thank God someone can stand and be heard...that's what we need these days....danggg yes

Thanks guys! I should have warned it's about 78 minutes long! I just found this today as well, and as a Native Canadian, I can feel where he is coming from!
I was taken aback and speechless at his struggles for survival and rights as a human being! Keep the circle strong everyone! They can only stop us if we let them, and they will only be stopped if we do it! The World is ours, not just the rich peoples! Stand tall, stand strong! See you on the other side!!

Had tears rolling down my face at most of his "lines"..

Thanks for introducing me to Mr. Trudell, Such truth and wisdom!

S+F

Very good and genuinely touching film.

I have a few issues however:
I'm not sure quite how Native American are represented.
In one breath they are children and guardians of the earth - but they use gas, cars, and regard the lack of modern conveniences as somewhat of a deprivation?
They use the very same technologies as modern, Western people; but somehow don't want the exploitations or effects on their land?
So on whose land must it be?

If you use gas and cars you're no better or worse than anyone else.
You're supporting the same thing as every Western materialist.

My people in Germany also danced, and once lived in forests - and they went through a terrible time.
It is good learning about another culture and how America does its "business".
But, I don't see anything particularly noble, or any more of an oppression than one would find in Europe.
If I could go to the coal mining town that my parents came from - I could also make people cry.

But, it is a great piece - I hope it can stay on Youtube.

I think: if only the Native Americans had such unity movements in the 19th century, and they weren't themselves so divided by tribal wars, then who knows? We might have had a "red" republic in America's heartland.

I am very impressed in how AIM expressed environmentalism with social issues.

Unfortunately our liberation movements in South Africa were only focused on social liberation along socialist lines (and many of the ANC leaders received training in former socialist countries).
This means that the promises and aspirations of the ANC center on housing, plumbing, electricity and all the benefits of being on "the grid" of modernization.
Little is invested in the former reserves, or "homelands", which people still farmed traditionally two decades ago.
Instead, the population is rapidly urbanizing, and despite the nostalgic discourse around land re-distribution, most such projects end up mismanaged or abandoned.

There are many Africans (both white and black) who are concerned about our natural world.
Some have started growing endangered medicinal herbs, or using animal skins from non-endangered species.
But many still have the attitude that they are "Africans" and can use as many leopards as they wish for skins, or strip the vegetation bare.
What is sad about other African countries like the Congo (DRC) is that they have enough hydro-electric potential to power-up the whole continent. Yet, all the expertise on how to run this left in the post-colonial chaos.
Now the forests are are going in smoke to make charcoal.

The "people first" modernist philosophy is very dated and harmful.
Of course big industry does its best to corrupt politicians to their advantage.
Not only is big industry coming from the West, but also from China (with its disreputable attitude towards environmental issues).
Ultimately it just poisons and strips everything.
But how can expanding, hungry populations be convinced to be conservationists?
So I think that AIM discourse and philosophy is sorely needed here.
Natural rights are also human rights.

I certainly hope people will start voting for some of the "greener" parties in SA at the next election, and not some half-baked Stalinist pipe dream.
I also hope the Khoisan people get aboriginal rights, since they are more environmentally aware generally than some of the other population groups.