American Indigenous activist Dennis Banks dead at 80

In a Friday, May 14, 2010 photo, American Indigenous activist Dennis Banks waits to board a canoe to spread a net on Lake Bemidji near Bemidji, Minn., during an American Indian treaty rights protest. Banks, a co-founder of the American Indian Movement and a leader of the 1973 Wounded Knee occupation, died Sunday night at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. (Chris Polydoroff/Pioneer Press via AP)

Family says Banks developed pneumonia after undergoing heart surgery last month.

The Associated Press, October 30, 2017

The family of American Indigenous activist Dennis Banks says he was surrounded by family when he died at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Banks’ family says the 80-year-old developed pneumonia after undergoing heart surgery earlier this month and didn’t want to be put on life support. He died Sunday night.

Daughter Tashina Banks Rama says the family plans to hold wakes in Minneapolis and on the Leech Lake Reservation. She says details are still being worked out, but the wakes will be held Wednesday evening at the Minneapolis American Indian Center, and Thursday and Friday on the reservation. He’ll be buried there Saturday.

Rama says her father was in good spirits until his pneumonia took a turn for the worse on Friday. She says about 30 people were in the room when he died, including siblings, children and grandchildren.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/indigenous-activist-dennis-banks-dead-1.4378756