Eagle Song: Honoring Algonkian Leaders of Our Time

Chapter Two

Eagle Song
An Informal “Honor Roll" Of Living Algonkian Heroes
Of the Present Age

Marie Annharte Baker (Anishinabe). Born in 1942, Marie is a poet and essayist whose work has been published in Semiotexte. She is the co-founder of the Regina Aboriginal Writers’ Group, and currently lives in Regina. Her published poetry books include Being on the Moon, and Coyote Columbus Cafe.

Dennis Banks aka Nowa Cumig, (Ojibway/Anishinabi). Born on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota, this author, though controversial, has nonetheless shown remarkable dedication and commitment to American Indian issues and struggles throughout the United States and Canada for over twenty-five years. He established the first Sacred Run from Davis to Los Angeles which he continues to sponsor, and also organized The Longest Walk from Alcatraz to Washington, D.C. in 1978, a 3,600 mile march. As of 1996, he had led sacred runners a total of 58,000 miles across most of the continents in the world.

The Indian Occupation of Alcatraz island in 1969, which he helped organize, is the subject of a documentary film "Alcatraz Is Not an Island." Dennis has twenty children, twenty-four grandchildren and fifteen great grandchildren and still lives in a remote area of northern Minnesota where he lives a very simple life with no phone, TV, computer, or other indulgences. Banks also provides drug and alcohol counseling to Native Americans. He earned an Associates of Arts degree at Davis University and taught at DQ (Deganawida/Quetzecoatl) University, where he became their first American Indian chancellor. He taught at Stanford University in 1979.

Of course, Dennis is best known as a co-founder of the American Indian Movement, and although much of the AIM work in the 1970s migrated to the courts, Banks is still busy addressing native concerns. Working with the International Indian Treaty Council in San Francisco, CA, Dennis and AIM have worked for fifteen years to bring the issues and struggles of the American Indians to a worldwide audience including the United Nations and many other European governments.

Reading like a script for a movie about Geronimo, his wild and crazy youth includes some colorful moments which did not make him popular with the FBI. With AIM he organized a Trail of Broken Treaties caravan across the U.S. (According to historian Dark Rain Thom, there have been 349 major "treaties" with the United States, and there isn’t a single one where at least one promise has not been broken.) AIM anticipated meeting with Congressional leaders about Native issues, but when all officials refused to speak to them, this resulted in the seizure and occupation of BIA headquarters. AIM also spearheaded the effort to remove corruption from the Pine Ridge government offices, which led to the seventy-one day long Wounded Knee uprising. Also in 1973, Banks led a protest in Custer, South Dakota which led to his arrest.

Refusing a prison term, Banks went underground and later received amnesty in California by then-governor Jerry Brown. When Brown left office, Banks received sanctuary at the Onondaga Nation in New York in 1984, where he organized the Jim Thorpe Run from New York to Los Angeles, which ended at the Jim Thorpe Memorial Games where the gold medals Thorpe had won were restored to the Thorpe family. (See "Thorpe")

In 1985, Banks left the Onondaga reserve to surrender to law enforcement officials and spent eighteen months in prison. Upon his release, he worked on the Pine Ridge reserve as a drug and alcohol counselor, helping many native people break the yoke of addiction.

In 1987, grave-robbers in Uniontown, KY destroyed 1,200 Native American grave sites. Banks was called in to organize the reburial ceremonies for the remains. His efforts resulted in both Kentucky and Indiana passing strict legislation against grave desecration.

His autobiography, Sacred Soul, was published in Japan in 1988 and won the 1988 non-fiction book of the year award. He has had starring roles in the movies "Last of the Mohicans," "War Party," and "Thunderheart," and can be heard on Peter Gabrial’s "Les Musiques du Monde," Peter Matthiessen’s "No Boundaries," and with Cherokee Rose. His own album is called "Still Strong." His second autobiographical work, The Longest Walk, was released in 1997. (Based on the Internet site Ojibway Role Models.)

Mike Bastine (Algonquin). Mike Bastine is a story teller and founder of the "Touch The Earth" Natural Resource Center of South Wales, in northern New York. Mike travels all over the US and Canada with his teachings. He has worked with William Commanda for many years. Before that, he was an assistant to the Seneca medicine man, Mad Bear. He has a video tape available, and is an advisor to The Center for Algonquin Culture. He has been like an older brother to me, and his teachings have been very helpful to me through times of both joy and sorrow.

Irene Bedard (Cree/French Canadian/Inupiat Eskimo). Irene is the speaking voice behind Disney’s Pocahontas character for kids (see "Pocahontas" for the real story). She grew up visiting ceremonial dances and potlatches in Anchorage, Alaska, where her father is still politically active on Native American issues. She now lives in New York with her musical husband Denny Wilson, and directs the "Half Moon" production company.

Irene played the leading lady in the movie "Squanto: A Warrior’s Tale." She also played Mary Crow Dog in “Lakota Woman--Siege At Wounded Knee” (1994) and starred in “Navajo Blues” (1996), “Crazy Horse” (1996), “True Women” (1997), “Two For Texas” (1998), “Smoke Signals” (1998, and “Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World” (1998).

By the way, Lakota activist turned actor Russell Means played the voice of Pocahontas’ father Powhatan, in the movie. (See “Powhatan”) I really enjoyed the songs, even though Irene didn’t sing them. Although Disney’s story isn’t accurate, they got the hair right. Each character’s hairdo seems appropriate for their role in the Algunkeean society they lived in, such as the young men. If you look carefully, the cartoon warriors have long hair on the left and shaved heads on the right. This was so that their hair wouldn’t get caught on the arrows; obviously, somebody did their homework.

Clyde Bellecourt (Ojibway). Clyde Bellecourt, born on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota in 1939, is one of the founders of the American Indian Movement (AIM). Along with Dennis Banks and George Mitchell, all three Ojibway men started AIM in Minneapolis in 1968
as a grassroots watchdog organization whose goal was to prevent the continual harassment and brutality of Minneapolis' urban Indians by the Minneapolis Police Department. With the success
of this goal behind them, AIM went on to form a national organization with local chapters in cities across the nation. Clyde Bellecourt, although controversial even among native people, was instrumental in AIM's most notable protests and demonstrations; the march to Washington, D.C. and the take over of the BIA building there, as well as the AIM backed occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973. Today, Clyde Bellcourt is still fighting for Ojibway and Indian causes, taking up
the issue of Indian Mascots/Logos in professional and college sports. (Quoted from the Internet site "Ojibway Role Models")

Edward Benton Benaise (Ojibway) is a full-blooded Wisconsin Ojibway of the Fish Clan and a Spiritual Teacher of the Lac Court Orielles Band of the Ojibway Tribe. Eddie is the executive Director of the Red School House in St. Paul, Minnesota, and was one of its original founders in the late 1960s. Eddie was also directly involved with the original formation of the American Indian Movement, formed in 1968 as a grassroots organization set up to watchdog the Minneapolis Police Department after years of racist attacks and harassment of Minneapolis' Indian community. The Red School House was one of AIM's initial "Indian Survival Schools."
A pioneer in culture-based curriculum as well as Indian alternative education, Eddie achieved a long-standing ambition to set down the oral history of the Ojibway Nation with the publication in 1979 of The Mishomis Book, which is a representation of the life he lived as a youth within the family circle. He was very fortunate to have had the companionship of tribal elders who possessed the memories and inherent wisdom of the Ojibway Nation and who carefully treasured and preserved the ancient traditions upon which his book is based. The Mishomis Book, available from News from Indian Country, is the first and most reliable source of printed information on the Seven Fires Prophecy.

As a member of the Midewiwin, or Grand Medicine Society, Eddie continues his work passing on the sacred rites of this ancient Ojibway Religion. (From the Internet site "Ojibway Role Models.") Today, Eddie Benton Benaise is a respected educator, story-teller and spiritual leader, and he has been a college professor in world religions. A very busy man, Eddie has nevertheless given generously of his time and teachings to me, and invited me to be an observer at ceremonies.

Big Bear (Cree). Though not that well known to Americans, Canadians know Chief Big Bear as a powerful and influential spokesperson for native rights. The life of Big Bear was portrayed in 1999 on CBC TV by Gordon Tutusis, a Cree actor.

Jesse Bruchac (Abenaki). The son of Joseph Bruchac and founder of Bowman Web Design, Jesse is a self-taught website design specialist who is presently pursuing a Masters Degree in Computer Science. Jesse has created some of the best websites around for native research, including nativesearch.com, nativeauthors.com, greenfieldreview.org, and ndakinna.com.

Jesse studied anthropology at Ithaca College and has a Bachelors degree in Linguistic Anthropology from Goddard College, where he created the first Western Abenaki Language Syllabus as his senior thesis. Jesse has released several musical recordings alone and with the Bruchac family, and he toured with the Odanak Drum, Awasos Sigwan, in Belgium in 1995.
He currently lives in Williamsville, NY.

Jesse and I attended Woodstock '94 together when he was just out of high school, and he has helped me with my mapping and linguistic preservation projects. To call Jesse a "budding genius" would be to berate him. In many ways, he’s a chip off the old Gluskabe.

James Bruchac (Abenaki). Jim, the eldest son of Joseph Bruchac, spent the first two years of his life in Ghana, West Africa and grew up immersed in storytelling and native culture. Jim is
a much sought-after storyteller, but is perhaps even better known for his innovative wilderness programs. As founder of Ndakinna Wilderness Project, Jim has led tracking expeditions all over North America and on several other continents.

Jim authored stories which are included in On The Edge, Tough Choices, and Pushing
The Limits. In 1998, he co-authored a collection of Native American monster stories, entitled When The Chenoo Howls: Native Tales of Terror with father Joe. Upcoming books include
Bear and Brown Squirrel and Native American Games.

Joseph Bruchac (Abenaki) is the author of over sixty books,

many of which help preserve Native American culture, and his stories and articles have been published in over 500 publications. In 1998 he won both the Writer of the Year and Storyteller of the Year Award from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. In 1999, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of America.

Joe’s many Abenaki storytelling tapes about Gluskabe and other characters are bestsellers, and are treasured by children all over the planet. With his wife Carol, Joe is the founder and co-director of the Greenfield Review Literary Center and the Greenfield Review Press. This press publishes the North American Native Authors Catalog, which carries many of the works mentioned in this book. Joe also performs traditional and contemporary music with The Dawnland Singers.

Born in 1942 in Saratoga Springs, NY, Joe received his B.A. from Cornell University, an M.A. from Syracuse and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at the Union Graduate School in 1975. He is best known for poetry and storybooks based on authentic native tales. Among his more than twenty well-known children’s books are: A Boy Called Slow: The True Story of Sitting Bull, The Boy Who Lived With The Bears, Flying With Eagle, Racing The Bear, Fox Song, The Girl Who Married the Moon, Gluskabe and the Four Wishes, The Great Ball Game, Iroquois Stories, Heroes and Heroines, Monsters, and Magic, Native American Animal Stories, Native American Stories, Raven Tells Stories, Return of the Sun, The Story of the Milky Way: A Cherokee Tale, Thirteen Moons on Turtle’s Back, and Wind Eagle.

Joe’s full length books include Keepers of the Earth, Dawn Land, The Native American Sweat Lodge: History and Legends, Native Wisdom and many others.A recent book, published by Harcourt in March 2000, is simply called Sacajawea.

Few people work as hard for the peaceful exchange of ideas between Algunkeean and mainstream cultures (and other First Nation peoples) as Joe does. As a co-presenter, I have been able to see Joe’s amazing story-telling style up close on several occasions. He has been a trusted advisor for many years. Joe and his wife Carol live in the Adirondack Mountain foothills town of Greenfield Center, New York, in the house where his maternal grandparents raised him.

Margaret Bruchac (Abenaki). Marge, Joseph Bruchac’s sister,
is a very gifted story teller, singer, scholar, consultant and historical interpreter. Her work focuses on hidden histories, material culture, and the continuing survival of Native American peoples in New England. She has a new album, “Hand in Hand: Voices In The Woods: Abenaki Songs and Stories,” with Justin Kennick (available as a CD or cassette). A storytelling video is also available.

As a consulting interpreter for Old Sturbridge Village Museum, Marge portrays "Molly Geet, the Indian Doctress." She is a member of The Dawnland Singers and The W’Abenaki Dancers.

Jonathan Buffalo (Sac and Fox). Tribal historian at Ames, Iowa Sac and Fox cultural center, author of a book on the history of the Sac and Fox. He shared hours of his time on short notice to convey an accurate picture of Mesquakee culture to me, for which I am grateful. He has one of the driest senses of humor I’ve ever seen.

Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Northern Cheyenne). Algunkeean government practice emphasizes non-partisan politics, so it is interesting that Senator Campbell of Colorado switched from Democrat to Republican recently.

Born on April 13th, 1933 in Auburn, California to a Portuguese mother and a Northern Cheyenne father, he served in the Air Force during the Korean conflict. He is the first Native American in the Senate in sixty years, and the only one currently serving. (As a footnote, Herbert Hoover’s Vice President, Charles Curtis was one quarter Kaw Indian, born in a teepee on a Kaw reservation in Kansas.) Campbell was elected to the U.S. Senate in November of 1992 and again in 1998. He sits on four important sub-committees; he chairs the Indian Affairs Committee; Appropriations; Energy and Natural Resources Committee; and the Veterans Affairs Committee. He also finds time to honor his considerable artistic talents as a designer of traditional Cheyenne jewelry. He is also a judo champion, and a raiser of champion quarter horses. He has a degree in Phys-Ed and Fine Arts from San Jose State. In 1960 he attended Meiji University in Tokyo as a special research student.

As a Colorado Congressman from the 3rd District, Campbell worked to settle Indian water rights and to protect natural resources. He was instrumental in changing the name of Custer Battlefield Monument in Montana to The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, so that neither side in the conflict would be disrespected.

As Senator, Campbell has taken a leadership role in fighting fetal alcohol syndrome, and in fighting drug traffic.
His official government bio reads as follows: Representative and a Senator from Colorado; born in Auburn, Calif., April 13, 1933; attended public schools; B.A., California State University at San Jose 1957; attended Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan 1960-1964; served in U.S. Air Force in Korea 1951-1954; represented the United States in 1964 Olympic Games (judo) at Tokyo, Japan; jewelry designer; rancher; served in Colorado State Legislature 1983-1986; elected as a Democrat to the One Hundredth and to the two succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1987-January 3, 1993); was not a candidate for reelection to the House of Representatives in 1992, but was elected to the United States Senate in 1992; reelected in 1998 and served from January 3, 1993, to January 3, 2005; changed from the Democratic to the Republican party in 1995; chair, Committee on Indian Affairs (One Hundred Fifth and One Hundred Sixth Congresses, One Hundred Seventh Congress [January 20, 2001-June 6, 2001] One Hundred Eighth Congress); was not a candidate for reelection in 2004.


Tantoo Cardinal (Cree). One of the most popular of Native American actresses, she brings a realness and authenticity into American homes and theaters that touches people’s lives and makes everyone think of her as "one of the family."
She turned her activism into acting, and has given flesh to some of the most admirable female role-models in cinema. She was the mother in “Thunderheart,” played the part of Black Shawl, the knowing wife of the Holy Man Kicking Bird in “Dances With Wolves” (1990 winner of the Oscar for Best Picture), Bangor, the childless companion of Rip Torn in “Where the Rivers Flow North” (1993), and the mother of Brad Pitt’s wife, Pet, in “Legends of the Fall” (1994). She contributed an unforgettable death scene to the tragic film “Black Robe” (1991) by taking an arrow to her neck. She haunted her husband who raped and murdered her in Sam Shepard’s “Silent Tongue” (1993). She played the mother in “The Education of Little Tree” and in the beloved “Smoke Signals,” where she "stole the show" as Arlene Joseph with her "miraculous frybread." She also played in “Tecumseh: The Last Warrior.” Other film credits include “Loyalties” (1987), “Navigating the Heart” (?) and “Nobody’s Girls” (1995). Tantoo is a fluent Cree speaker.
For over thirty years, Tantoo Cardinal (Métis) has brought complex representations of Native women to the screen. She is also the associate producer and co-narrator of the children's series Stories from the Seventh Fire. In 1998 she received the National Aboriginal Achievement Award, established by Mohawk conductor John Kim Bell to honor indigenous Canadians with outstanding careers. She won the Best Actress Award at the 1993 American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco, for her role as Bangor in the historical drama Where the Rivers Flow North. She received a lifetime achievement award from the Wind and Glacier Voices Festival in 1992. In 2004 Cardinal wrote the short story There Is a Place for the fiction anthology Our Story: Aboriginal Voices on Canada's Past. Cardinal was born in Fort McMurray, Alberta.
"What I find so exciting about the world of acting and film are the possibilities, that here is someplace that can reveal the stories that are in our communities, and reveal the beauty and strength of the people."


Eileen Charbonneau (Huron/Shoshone/Algonquin). A descendant of French and Native American people of early Montreal (Huron, Shoshone, and other unidentified nations, probably Algonkeean), Eileen finds much inspiration and material for her young adult fiction in researching her native roots. She recently completed a play for children, "Manitowak," for which Dennis Yerry and I created a Lenape opening monologue. Her best known award-winning romance books include Waltzing In Ragtime, The Randolph Legacy, and Rachel LeMoyne. Her best known children’s books include The Ghosts of Stony Clove, In the Time of the Wolves, and Honor to the Hills. Eileen is a contemporary relative of the Shoshone woman Sacajawea, who was the principal guide of the Lewis and Clark expedition during the early 1800s.

Jay Chattaway (Piscataway). Chattaway, a former music professor in Maryland and an arranger for the U.S. Navy Band, is currently living in Malibu Beach. He is very aware of his Algonkeean heritage, and feels he is following in the footsteps of his musical ancestors who composed and performed music long ago for the "Tayaks," the head chiefs of the Piscataway. Born on July 8, 1946 in Monongahela, PA, Jay is an award winning composer whose film credits include “Missing In Action,” Stephen King’s “Silver Bullet,” “Maniac Cop” and “Red Scorpion.” However, his most famous work by far is for the sound tracks to Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager. Since 1987, he has composed music for over one hundred episodes, and has received three Emmy Award nominations. He has commented that he sees Captain Jean Luc Piccard as a Tayak of the future, an honorable and compassionate leader, and is happy to write music for him. He has also written scores for several National Geographic Specials. He is currently the president of the (U.S.) Society of Composers and Lyricists. (Jay was my first music theory teacher, by the way. Hi Jay!)

The Cheechoos (Cree). This remarkably talented family in the arts is from the town of Moose Factory, Ontario, where most of them still maintain residence. Some of the more famous members include Jonathan Cheechoo of the San Jose Sharks NHL hockey team, Shirley Cheechoo,
the actress who starred in "The Rez" and "Song of Hiawatha," Vernon Cheechoo, a legendary folk singer/songwriter whose voice has accompanied many TV documentaries and movies, Archie Cheechoo, whose debut CD "Bay Life" paints pictures of life on the shores of James Bay and has earned great reviews, and Thelma, a young singer/songwriter with a lovely voice who released a popular CD in 1996 called Pa Ma Sei Win (Rena Music). Archie Cheechoo has been a great help to me and my family as a spiritual advisor and friend, and has shared stories of his amazing family with ours. Archie Cheechoo passed away on February 17th, 2006 and will be honored in the next chapter, “

Sunny Chobeka-Sepe Mundy (Shawnee). Sunny is a Shawnee Clan mother and also an editor and founder of the Earthbridge Center in Marianna, Florida.

Steve Comer (Stockbridge Mohican). Steve Comer is an enrolled member of the Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, a federally recognized tribe. He is the first enrolled member to live in his tribe’s original territory in over one hundred years. At present there are 1,500 tribal members, mostly west of the Mississippi. Steve is an official spokesperson for the tribe. He is a highly sought after speaker on Mohican history around the eastern U.S. and Canada, specializing in their history after their so-called demise at the ink-stained hands of James Fennimore Cooper. As a matter of fact, the "extinct" Mohicans are one of a very few tribes to defeat the Wal-Mart Corporation over desecration of burial grounds.

Steve is collaborating in the formation of a Native American Institute at Columbia-Greene Community College, developing primary and secondary school curricula covering native history of the Hudson Valley, archaeology and nature studies. He started out as a student at Wisconsin State University, but an interest in Eastern Religion led him to a Zen Buddhist center in his ancestral territory in New York, and the rest is history. I had the pleasure of exploring ancient Paleolithic sites in the Munsee-Mohican region with him. Clovis points dating back 12,000 years have been found in the region.

William Commanda (Algonquin) has been described as "The Gandhi of the People of Manitou." He currently travels all over the world speaking to large audiences about how we can respect the earth and be good to one another without violence. William Commanda never went to school. He was a trapper from the age of twelve, and at the age of forty he was hired to scale logs. At that late age, William was taught to read and write by a forest ranger. Nonetheless, he has had a tremendous impact on the world at large and has been respectfully welcomed to speak at the United Nations, at the Belonging To Mother Earth conference, and before many governmental bodies in Japan, Canada, the US, and other countries. In 1999 William addressed Parliament in Ottawa, speaking against the excessive use of nuclear power in Canada.

In the early 1960’s, William was stricken with cancer and given a month to live. He was in such pain that he prayed to the Great Spirit to take his life or heal him. He vowed that if healed he would be happy to live the rest of his life in service to the Divine. At that moment a bird came to the window sill and sang to him, and when he heard that song, he was transformed, healed, as he says, by the presence of the divine spirit. He was filled with such love that not only all the cancer, but all hatred as well vanished from his being. In forty years, the cancer has never returned, and neither has the hate.

The following year, on August 2nd, William pulled together an historic gathering on his own property at his own expense to help heal the long-seated differences between the Algunkeean and Iroquoian peoples, inviting them both to come feast together. The results were so dramatic and healing for the community, that he was presented with three ancient wampum belts to carry for the Algunkeean people. He now carries the "Seven Fires" Wampum Belt of Algunkeean prophecy, which is said to be over four hundred years old. Its beaded seven diamonds told the people of seven prophets who came and foretold what would happen generation by generation, and how at a certain time we would come to a great crossroads in human history where we would have to decide between technologically-driven self-destruction and a return to simplicity and a respect for nature.


William lives in Maniwaki, Quebec and is featured in Wis