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John Trudell was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to a Santee Sioux father and Mexican Indian mother. After a stint in the Navy from 1963 to 1969, he became involved with the American Indian Movement, becoming National Chairman in 1973. He held that position until 1979; it was then that his wife Tina, mother-in-law, and three children ages one, three, & five, were burned to death in a "fire of suspicious origin" on their Nevada reservation which was nonetheless never investigated. Beginning in the early 1980's, Trudell began to channel his anger and emotion through poetry, music, and acting.
He was the National Chairman of the American Indian Movement from 1973 to 1979; he resigned the position after the deaths of his wife, Tina Manning Trudell, their three children, and Tinas mother Leah Manning, in a suspicious fire on their reservation in Nevada. However, he remained the Movements national spokesman for many years afterward.
His father was a Santee Dakota (Sioux) American Indian, and his mother was of Mexican Indian descent.
He had been in a relationship with actress Marcheline Bertrand for several years at the time of her death in 2007; Bertrand was an executive producer of the 2005 documentary about his life, Trudell .
Children, with Tina: Ricarda Star (March 8, 1973 - February 12, 1979), Sunshine Karma (December 16, 1975 - February 12, 1979), Eli Changing Sun (November 21, 1977 - February 12, 1979). Tina was also pregnant at the time of her death, with a boy who was to be named Josiah Hawk. Josiahs name is included beneath Tinas on her tombstone.
He was a close friend of Kris Kristofferson , who wrote the 1995 song "Johnny Lobo" about Trudell.
Every human being is a raindrop. And when enough of the raindrops become,clear and coherent they then become the power of the storm.
You go back and you read your Constitution. You read your Declaration of Independence. And you will see that the only people who could decide these freedoms were white males who owned property, and all the rest of us were excluded.
Everybody interprets things differently with their own perception, and I want poetry to pull out of them their own feelings. .
