About NEE-GON-NWAY-WEE-DUNG, Thunder before the Storm, Aka Clyde Howard Bellecourt

About Clyde H. Bellecourt
NEE-GON-NWAY-WEE-DUNG Thunder before the storm
Aka: Clyde Howard Bellecourt Member: Mississippi Band of the Anishinabe Nations (Crane Clan) Date of Birth: May 8, 1936		Click here to view the photo album
A lifetime of tireless service...

1968	Founder, National Director of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in Minneapolis, MN
1970	Founder, Legal Rights Center, Minneapolis, MN Organizer, South High Housing Project now known as Little Earth of United Tribes, Inc.
1971	Founder and Chairman of Parent Board, AIM Survival School now knows as Heart of the Earth Survival School (HOTESS)
1972	Coordinator, Trail of Broken Treaties to Washington, DC Negotiator for the Twenty Point Solution Paper presented to the White House
1973	Vice President of the National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression
1974	Presenter of Challenges to the World Council of Churches and the first Indian to address the Council in its history - Montruax, Switzerland
1975	Founder of the Federation of Native American Controlled Survival Schools Advocate, federation for 16 alternative schools for Indian Children in United States and Canada. Chairman of the Board of Little Earth Housing, Minneapolis, MN-selected by Housing and Urban Development, AIM selected as prime sponsor
1977	Representative, AIM at the first non-governmental Organizations hearings on discrimination of the Indigenous People of the Western Hemisphere held at the United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland.
1978	National Coordinator for The Longest Walk, a 3,000 mile march from California to Washington DC of Native Peoples protesting termination of legislation of Indian treaties.
1979	Founder and President of American Indian Opportunities Industrialization Center (AIOIC), Minneapolis, MN, the first Indian OIC (Job Training) in America.
1980	Founder and Chairmanof the Circle for Survival Consortium, Minneapolis
1989	Founder & Executive Director, Elaine M. Stately Peacemaker Center, youth Center providing services for youth struggling with gang activity.
1992	Founder, Common Ground/Farm & Save Youth Organic Farm Project.
1991-2003	Spiritual Organizer & Leader, Gathering of the Sacred Pipes Sundance & Youth Elders Cultural Gathering, Pipestone Quarries, Pipestone, MN

In the past thirty-five years Clyde H. Bellecourt; a member of the Mississippi Band of the Anishinabe Nation, has walked, marched, and has driven across the United States.

Clyde occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs Building in Washington, D.C. and participated in the 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973. Clyde was the first American Indian to address the World Council of Church's at Montruax, Switzerland, Dec. 1974.

Beaten, arrested and shot; lobbied presidents, senators and local politicians; participated in sacred Anishinabe and Lakota ceremonies, Clyde has devoted his life to create a better way of life for those he loves most: American Indian youth, adults, elders and all people who are impacted by the disparities that exist in the political, economic, criminal justice, environmental and educational institutional systems that govern our communities.

Clyde Bellecourt was the founder or co-founder and continues to volunteer his time and energy to the following organizations:

American Indian Movement (AIM)

American Indian OIC

Elaine M. Stately Peacemaker Center

Heart of the Earth, Inc.

Legal Rights Center Migizi Communications

Minnesota State OIC

Native American Community Clinic

Women of Nations' Eagle Nest Shelter

American Indian People
Across the Western Hemisphere

Clyde's lifelong involvement has led organizations like the American Indian O.I.C. to train and get more than 18,000 indigenous people off welfare and onto payrolls and The Legal Rights Center represent over 36,000 Indigenous clients with legal services since its inception in 1970.