Indian Studies, or Indigenous Languages. This is one of Heart of the Earth's five major public events.
It sponsors the Yamamoto Cup youth canoe race, held annually in August in Minneapolis. Well over 500 spectators attend. The Red Road Pow Wow is held in Minneapolis at the New Year. The 2010 Pow Wow had more than 1,500 Minneapolis residents in attendance. The Gathering of the Sacred Pipe Sundance and Youth and Elders Conference will be held in Pipestone, Minnesota
. Over 400 attend the Midewiwin
Program, held in Bad River, Wisconsin.
Bellecourt founded the Heart of the Earth Survival School. He founded Heart of the Earth, Inc. in 1972, which was approved for 501(c)(3) status in 1974. The passage of the American Indian Education Act provided possible yearly funding on a competitive basis, which Heart of the Earth was successful in winning for 24 years. It created a pre-school to grade 12 school. In the 1980s, it added adult learning and prison programs. Heart of the Earth has coordinated a national law education program.
When it developed an independent charter school in 1999, Heart of the Earth became the property owner. It continued to offer a wide variety of independent cultural programs, awarded scholarships to Indian students, and developed indigenous language research. The charter failed in 2008. In all, over 10,000 students attended the school in its 40-year history.
Other organizations founded by Bellecourt include:
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
organizer noted for co-founding the American Indian Movement
American Indian Movement
The American Indian Movement is a Native American activist organization in the United States, founded in 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota by urban Native Americans. The national AIM agenda focuses on spirituality, leadership, and sovereignty...
(AIM) in 1968 with Dennis Banks
Dennis Banks
Dennis Banks , a Native American leader, teacher, lecturer, activist and author, is an Anishinaabe born on Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. Banks is also known as Nowa Cumig...
, Herb Powless, and Eddie Benton Banai, among others. His older brother, the late Vernon Bellecourt
Vernon Bellecourt
Vernon Bellecourt, Indian name WaBun-Inini, was a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe , and a Native American rights activist, one of the highest leaders in the American Indian Movement...
, was also active. Clyde was the seventh of 12 children born to his parents (Charles and Angeline) on the White Earth Indian Reservation
White Earth Indian Reservation
The White Earth Indian Reservation is the home to the White Earth Nation, located in northwestern Minnesota. It is the largest Indian reservation in that state...
in northern Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
.
His Ojibwe name is Nee-gon-we-way-we-dun which means "Thunder Before the Storm."
Biography
Bellecourt's birthplace is occupied by the largest and poorest of northern Minnesota's Ojibwe bands.In his youth, Clyde fought against the forces of authority, because he did not think they respected his family and other Indians. As a child, he could hear his parents speaking in low tones late at night in a language he did not understand. When he asked what they were saying, he was told to think about his education and do as well as he could. The years in school were not pleasant. As a boy, he attended a reservation mission
Mission
Mission may refer to:* Mission , variety of grape* Mission , base of missionary practice* Mission statement, a formal short written statement of an organization's value proposition...
school run strictly by Benedictine nuns.
After the Bellecourt family moved to Minneapolis Twin Cities, the boy Clyde continued to act up in school, receiving detentions. He ultimately incurred more serious charges, resulting in a conviction and sentence to the adult correctional facility at St. Cloud. On his 25th birthday, he was transferred to Stillwater Prison prison
Minnesota Correctional Facility - Stillwater
The Minnesota Correction Facility - Stillwater is a close custody state prison for men in Minnesota, USA.Built in 1914 and located in Bayport, Washington County, it houses 1600 inmates in seven different living areas. Additionally, approximately 100 inmates are housed in a nearby minimum security...
in Stillwater
Stillwater, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 15,143 people, 5,797 households, and 4,115 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,340.0 people per square mile . There were 5,926 housing units at an average density of 915.7 per square mile...
, where he served out the remainder of his sentence.
According to Bellecourt's first-person account of this time, he was in solitary confinement for a discipline infraction when he heard someone outside his cell singing and calling his name. He looked out the peep-hole into the eyes of Eddie Benton Banai. Having witnessed Bellecourt's ability to organize the Indian inmates, Banai had come to persuade him to help form an Indian cultural group. After negotiation with his caseworker Donahue, Bellecourt agreed to help, on the conditions that he would be moved from solitary to what was called the Honors Dormitory, be allowed to work in the power plant, and to pursue completion of his Boiler Engineer License.
In the following weeks, Bellecourt gathered 82 of the 128 Indian inmates then in Stillwater to come to the first meeting of the Indian American Folklore Group. It became the model for an Indian cultural renaissance within prisons across the country. The Folklore Group met weekly, using History of the Ojibwe Nation by William Whipple Warren as their text, and led by Banai as instructor. Given a drum by an “anonymous” benefactor, the group began having powwows. Sometimes family members and visitors were allowed to participate.
In some cases for the first time, the American Indian men began to learn about their tribal history, culture, and spirituality. Bellecourt's life was changed by his participation. In 1964 the young man returned to Minneapolis determined to help Indians heal through learning their culture and spirituality. He helped found the American Indian Movement
American Indian Movement
The American Indian Movement is a Native American activist organization in the United States, founded in 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota by urban Native Americans. The national AIM agenda focuses on spirituality, leadership, and sovereignty...
(AIM).
Activism
Bellecourt began AIM in July of 1968 with Dennis BanksDennis Banks
Dennis Banks , a Native American leader, teacher, lecturer, activist and author, is an Anishinaabe born on Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. Banks is also known as Nowa Cumig...
, Herb Powless, and Eddie Benton Banai in Minneapolis. Bellecourt was elected the group’s first chairman. They began to monitor arrests of American Indians made by the local police department to ensure their civil rights and treatment with dignity and respect.
In 1972 Bellecourt and others organized a peaceful march on Washington D.C. in order to demand new legislation to remove the Bureau of Indian Affairs
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...
(BIA) as an agency of the Department of the Interior. They supported establishing a Federal Indian Commission, reporting directly to the president, in order to ensure that Indian interests were considered in all aspects. Bellecourt and the other planners originally planned a peaceful tour of Washington landmarks and meeting with leading government officials to present their “20 points,” as a list of their grievances. The activists ended up storming and occupying the BIA Headquarters before beginning negotiations for their 20 points. They called for ending the corruption and mismanagement of the BIA. Bellecourt, along with other AIM, leaders, led the negotiations with the federal government. The Indian activists abandoned the BIA building in exchange for the gas money necessary to return home. Their occupation caused the loss and destruction of irreplaceable Indian land deeds.
In 1973 AIM activists were invited to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is an Oglala Sioux Native American reservation located in the U.S. state of South Dakota. Originally included within the territory of the Great Sioux Reservation, Pine Ridge was established in 1889 in the southwest corner of South Dakota on the Nebraska border...
in South Dakota by its local civil rights organization to aid in securing better treatment from law enforcement in the border towns, which had been slow to prosecute attacks against Lakota. Protesting discrimination against the Lakota in border towns and the failed impeachment of the elected tribal chairman, Richard Wilson
Dick Wilson (tribal chairman)
Richard A. "Dick" Wilson was elected chairman of the Oglala Lakota Sioux of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where he served from 1972–1976, following re-election in 1974...
, AIM led an occupation of the Town of Wounded Knee, within the reservation. They were also protesting the poor living conditions on that reservation. FBI agents and U.S. Marshals soon surrounded the town. Bellecourt became a negotiator. Eventually, he, Means, and Carter Camp held a meeting with a representative for the US President. They negotiated an audit of Wilson's operation of tribal finances, and investigation of abuses by his private militia, the Guardians of the Oglala Nation
Guardians of the Oglala Nation
The Guardians of the Oglala Nation were a private paramilitary group active on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation during the early 1970s.-Formation:...
(GOONs).
After leaving Pine Ridge, Bellecourt and Means were arrested in Pierre, South Dakota
Pierre, South Dakota
Pierre is the capital of the U.S. state of South Dakota and the county seat of Hughes County. The population was 13,646 at the 2010 census, making it the second least populous state capital after Montpelier, Vermont...
, with a bond set at $25,000. They were served a restraining order against approaching closer than 5 miles to the town of Wounded Knee. After being released on bond, Bellecourt went on a fundraising tour across the United States, trying to raise money for the activists still occupying Wounded Knee.
After the occupation of Wounded Knee ended, Bellecourt hosted seminars and other public appearances. He claimed that, “the seminar represents the beginning of an educational effort by AIM and a turning point for the organization which hope to avoid…violent confrontations in the future.” Throughout the rest of his speaking tour about Wounded Knee and the BIA takeover, Bellecourt would maintain that Christianity, the Office of Education, and the Federal Government were enemies to Indians. He defended AIM actions at the BIA and Wounded Knee, saying, “We are the landlords of the country, it is the end of the month, the rent is due, and AIM is going to collect.”
Current involvement
Bellecourt lives in Minneapolis. He continues to direct national and international AIM activities, is a coordinator of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media, and leads Heart of the Earth, Inc., an Interpretive Center located behind AIM's 40-year school site in Minneapolis.Since 2005, the Clyde H. Bellecourt Scholarship Fund has awarded $222,687 in 22 college scholarships to both graduate and undergraduate American Indian students who are studying in the fields of Education, American Indian Studies, or Indigenous Languages. This is one of Heart of the Earth's five major public events.
It sponsors the Yamamoto Cup youth canoe race, held annually in August in Minneapolis. Well over 500 spectators attend. The Red Road Pow Wow is held in Minneapolis at the New Year. The 2010 Pow Wow had more than 1,500 Minneapolis residents in attendance. The Gathering of the Sacred Pipe Sundance and Youth and Elders Conference will be held in Pipestone, Minnesota
Pipestone, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 4,280 people, 1,900 households, and 1,138 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,090.8 people per square mile . There were 2,097 housing units at an average density of 534.4 per square mile...
. Over 400 attend the Midewiwin
Midewiwin
The Midewiwin or the Grand Medicine Society is a secretive religion of the aboriginal groups of the Maritimes, New England and Great Lakes regions in North America. Its practitioners are called Midew and the practices of Midewiwin referred to as Mide...
Program, held in Bad River, Wisconsin.
Bellecourt founded the Heart of the Earth Survival School. He founded Heart of the Earth, Inc. in 1972, which was approved for 501(c)(3) status in 1974. The passage of the American Indian Education Act provided possible yearly funding on a competitive basis, which Heart of the Earth was successful in winning for 24 years. It created a pre-school to grade 12 school. In the 1980s, it added adult learning and prison programs. Heart of the Earth has coordinated a national law education program.
When it developed an independent charter school in 1999, Heart of the Earth became the property owner. It continued to offer a wide variety of independent cultural programs, awarded scholarships to Indian students, and developed indigenous language research. The charter failed in 2008. In all, over 10,000 students attended the school in its 40-year history.
Other organizations founded by Bellecourt include:
- Elaine M. Stately Peacemaker Center for Indian youth;
- the AIM Patrol, which provides security for the Minneapolis Indian community;
- the Legal Rights Center;
- MIGIZI Communications, Inc.;
- the Native American Community Clinic;
- Women of Nations Eagle Nest Shelter; and
- Board of American Indian OIC (Opportunities Industrialization Center, a job program to help Native Americans get full-time jobs