John Trudell
Biography
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.
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Full filmography
- The West (1996) as Self
- Extreme Measures (1996) as Tony
- On Deadly Ground (1994) as Johnny Redfeather
- Thunderheart (1992) as Jimmy Looks Twice
- Making a Noise: A Native American Musical Journey with Robbie Robertson (1999) as Self - Santee Sioux
- Smoke Signals (1998) as Randy Peone
- The 11th Hour (2007) as Self
- Vow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae (2024) as Self - AIM National Chairman (archive footage)
- Dreamkeeper (2003) as Coyote
- Incident at Oglala (1992) as Self - National Spokesperson, American Indian Movement
- Dark Blood (2012) as Indian #2
- Dreamkeeper (2003) as Coyote
- Trudell (2005) as Self / Narrator (voice)
- Reel Injun (2010) as Self
- Taking Alcatraz (2015) as Self (archive footage)
- Powwow Highway (1989) as Louie Short Hair
- Lakota Nation vs. United States (2022) as Self (archive footage)
- No More Smoke Signals (2009) as self
- A Thousand Roads (2005) as Narrator (voice)
- Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World (2017) as Self
- America's Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie (2005) as Black Hawk (voice)