Dennis Banks speaking at Ziibiwing 3pm today 5-23-16

Joseph V. Sowmick - May 24, 2016

In an effort to provide bonus coverage, Team Observer is following an impromptu visit of a true hero of Tribal sovereignty and all our Native people. Dennis Banks is a Leech Lake Ojibwe Elder, leader, teacher, lecturer, activist and author and he is offering an impromptu discussion at 3 p.m. today at the Ziibiwing Center. Banks will be speaking on domestic violence and how drug abuse is not part of the Circle. 

“All my life, I’ve talked about the seventh generation metaphorically. It is about culture and it is not only about preserving it, but making sure it’s continued in a daily fashion,” Banks said. “I visited the Seventh Generation Program and my brother Ben Hinmon many times for the diabetes run and the riders against domestic violence.  Now I have the opportunity to speak to the community at one of the best native museums in the country on something that also affects reservations across Indian Country.”

 

The former Co-Founder of the American Indian Movement (AIM), Banks is also known as “Naawakaming,” a spirit name meaning “in the center of the universe.”

 

“The way to really start a recovery program is to bring people back to our culture. We need to guide our young ones back into the sweat lodge, the long houses and pipe ceremonies and back to the teachings of the drum,” Banks said. “We need to teach our youth on why we use eagle feathers and the importance placed on what we need to do for the community when we receive them and why it is important to give them. The drugs are destroying our families and the very core values of our Ojibwe people are under attack right here and on other reservations.”