John Trudell
The latter half of the twentieth century saw Indigenous political activism take on a heightened public presence in the United States, with artists and organizers working across multiple disciplines to bring attention to Native rights. John Trudell was part of that moment, working not in a single lane but across several at once.
Born in Omaha on February 15, 1946, Trudell studied at San Bernardino Valley College and went on to build a life that moved between poetry, music, acting, and political activism. Working in English, he operated across creative and civic spheres that most people keep separate, making him a distinct figure in American cultural and political life. He held U.S. citizenship and spent decades engaged in work that crossed the boundaries between art and advocacy. Trudell continued in those roles until his death on December 8, 2015, in his sixty-ninth year. The range of his output — poet, musician, actor, and activist, all at once — stands as the clearest measure of what he brought to the era he worked in.
Quotes by John Trudell
I don't write as much now as I used to, but I write. The lines still come, maybe periodically, and I'll go through these little bursts of time where I write a lot of things then a long period of time where maybe I don't write anything.
As human beings how we use our intelligence to perceive reality Dictates how we will use the power of our intelligence.
Because you look at it, you know, and there’s basically one set of rules that protect that industrial ruling class. That’s what the governments do, that’s what the religions do. They protect the interests of that industrial ruling class.
No matter what they ever do to us, we must always act for the love of our people and the earth. We must not react out of hatred against those who have no sense.
I think we live in an industrial dimensional reality where we’re programmed to believe what we’re told. We’re programmed to believe them. We’re programmed to believe what that ruling class wants us to believe.
As human beings it is time to take responsibility for the power of our Intelligence and use the power of our intelligence to think coherently This isn’t about whether we can or we can’t This is about whether we will or we won’t.
A lot of my writing is basically about observation, and things that I’ve seen, either through personal experiences or the experiences of people around me, or society at large.