Would the Real Dennis Banks Please Stand Up

Gannett Co. Newspaper Erroneously Places Dennis Banks at South Dakota College Conference

Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Native Currents. Discussion »

SIOUX FALLS, SOUTH DAKOTA – The Aurgus Leader, a South Dakota-based and Gannett Company-owned newspaper in today's edition ran a story entitled "Old Divisions Flare as AIM Leaders Reunite" as it describes the Dakota Conference underway at Augustana College yesterday and today.

Dennis Banks is Expected
Tonight in Sioux Falls

The story erroneously placed Dennis Banks, co-founder of the American Indian Movement, when he was in Minnesota as Joseph Trimbach, the FBI supervisor during the takeover of Wounded Knee 39 years ago, spoke at the conference.

The article reads: "Banks stood near the back of the room as Trimbach made his claims. Banks occasionally smiled thinly but said nothing."

Once in South Dakota on Saturday, Banks on his way to the conference picked up a copy of the Argus Leader, which also had a picture of Banks. It was a picture of Banks, but not of him attending the conference.

"I left at 2:30 in the morning to get here, but I was not there yesterday,"

Banks commented to the Native News Network in the early afternoon today.

A call placed into the Argus Leader by the Native News Network for comment about the erroneous reporting, was not returned by publication time.

Banks decided to attend the conference on Saturday to support Russell Means and Clyde Bellecourt who were scheduled to speak at the conference. Banks will also be on hand for the screening of "A Good Day to Die."

The award-winning documentary film follows the life of Dennis Banks from boarding school and the military to his transformative experience in Stillwater State Prison. AIM's game-changing confrontations in Washington DC and Custer, South Dakota, and the epic standoff at Wounded Knee in 1973 ushered in a new era of Native American pride and self-determination.

Trimbach, who has never been friends of the American Indian Movement, has not altered his position during the past 39 years that have transpired. On Friday, seeking a revisionist approach to history, Trimbach attempted to justify all the FBI's actions that resulted in a mistrial in the federal government's case against Banks and Means.

Editor's Note: The Native News Network will have additional information about the conference in its Monday edition.

updated April 30, 2012 6:00 am edt; posted April 28, 2012 5:40 pm edt