Welcome to the Empire Files podcast. This is Abby Martin. This is the audio version of each episode of the Empire Files hosted on Telesaur English. You can watch every episode at the Empire Files. TV.

Like many, I've been watching the heroic protests at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

To explain more about this story, I'm sitting down with Dennis Banks, who spent decades

as a leader in the Native movement.

Dennis is from Leech Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota.

In 1968, he and his colleagues founded the American Indian Movement, known as AIM.

He's led countless actions for Native rights, including the takeover and

occupation of Alcatraz Island. And we'll get to that in a second, but first, Dennis, you've been

off and on for about 10 weeks at Standing Rock, integrated with the community there. Paint the picture

for us, describe the scene for those that haven't seen the videos or been there themselves.

It felt good for me to be there, but it felt better because of what I was seeing.

And I've seen gatherings over the years, but this was a gathering that had, oh, it had a different purpose.

They were bringing their tribal flags.

During the first two or three weeks, I saw the one flag go up.

I sensed a much stronger nation, a much stronger nationhood forming.

And this is what I felt was beautiful.

I have not seen this kind of gathering and bringing in support. I have never seen

it in my entire life. Wounded knee was one kind of action, but it was nothing in terms of people coming together.

Every weekend I come back and then I see five more flags,

10 more flags, 20 more flags, 100 flags,

and the community building.

And I would say within the sixth or seventh week,

...