REMEMBER AIM ACTIVIST 0GEMAHWAHAVABE ALIAS MARK BANKS

 Mark Banks or, to give him his native name Ogemahwahavabe, was a Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe member. He was the older brother of Dennis banks, one of the founding members of AIM, the American Indian Movement in Minneapolis in 1968. Both brothers were amongst the many thousands of native American children that had been 'taken' from their homes to be placed in one of the many notorious boarding schools, some of which have been so prominent in the news in recent years as countless cases of child physical and sexual abuse and murders has been discovered and finally revealed.

Dennis was prominent in the 'take over' of Alcatraz in 1971 and with other AIM member Russell Means in organising the 'Siege of Wounded Knee' in 1973. AIM's main aims was to force the United State Government to recognise and honour treaties that were made during the latter half of the 19th century as well as the current day sovereign and human rights of the native Americans.

The 19th century treaties had been consistently broken by the U.S Goverment and an endless flow of white settlers as they encroached further into Indian terrorities agreed on in the treaties whenever it suited  them to and, during the Spring of 1868, the final Fort Laramie treaty, was agreed agreed on when a conference was held at Fort Laramie, in present day Wyoming. This final treaty was meant to bring peace between the whites and the Sioux who agreed to settle within the Black Hills reservation in the Dakota Territory.

 

By the early 1980's, the effects of over  hundred years of consistent breaking of the treaty by the U.S. Government, white settlers and U.S State authorized mining companies mining for every sort of hard rock mineral from gold to Uranium had taken its toll on the South Dakota Indians. Abandoned mines had been left all over the Black hills and mineral elements released from them was being released into the environment and into water resources causing Native Americans to be vulnerable to numerous deadly illnesses and yet, despite the 1980 ruling by the Supreme Court which conceded that the U.S had violated the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1877 by illegally seizing the Black Hills from the Sioux, the U.S. Government were still issuing licences to  Multinational mining companies, such as Union Carbide and Exxon for further development of the Black Hills for energy resources, including coal,  uranium and coal slurry pipelines.  

AIM was fighting against these new developments on two fronts,  through the American court system on the grounds of Treaty Rights and, also, Russell Means had led the establishment of the Yellow Thunder Camp in the Black hills in the early 1980's so that they could defend what was left of their sacred land through action if deemed necessary. It was during this period that  Mark Banks embarked on an European Speaking Tour to seek support for this ongoing cause.  

 As Cymric activists in touch with other dissident groups in other nations during the 1960 - 80's, we were, of course aware of the struggles of the Native Americans and of their campaigns and when we were approached by AIM in regards to hosting and arranging a tour in Cymru to enable Mark to draw attention to their cause, we were happy to assist and we organised for Mark to speak at a number of venues throughout Cymru. We also lined up a number of TV and radio interviews for him.

When being interviewed,  Mark was eager to point out that his people could empathise with the Cymric experience as they were aware that we were also a nation that had been robbed of our land and resources and had suffered and sacrificed during many battles for many ages.

Mark spoke at venues in Caerdydd, Abertawe, Aberteifi, Aberystwyth and Caernarfon and a film of the current illegal mining taking place in the Black Hills was also shown at all venues.

A visit to Carreg Cennin:

Whilst on the Northern leg of the tour, we took Mark to Nant Gwrtheyrn where we were welcomed at a luncheon reception and then entertained by Dafydd Iwan who was more loyal to his principals then than he is these days.

Mark was keen to visit my home town of Blaenau Ffestiniog and we took him and his entourage down the Llechwedd mine. Unfortunately, I could not find a pic of Mark at Llechwedd to place in this blog post but there will be film footage along with pics in the Tŷ Cenedl Archive at the National Library of Cymru.

From Llechwedd, we made our way to Abergele to visit the Abergele Martyrs 's graves. Mark was eager to pay his respect to the two martyrs in the traditional way of his people, by the scattering of tobacco around each of the graves as a tribute to brave warriors. This visit is also on film.

I also took Mark to meet Dafydd Wigley at his home in Bontnewydd, Caernarfon. Lord Wigley was an MP in this period and during this visit, he offered to secure a visit to the Westminster Parliament for Mark, prior to the latter continuing with his tour of Europe, so that he could seek the official support of the Westminster parliament to the cause. Lord Wigley kept his word and official support of the U.K Parliament was achieved.

MARK BANKS R.I.P.

Sadly, we recently learned that Mark has left this world to join his ancestors. He died in August 2021 at the age of 89. We feel privileged and honoured to have met HIM and to have hosted and spent a full week in the company of such a dedicated patriot and warrior. We remember you with warmth and with the greatest of respect Mark as we will always do with all activists and warriors that continue today with the struggle to achieve justice for all indigenous peoples.

With the above in mind, I suggest that the greatest tribute that readers of this blog can pay to Mark, his brother Dennis, Russell Means and all the other AIM people that are continuing with their struggle, is to support the call to free their compatriot, AIM leader Leonard Peltier from the imprisonment that he has been forced to endure for 55 yrs on FBI 'trumped up' charges. Leonard is now an old man with serious health issues and needs to be released to spend the litle time he has left in the bosom of his family. You can pick up a pen and write a personal letter of support, or even just send a card to Leonard to:

Leonard Peltier 89637 -132USP Coleman 1. P.O. Box 1033, Coleman F1 33521.

Also, you can sign a petition for his release and learn more about his case at:

https://www.change.org/p/joe-biden-free-political-prisoner-leonard-peltier

Leonard has been left to rot in prison for 55yrs because he was an AIM leader and activist. Please ask your political representatives to plead for his release so that he can be back with his people before its too late.

NATIVE AMERICAN LIVES MATTER TOO!

Two film a must to watch...Soldier Blue (if you can stomach it) its an early 1970's film)

and Lakota Woman based on the AIM occupation of 1973.