John Trudell

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John Trudell was an American Indian author, poet, actor, musician, and political activist. He was the spokesperson for the United Indians of All Tribes' takeover of Alcatraz beginning in 1969, broadcasting as Radio Free Alcatraz. During most of the 1970s, he served as the chairman of the American Indian Movement, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After his pregnant wife, three children and mother-in-law were killed in 1979 in a fire at the home of his parents-in-law on the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes Duck Valley Indian Reservation in Nevada, Trudell turned to writing, music and film as a second career. He acted in three films in the 1990s. The documentary Trudell (2005) was made about him and his life as an activist and artist.

Filmography

Movies and shows, newest first

2024
Vow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae
TV show Self - AIM National Chairman (archive footage)
2022
Lakota Nation vs. United States
Movie Self (archive footage)
2017
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World
Movie Self
2015
Taking Alcatraz
Movie Self (archive footage)
2012
Dark Blood
Movie Indian #2
2010
Reel Injun
Movie Self
2009
No More Smoke Signals
Movie self
2007
The 11th Hour
Movie Self
2005
America's Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie
Movie Black Hawk (voice)
2005
A Thousand Roads
Movie Narrator (voice)
2005
Trudell
Movie Self / Narrator (voice)
2003
Dreamkeeper
Movie Coyote
2003
Dreamkeeper
TV show Coyote
1999
Making a Noise: A Native American Musical Journey with Robbie Robertson
Movie Self - Santee Sioux
1998
Smoke Signals
Movie Randy Peone
1996
Extreme Measures
Movie Tony

More credits

1996
The West
TV show Self
1994
On Deadly Ground
Movie Johnny Redfeather
1992
Incident at Oglala
Movie Self - National Spokesperson, American Indian Movement
1992
Thunderheart
Movie Jimmy Looks Twice
1991
Warrior: The Life of Leonard Peltier
Movie Thanks
1989
Powwow Highway
Movie Louie Short Hair