Hey, everybody. My name is Marvin “Running River” Banks. I’m the president of American Indian Movement People’s Alliance – the Pennsylvania chapter. I’m incarcerated in a State Correctional Institution, Fayette, you know, out here in Pennsylvania. I ain’t going to talk about Fayette. I wanted to really get on here and introduce myself, and talk about a bigger issue here in Pennsylvania: the Carlisle Indian Boarding School.
Pennsylvania is the home of the Carlisle Indian Boarding School. Know they shut it down, but know the bones and the structure and the history of it still exists here in Pennsylvania, right here in Carlisle, you know. And a lot of people, they’re under the impression that the story, and the things, and the wrongs, and the tragedies that were happening to the Carlisle Indian Boarding School aren’t happening in the world. But I’m here to tell everybody that the Carlisle Indian Boarding School; the system that was built back in 1865, Henry Pratt, still exists. It just was molded and implemented in the prison system, the state correctional or prison system.
So, as an indigenous warrior and as a soldier on the front lines, it’s my duty to, know, raise awareness about how indigenous prisoners and indigenous men are still having their identity suppressed by the American system, that this prison, this prison corporation. I just want to let everybody know that, and please join me as I get on this phone every week and raise awareness about how indigenous prisoners are still being suppressed to this day, in this modern day Indian boarding school.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
