Clyde Bellecourt
| Clyde Bellecourt | |
|---|---|
| Native name | Nee-gon-we-way-we-dun |
| Born |
May 8, 1936 White Earth Indian Reservation |
| Residence | South Minneapolis |
| Occupation | Civil rights organizer |
| Known for | Co-founding the American Indian Movement |
| Relatives | Vernon Bellecourt (brother) |
Clyde Howard Bellecourt (born May 8, 1936) is a White Earth Ojibwe civil rights organizer noted for co-founding the American Indian Movement (AIM) in 1968 with Dennis Banks, Herb Powless, and Eddie Benton Banai, among others. His older brother, the late Vernon Bellecourt, was also active. Clyde was the seventh of 12 children born to his parents (Charles and Angeline) on the White Earth Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota.
His Ojibwe name is Nee-gon-we-way-we-dun which means "Thunder Before the Storm."
Bellecourt's birthplace is occupied by the largest and poorest of northern Minnesota's Ojibwe bands.
In his youth, Clyde fought against the forces of authority, because he did not think they respected his family and other Indians. As a child, he could hear his parents speaking in low tones late at night in a language he did not understand. When he asked what they were saying, he was told to think about his education and do as well as he could. The years in school were not pleasant. As a boy, he attended a reservation mission school run strictly by Benedictine nuns.
After the Bellecourt family moved to Minneapolis Twin Cities, the boy Clyde continued to act up in school, receiving detentions. He ultimately incurred more serious charges, resulting in a conviction and sentence to the adult correctional facility at St. Cloud. Clyde was arrested for a succession of offenses—including burglary and robbery. On his 25th birthday, he was transferred to Stillwater Prison in Stillwater, where he served out the remainder of his sentence.
According to Bellecourt's first-person account of this time, he was in solitary confinement for a discipline infraction when he heard someone outside his cell singing and calling his name. He looked out the peep-hole into the eyes of Eddie Benton Banai. Having witnessed Bellecourt's ability to organize the Indian inmates, Banai had come to persuade him to help form an Indian cultural group. After negotiation with his caseworker Donahue, Bellecourt agreed to help, on the conditions that he would be moved from solitary to what was called the Honors Dormitory, be allowed to work in the power plant, and to pursue completion of his Boiler Engineer License.
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