Banks, Dennis James, 1937-2017
Dennis James Banks, also known by his Ojibwe name Nowa Cumig, was born on April 12, 1937, in his grandparents’ home on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota. He was raised by his grandparents, Josh and Jenny Drumbeater, until going to the Pipestone Indian Boarding School at the age of five. There, he experienced physical and emotional abuse and forgot most of the Ojibwe language because he was not allowed to speak it. He was transferred to the Wahpeton Indian School in North Dakota for junior high school, and then to the Flandreau Indian Boarding School on the Santee Sioux reservation in South Dakota for high school, before eventually running away to return to the Leech Lake Indian Reservation.
To escape from the poverty to which he returned, Banks joined the United States Air Force in 1954 at the age of 17. He was stationed in Japan, during which the military faced protest from some Japanese individuals over planned expansion of the Yokota Air Base, and he was told to shoot protesters who came onto the base. Banks later explains that this event had a profound impact on him, partially because he was in a relationship with a Japanese woman named Machiko Inouye. With Machiko, Banks had his first child, a daughter named Michiko. After the Air Force would not grant Banks and Machiko a marriage certificate, he deserted the military and hid with Machiko and Michiko until he was found by the military, arrested, and returned to the United States.
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2022-06-16 04:06:07 pm |
Katherine Satriano |
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2022-06-16 04:06:19 pm |
Katherine Satriano |
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2022-06-16 02:06:10 pm |
Katherine Satriano |
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2022-06-16 01:06:08 pm |
Katherine Satriano |
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2022-06-16 01:06:52 pm |
Katherine Satriano |
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2021-10-12 06:10:52 pm |
Kit Messick |
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2021-10-12 03:10:33 pm |
Alex Stepp |
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2021-10-12 11:10:30 am |
Alex Stepp |
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2021-10-12 11:10:29 am |
Alex Stepp |
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