John Trudell
Biography
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.
Movie Appearances
Smoke Signals
as Randy Peone
1998
Making a Noise: A Native American Musical Journey with Robbie Robertson
as Self - Santee Sioux
1999
The 11th Hour
as Self
2007
Powwow Highway
as Louie Short Hair
1989
Dreamkeeper
as Coyote
2003
Reel Injun
as Self
2010
A Thousand Roads
as Narrator (voice)
2005
Taking Alcatraz
as Self (archive footage)
2015
Incident at Oglala
as Self - National Spokesperson, American Indian Movement
1992
Trudell
as Self / Narrator (voice)
2005
Thunderheart
as Jimmy Looks Twice
1992
Extreme Measures
as Tony
1996
On Deadly Ground
as Johnny Redfeather
1994
No More Smoke Signals
as self
2009
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World
as Self
2017
Dark Blood
as Indian #2
2012
Lakota Nation vs. United States
as Self (archive footage)
2022
America's Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie
as Black Hawk (voice)
2005
