A Good Day to Die

Observing the larger subject of 20th-century American Indian political unrest and defiance, filmmakers David Mueller and Lynn Salt's A Good Day to Die ostensibly serves up a bio of American Indian Movement (AIM) co-founder Dennis Banks, while also sympathetically describing—through comments by Banks and others, along with vintage footage and stills—the arc of AIM itself. Born in 1937, Banks was sent to one of the oft-brutal, white-run Indian Schools where speaking one's tribal language meant beatings. He ran away at the age of 15, and later—during a jail term—read history books on Indians and the March on Washington, which led him to realize that “no one was speaking for the native people.” After his release, Banks created and directed AIM with the like-minded George Mitchell, Jay WhiteCrow, Russell Means, and others. Banks forged a sort of moderate/radical dynamic with the fiery Means (not interviewed here) in a series of protests in the 1960s and '70s, notably an occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1972. AIM demonstrations continued at various sites, leading to a prolonged and deadly siege with federal authorities, after which Banks became a fugitive, was ultimately offered sanctuary in California, and then turned himself in and served his sentence. While AIM seemed to wither over time, American Indian nations as a political force earned recognition and respect that would likely have been much longer in coming without the organization. A fine accompaniment to Banks's 2004 memoir, Ojibwa Warrior, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)