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Dennis Banks, Russell Means and Clyde Bellecourt

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Artist: Cheryl Hastings, born 1944
Sitter: Dennis Banks, 12 Apr 1937 - 29 Oct 2017; Russell Means, 10 Nov 1939 - 22 Oct 2012; Clyde Howard Bellecourt, 8 May 1936 - 11 Jan 2022

Date: 1971 (printed 2019)

Type: Photograph

Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions: Image: 14.5 × 21.5 cm (5 11/16 × 8 7/16"); Sheet: 20.3 × 25.4 cm (8 × 10"); Mat: 35.6 × 45.7 cm (14 × 18")

Topic: Costume\Jewelry\Necklace; Exterior; Costume\Dress Accessory\Eyeglasses; Nature & Environment\Plant; Costume\Jewelry\Bracelet; Equipment\Drafting & Writing Implements\Writing implement\Pen; Architecture\Stairs\Staircase; Costume\Dress Accessory\Belt; Russell Means: Visual Arts\Artist; Russell Means: Male; Russell Means: Literature\Writer; Russell Means: Performing Arts\Performer\Actor; Russell Means: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Activist; Dennis Banks: Male; Dennis Banks: Performing Arts\Performer\Actor; Dennis Banks: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Activist; Clyde Howard Bellecourt: Male; Clyde Howard Bellecourt: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Activist\Civil rights activist; Portrait

Place: United States\Minnesota\Hennepin\Minneapolis

Credit Line: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Restrictions & Rights: Usage conditions apply

Object number: NPG.2020.107

Exhibition Label: Dennis Banks (1937–2017) Born Leech Lake Reservation, Minnesota; Russell Means (1939–2012) Born Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota; Clyde H. Bellecourt (born 1936) Born White Earth Reservation, Minnesota; Cheryl Walsh Bellville photographed Dennis Banks (Ojibwe), Russell Means (Oglala Lakota), and Clyde Bellecourt (Ojibwe), leaders of the Minnesota-based American Indian Movement (AIM), at a tenement off Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis in August 1971. Banks, Bellecourt, and Means, along with other members of AIM, worked toward gaining rights for Native American communities in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and beyond. Their multipronged efforts included drawing attention to the excessive policing of Native communities; creating housing projects; and establishing Native schools that functioned independently of the federal government.; AIM also organized marches and protests, some of which drew national and international attention. Following their seventy-one-day occupation of Wounded Knee, in South Dakota, in 1973, Banks and Means both faced charges that were later dropped. Despite their individual run-ins with the law and AIM’s internal conflicts, the three men continued advocating for Indigenous rights.; Cheryl Walsh Bellville (born 1944); Gelatin silver print, 1971 (printed 2019); NPG.2020.107; Izquierda a derecha:; Dennis Banks 1937–2017; Nacido en la reserva indígena de Leech Lake, Minnesota; Russell Means 1939–2012; Nacido en la reserva indígena de Pine Ridge, Dakota del Sur; Clyde H. Bellecourt n. 1936; Nacido en la reserva indígena de White Earth, Minnesota; Cheryl Walsh Bellville fotografió a Dennis Banks (ojibwe), Russell Means (oglala lakota) y Clyde Bellecourt (ojibwe), líderes del Movimiento Indígena Estadounidense (AIM) de Minnesota, en agosto de 1971 frente a un bloque de viviendas cerca de la avenida Franklin en Minneapolis. Banks, Bellecourt y Means, con otros miembros de AIM, lucharon por los derechos de las comunidades nativas americanas en el área de Minneapolis-St. Paul y más allá de esta. Entre sus esfuerzos en varios frentes se destacan la denuncia pública de la excesiva intrusión policial en las comunidades indígenas y la creación de viviendas públicas así como escuelas indígenas independientes del gobierno federal.; AIM organizó marchas y protestas, algunas de resonancia nacional e internacional. En 1973, tras una ocupación de 71 días en la aldea de Wounded Knee, Dakota del Sur, Banks y Means enfrentaron cargos judiciales, que luego fueron retirados. A pesar de sus roces con la ley y los conflictos internos de AIM, los tres hombres continuaron luchando por los derechos indígenas.

Data Source: National Portrait Gallery