John Trudell

Born: 1946-02-15

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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On Deadly Ground

as Johnny Redfeather
Released: 1994-02-18

Forrest Taft is an environmental agent who works for the Aegis Oil Company in Alaska. Aegis...

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Thunderheart

as Jimmy Looks Twice
Released: 1992-04-03

An FBI man with Sioux background is sent to a reservation to help with a murder investigation,...

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Extreme Measures

as Tony
Released: 1996-09-27

Guy Luthan, a British doctor working at a hospital in New York, starts making unwelcome...

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Smoke Signals

as Randy Peone
Released: 1998-01-16

Young Native American man Thomas is a nerd in his reservation, wearing oversize glasses and...

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The 11th Hour

as Himself
Released: 2007-08-17

A look at the state of the global environment including visionary and practical solutions for...

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Powwow Highway

as Louie Short Hair
Released: 1989-02-24

Two Northern Cheyenne men take a road trip from Montana to New Mexico to bail out the sister of...

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Trudell

as Self / Narrator (voice)
Released: 2005-01-20

A chronicle of legendary Native American poet/activist John Trudell's travels, spoken word...

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Dreamkeeper

as Coyote
Released: 2003-12-28

In South Dakota, in an Indian reservation, an old storyteller Indian asks his grandson Shane,...

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Reel Injun

as Self
Released: 2010-02-19

The evolution of the depiction of the various Native American peoples in cinema, from the silent...

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Incident at Oglala

as Himself - National Spokesperson, American Indian Movement
Released: 1992-05-08

On June 26, 1975, during a period of high tensions on the Pine Ridge reservation in South...

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Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World

as Self
Released: 2017-09-22

Documentary about the role of Native Americans in popular music history, a little-known story...

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Dark Blood

as Indian #2
Released: 2012-09-27

Filmed in 1993 but never completed due to River Phoenix's death, Dark Blood tells the story of...

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Taking Alcatraz

as Self (archive footage)
Released: 2015-11-01

A documentary account by award-winning filmmaker John Ferry of the events that led up to the...

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No More Smoke Signals

as self
Released: 2009-04-16

Kili Radio - "Voice of the Lakota Nation" - is broadcast out of a small wooden house that sits...

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A Thousand Roads

as Narrator
Released: 2005-01-23

The film threads together four stories, taking us into the life of a stressed-out Mohawk...

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The West

as Self
First aired: 1996-09-15

The West, sometimes marketed as Ken Burns Presents: The West, is a documentary film about the...

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