Military service

In 1963 when 17 years old, Trudell dropped out of high school and left the Midwest by joining the US Navy. He served during the early years of the Vietnam War and stayed in the Navy until 1967.
Afterward, he attended San Bernardino Valley College, a two-year community college in San Bernardino, California, studying radio and broadcasting. He decided to work through political activism.

Early life and education

Trudell was born in Omaha, Nebraska on February 15, 1946, as the son of a Santee Dakota father and a Mexican mother. He grew up in small towns near the Santee Sioux Reservation in northern Nebraska near the southeast corner of South Dakota. He was educated in local schools and also in Santee Dakota culture.

John Trudell

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John Trudell
John Trudell at a conference in 2009
Born	February 15, 1946 Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
Died	December 8, 2015 (aged 69) Santa Clara County, California
Cause of death	Terminal cancer
Nationality	Santee Dakota-American
Occupation	Indigenous rights activist, poet, musician, actor
Organization	American Indian Movement
Spouse(s)	Fenicia Ordonez (1968– unknown)[1] Tina Manning Trudell (1972–1979[2])
Partner(s)	Marcheline Bertrand (unknown–2007)
Children	3

John Trudell (February 15, 1946 – December 8, 2015) was a Native American 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 suspicious 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 films in the 1990s. The documentary Trudell (2005) was made about him and his life as an activist and artist