- Details
- By Levi Rickert
Opinion. Indian Country lost an American Indian Movement (AIM) warrior on Monday night. Many of us knew him as Wounded Knee, a nickname given to him by AIM co-founder Dennis Banks (Ojibwe). He wore that name with great pride. Those who got close to him called him simply “Wounded.” His real name was Norman DeOcampo (Tuolomne Miwok), He was 82.
Wounded Knee was a Native American spiritual leader who earned respect through his deep commitment to Native culture and the tribal communities. Well known in the San Francisco Bay area, Wounded Knee would be seen at nearly all important events on Alcatraz Island on Indigenous Peoples’ Day and on Thanksgiving Day.
He was the only Native American to participate in all five of the cross-continental Longest Walks that began in 1978. The genesis if the 1978 Longest Walk was spiritual and political to preserve the sovereignty of tribal nations.
I first met him during the first week of Native News Online’s launch in February 2011. I joined the beginning of the Longest Walk 3 - Reversing Diabetes, led by Banks.
I soon discovered that Wounded Knee was a prayerful warrior and trusted confidante of Banks. Some might have called him a lieutenant of the great AIM leader. While on that Longest Walk, I witnessed Banks and Wounded Knee with other lieutenants sit together early in the morning to plot out the route for the day. As the long walkers convened in morning circles, Banks would often call upon Wounded Knee to offer the morning prayers.
His prayers were powerful words of unity filled with words of overcoming obstacles faced by Native Americans. He often reminded the long walkers what they were doing was sacred; they were doing it for the ancestors and the newborns yet to come. Wounded Knee was all about protecting the sacred.
During the time I spent on the Longest Walk 3, Wounded Knee would pull me aside to make sure I was okay. He knew I was new to the long walk and few knew who I was. To him, I was the Potawatomi news guy from Michigan. He made sure I was fed and had a safe place to sleep at night.
The Longest Walk lasted from February until early July when it arrived in Washington, D.C. I could not be with the long walkers for such an extended period of time. I was on my way back to Michigan from South Dakota in April 2011 when Wounded Knee called me on my cell phone. He informed me about a construction project in Vallejo, California, near where he resided at the time.
He told me he was one of the organizers who were concerned that a developer would destroy a sacred site called Sogorea Te (Glen Cove), near the Carquinez Strait on ancestral Ohlone land, in Vallejo. He informed me that he and organizers would occupy Sogorea Te and needed media coverage.
As it turned out, the group occupied Sogorea Te for 109-days from April until August 2011.
“It was time for Indigenous peoples across this country to take a stand and say ‘no more’ to desecrating the sacred sites of our ancestors,” Wounded Knee said during the occupation. “No more digging up our ancestors and putting them in garbage cans and in garbage bags. No more digging up our ancestors and putting them in museums and leaving them in cardboard boxes and gym lockers, taking their artifacts and their sacred objects...”
To bring attention to the need to preserve sacred sites, Wounded Knee founded Sacred Sites Protection and Rights of Indigenous Tribes (SSPRIT), an Indigenous led organization dedicated to protecting Native American sacred sites and to preserving the cultural and spiritual freedom of tribal nations. His fight against injustices extended to the United Farm Workers.
Not only concerned with sacred sites preservation, SSPRIT advocates for the removal of Native American mascots in public schools and educates the community about Native American cultural appropriation and decolonization.
Even as his health deteriorated in recent years, Wounded Knee still maintained his presence. He used an electric wheelchair to attend events. I last saw Wounded Knee in August 2023 while I attended the Interior Department’s “Road to Healing” tour at the Graton Resort and Casino in Rohnert Park, Calif. He was there to have his voice heard.
Separated by distance, Wounded Knee would call me periodically with his typical greeting that I heard upon answering the phone: “Levi, what’s going on in your life?”
He then would tell me about the latest cause he wanted me to amplify in Indian Country.
On Wednesday, I talked to his wife Linda, who told me his passion for Native people was what kept him going with robust energy.
His energy is what kept him grounded to the cause to help Native Americans for several decades and to fight for Indian Country’s right to tribal sovereignty, which shaped Wounded Knee into a true Native warrior.
Thayék gde nwéndëmen - We are all related.
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