It was quickly ignited by the smoldering resentment of the Pine Ridge Lakota people, who were paying for their ancestors' ferocity by living on a reservation that resembled a police state. An awareness reached across America that if Native American people had to resort to arms at Wounded Knee, there must really be something wrong. And Americans realized that native people are still here, that they have a moral standing, a legal standing. From that, our own people began to sense the pride. Two decades later, some things have improved.
New laws allow Indian religious observances, for instance.
But Indian unemployment still hovers at 40 percent. But our young people are moving ahead. When you have a spiritual foundation, you look at poverty differently then. You might not have a car, but you know you can run someplace, you can go someplace. Banks' own Wounded Knee charges were thrown out of court, but he was convicted of riot and assault charges stemming from an earlier protest.