"Chuck Trimble doesn't like Indian casinos -- not because he opposes them morally, but because he's not very lucky.

He never witnessed abuse at the Native boarding school he attended.

And he didn't wear a breast plate and choker to his presentation Tuesday, because he wanted to wear the tie his wife bought him for his birthday.

All of which is to say Native people and their history are complicated and not easily explained, he said.

"What I have to say is not a nice story," he said. "There is no other way to present it than as what it is."

Trimble, former director of the National Congress of American Indians and founder of the American Indian Press Association, spoke Tuesday at the Nebraska History Museum on "The Ongoing Indian Wars: Old Issues, New Fronts."

The 75-year-old Oglala Lakota talked about federal Native policy and ongoing conflicts between tribes and the government, touching on topics ranging from the Battle of the Little Bighorn to Native self-determination. He described the massive gathering in western Nebraska in 1851, when tribes met with government officials near Horse Creek to draft a peace treaty."

Get the Story:
Kevin Abourezk: Native advocate speaks about 'ongoing Indian wars' (The Lincoln Journal Star 3/9)