Dakota actor/activist fights for restitution

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Not everyone who attended the UN's human rights conference in Vienna last month knew what they were going to say to the world assembly.

When asked what he had to tell the international community, Native American activist and actor Johnny Looking Cloud sat back in a plush leather seat in the foyer of

the UN's Austria Centre and shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know yet," he said. "But I was willing to come this far. Might as well go all the way to help my people. Especially them kids."

The Non-Government Organization delegate from Pine Ridge, South Dakota was in Vienna in June to speak during the Indigenous peoples NGO Parallel Activities Forum to the United Nations World Conference on Human Rights.

Looking Cloud was one of several American Indians at the conference who was part of a UN-endorsed NGO group called the Four Directions Council. Active mainly in Geneva as part of the UN's International Year of the World's Indigenous Peoples, the council exists primarily as a means to admit Natives like Looking Cloud, who have no "official" political standing, to international conferences.

Looking Cloud said he has been fighting for Native rights for several years, travelling across the United States and in Europe to bring the plight of his people, the Black Hills Dakota, to the public eye.

"It's pretty bad on the reservations," he said. "No jobs, no nothing. I'd like to help them."

Looking Cloud, grandchild of Black Hills Chief American Horse, works part-time with the Black Hills Tribal Council in their fight with the U.S. government over restitution for lost lands.

"The government didn't pay us at all for the land. Nothing. We only got Indian religions re-legalized in 1975. They just took it away. Kinda like Custer."

Politics are not Looking Cloud's only interest. The former Brahma bull and bareback rider also acts for a living. His screen credits include films like The Greatest Show on Earth and How the West Was Won. His most recent work includes roles like Chief Lone Wolf in the film Josiah, and a Chochonichi Indian in a current video release called The Avenging.

Hollywood's perception of the American Indian is starting to come around," he said. The growth of the "politically correct" western movie means more work for Indian actors now than in the 1950's when Looking Cloud first started.

"Them days, they had non-Indian actors. Now we got a lot of actors. Dances With Wolves, there must be about 50 Indian actors there. It's nice to know everything came natural. Everyone talking Lakota, even Costner."