American Indian Movement (AIM), militant Native American civil rights organization, founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1968 by Ojibwe activists Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, Eddie Benton Banai, Pat Bellanger, and George Mitchell. Later, Russell Means, an activist of Oglala Lakota Sioux descent, became a prominent spokesman for the group. AIM’s original purpose was to provide aid to Native people in cities who had been displaced by U.S. federal government programs. Its goals eventually encompassed the entire spectrum of Native demands economic independence, revitalization of traditional culture, protection of legal rights, and, most especially, autonomy over tribal areas and the restoration of lands
Hundreds gathered to honor the life of Clyde Bellecourt, White Earth Ojibwe, in Minneapolis, Jan. 13. Bellecourt, 85, was the last living founding member of the American Indian Movement and a lifelong civil-rights activist known worldwide. (Star Tribune, Jan. 13) Bellecourt, whose Ojibwe name is Neegawnwaywidung, (the Thunder Before the…