To be selected was an honor, and in respect of the family member chosen to run, families held feasts and gave away prized beaver coats, quilled tobacco bags and buffalo hides.

Banks participated in the 1969-1971 occupation of Alcatraz Island initiated by Indian students from San Francisco of the Red Power movement and intended to highlight Native American issues and promote Indian sovereignty on their own lands. In 1985 Banks left Onondaga to surrender to law enforcement officials in South Dakota. In 1978 he establiDennis Banksd the first spiritual run from Davis to Los Angeles which is now an annual event.

" He has been a longtime leader of the American Indian Movement which he cofounded in 1968 with Native Americans in Minneapolis. Banks is also known as Nowa Cumig (Naawakamig in the Double Vowel System).