Vernon Bellecourt (WaBun-Inini) Anishinabe/Ojibwe Nation 1931 - 2007From: Chris Spotted Eagle
Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 18:51:34 -0400
Vernon Bellecourt (WaBun-Inini) passed over into the spirit world earlier today, October 13, 2007. Minneapolis, Minnesota surrounded by his friends and family.
Vernon was a principal spokesman for the American Indian Movement and a leader in actions ranging from the 1972 occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington to the 1992 Redskin Superbowl demonstrations. He Co-founded and was the first Executive Director of the Denver AIM Chapter. His involvement at Wounded Knee in 1973 led to a Federal indictment. He was a special representative of the International Indian Treaty Council and helped organize the first Treaty Conference in 1974. He was jailed for throwing his blood on the Guatemalan Embassy to protest the killing of 100,000 Indians. He was elected to a 4-year term in his White Earth tribal government and developed a model program for the spiritual education of Indian prisoners. Vernon was President of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports & Media and recipient of the City of Phoenix, Martin Luther King Human Rights Award 1993
Last journey was to Venezuela in north and south solidarity
Vernon Bellecourt (WaBun-Inini) passed over into the spirit world earlier today, October 13, 2007. Minneapolis, Minnesota surrounded by his friends and family.
Vernon was a principal spokesman for the American Indian Movement and a leader in actions ranging from the 1972 occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington to the 1992 Redskin Superbowl demonstrations. He Co-founded and was the first Executive Director of the Denver AIM Chapter. His involvement at Wounded Knee in 1973 led to a Federal indictment. He was a special representative of the International Indian Treaty Council and helped organize the first Treaty Conference in 1974. He was jailed for throwing his blood on the Guatemalan Embassy to protest the killing of 100,000 Indians. He was elected to a 4-year term in his White Earth tribal government and developed a model program for the spiritual education of Indian prisoners. Vernon was President of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports & Media and recipient of the City of Phoenix, Martin Luther King Human Rights Award 1993
Last journey was to Venezuela in north and south solidarity
Vernon Bellecourt, in poor health and in a wheelchair, joined an American Indian delegation to Venezuela in August, 2007, to unite Indigenous from the North and South in solidarity:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/09/american-indians-in-venezuela-build_26.html
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/09/american-indians-in-venezuela-build_26.html
Bellecourt fell ill after last great journey: Trip to Venezuela
From Lenny Foster, Navajo
I wish to offer my deepest condolences to the family of Vernon Bellecourt. I am sadden and with grief as I recall my friendship with Vernon Bellecourt since the fall of 1970 when I first met Vernon in Denver. I had already made my spiritual pilgrimage to Alcatraz Island that spring. He took me and many others under his wing and became a mentor for the young American Indians. I joined the American Indian Movement and I traveled with the Denver American Indian Movement chapter for the next three years (1970-1974) including the campaigns at Ignacio, Colorado; Omaha, Nebraska; Raymond Yellow Thunder in Gordon, Nebraska; Cass Lake, Minnesota; Alliance, Nebraska; Flagstaff, Arizona; Gallup, New Mexico; Trail of Broken Treaties Caravan & the BIA Takeover in Washington, D.C.; Wounded Knee, South Dakota; and the First International Indian Treaty Council gathering in Mobridge, South Dakota.
He was a fearless leader and was a very eloquent and articulate speaker whose words inspired a generation. He was the founder of the Denver chapter of the American Indian Movement and he was one of the founders of the International Indian Treaty Council and he became a staunch advocate and speaker for the Indigenous Peoples and became a world figure and traveled throughout the world.
He strongly believed in the spiritual sovereignty of the American Indian. He supported our struggle at Big Mountain with his presence at the Sun Dance. He took us with him from the Navajo Reservation and other Indian reservations throughout the country and he helped bring the Indian Nations into the world arena and became one of the leaders who traveled to the United Nations in Geneva.
He took on the corporate world of major league baseball teams such as the Atlanta Braves and the Cleveland Indians and the national football league teams of the Washington Redskins and the Kansas City Chiefs because of the dehumanizing racist cartoon caricatures that portrayed the American Indian as mascots.
We were awarded and a recipient of the City of Phoenix, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Human Rights Award in January 16, 1993 which was the first time the state of Arizona recognized the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday. We both worked on the religious freedom and traditional worship for Native prisoners in the state prisons and federal penitentiaries and we both kept Leonard Peltier in the forefront for the religious freedom struggle.
This was my relationship with a great warrior, human being and a passionate advocate for his peoples.
My deepest condolences to the family and relatives of Vernon Bellecourt. We share your sorrow and grief.
Farewell my friend and comrade in the struggle and it was my pleasure and honor to have rode with you.
Lenny Foster (Dine’)
Wounded Knee vet
International Indian Treaty Council
He was a fearless leader and was a very eloquent and articulate speaker whose words inspired a generation. He was the founder of the Denver chapter of the American Indian Movement and he was one of the founders of the International Indian Treaty Council and he became a staunch advocate and speaker for the Indigenous Peoples and became a world figure and traveled throughout the world.
He strongly believed in the spiritual sovereignty of the American Indian. He supported our struggle at Big Mountain with his presence at the Sun Dance. He took us with him from the Navajo Reservation and other Indian reservations throughout the country and he helped bring the Indian Nations into the world arena and became one of the leaders who traveled to the United Nations in Geneva.
He took on the corporate world of major league baseball teams such as the Atlanta Braves and the Cleveland Indians and the national football league teams of the Washington Redskins and the Kansas City Chiefs because of the dehumanizing racist cartoon caricatures that portrayed the American Indian as mascots.
We were awarded and a recipient of the City of Phoenix, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Human Rights Award in January 16, 1993 which was the first time the state of Arizona recognized the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday. We both worked on the religious freedom and traditional worship for Native prisoners in the state prisons and federal penitentiaries and we both kept Leonard Peltier in the forefront for the religious freedom struggle.
This was my relationship with a great warrior, human being and a passionate advocate for his peoples.
My deepest condolences to the family and relatives of Vernon Bellecourt. We share your sorrow and grief.
Farewell my friend and comrade in the struggle and it was my pleasure and honor to have rode with you.
Lenny Foster (Dine’)
Wounded Knee vet
International Indian Treaty Council
AIM Leader Vernon Bellecourt Dies at 75MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Vernon Bellecourt, a longtime leader of the American Indian Movement who fought against the use of American Indian nicknames for sports teams, died Saturday his brother said. He was 75.
Bellecourt died at Abbott Northwestern Hospital of complications of pneumonia, according to Clyde Bellecourt, a founding member of the militant American Indian rights group.
Just before he was put on the respirator, Vernon Bellecourt joked that the CIA had finally gotten him, his brother said.
"He was willing to put his butt on the line to draw attention to racism in sports," his brother said. Clyde Bellecourt said his brother had been in Venezuela about four weeks ago to meet with President Hugo Chavez to discuss Chavez' program for providing heating assistance to American Indian tribes. He fell ill around the time of his return, Clyde Bellecourt said.
PHOTO: Vernon Bellecourt, critic of American Indian sports monickers, dead at 75 by STEVE KARNOWSKI - Associated Press Writer© AP
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Leonard Peltier, and the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee extend ourcondolences to the Bellecourt Family.
Vernon died Saturday, October 13, 2007at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis Minnesota surrounded by his friends and family.Vernon Bellecourt, whose Objibwe name (WaBun-Inini) means Man of Dawn was a member of Minnesota's White Earth Band and was an international spokesman for the AIM Grand Governing Council based in Minneapolis. He was 75. In recent years, Bellecourt had been active in the fight against American Indian nicknames for sports teams as president of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media. He was arrested in Cleveland during the 1997World Series and again in 1998 during protests against the Cleveland Indian's Mascot, Chief Wahoo. Charges were dropped for the first time and hewas never charged on the second case.A Celebration of Vernon's Life to be held on Monday, October 15, 2007 at All Nations Indian Church, 1515 E 23rd Street Minneapolis, MN 55404. Waketo be held on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at the Circle of Life School, White Earth Reservation, MN. Burial will be Wednesday Morning, October 17, 2007at White Earth Reservation, MN.
Respectfully,
Leonard Peltier
Toni Zeidan, Co-director
LPDC Website: http://www.leonardpeltier.net/
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