BILLY MILLS
Billy Mills was born on June 30, 1938 into the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Nation, and grew up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. An athlete from an early age, Mr. Mills won the gold medal in the 10,000-metre race in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. He became the first American ever to win the gold medal in this event. As a public speaker, he advocates for young Native Americans, and has been active in Native American causes for many decades. Currently he is the national spokesman for “Running Strong for American Indian Youth,” a non-profit organization that helps communities with self-sufficiency programs, youth activities, and cultural identity projects
Who was your inspiration when you were growing up?
My first real inspiration was my father. My dad was a good man, but I don’t think he was always a good husband. By the time I came around—I say it with love and compassion but also with humour—I think he was seeking redemption. He spent a lot of spiritual time with me. He would parallel Native American thought with other spiritual thought, like Christian thought.
Were there any issues you dealt with as a young per- son that you see young people dealing with today?
There were definite issues that I dealt with as young person that if they’re not dealing with directly today, they’re dealing with indirectly. I’ll give you a couple of examples. When I was growing up, being half Indian and half white, I was called Iyeska, meaning “mixed blood.” The full-blooded Lakota made it difficult for people like me to get involved in the really deep teachings of the culture and the spirituality. At the same time we were rejected by the white world because we were Indian. I think a lot of young people today still experience that.
Another experience I dealt with that might be similar today: I was told indirectly by the Christian world that if I go to the sweat, if I follow traditional ways, I’ll never find my way to the life hereafter—to heaven. You had to let go of those traditional ways. A lot of young people today might struggle with that. It’s easy to lose your way when you’re struggling with two different cultures. What I did, with the help of my dad was try to find parallels with religions.
I had to find parallels in my life to find the strength within in me to be true to my total being—not to create internal conflict, being half-Indian and half-white. A lot of young people experience that conflict today.
What is the role of a leader in the community?
A leader has to be able to understand what the differences are within a community and what holds the people in a community together. A leader of the Lakota Nation has to understand the different groups on the reservation, including the negatives—the gangs. What binds us is that we are all tribal members. A leader has to be able to find some way to bring them all together.
You must take the virtues and values that empower the culture, that empower the traditions, and empower the spirituality. Can you challenge people and empower them to take those virtues and values and transfer them into a current-day economic pursuit? Those people that can take the culture, tradition, spirituality—the virtues and values that empower them, and transfer that into a current-day economic pursuit will be warriors of the 21st century.
To be a great leader you have to understand such concepts. You have to have the ability to communicate to the young people, to the elders, to the diverse groups, and empower them through what makes them unique and what brings them together, and teach them to pursue global unity through the dignity, character, and beauty of global diversity. A leader has to be a visionary and be able to lead by example.
I couldn’t speak Lakota except in a very limited way, but I took the virtues and the values of the culture and tried to live them daily. Many of our people who have left the reservation or those that have lived on the reservation and prospered, they’ve taken the virtues and values of the culture to prosper. You find those that are broken on the reservation—they may know the language, and they may dance and do the ceremonies, but they are broken. I say it’s because they are not living the virtues and values of the culture.
I took the virtues and values of bravery and fortitude and utilized those values on a daily basis to challenge myself to go to the centre of my soul, and there I would find the virtue of wisdom. I would try to make the right choices for myself. Do I go out with my buddies tonight when I know that they’re going to get drunk, or do I go out with these friends over here who are pursuing their own dreams and who know that I want to be an Olympic champion?
I took the bravery and fortitude, and I’d go on a journey to the centre of my soul, where I’d find the virtue of wisdom. I’ve used the virtue of wisdom to try to make the right choices for myself. The right choices would empower me, and as I became more and more empowered, ultimately I’d go back and try to empower others through the virtue of generosity. I tried to live that; I still try to live that. I was told that warriors take responsibility with accountability and humility. Then they centre themselves around a core of giving.
What was going through your mind at the 1964 olympics as you crossed the finish line and won the track and field 10,000 metre gold medal?
A year before the 1964 Olympic Games I was diagnosed as borderline diabetic and hypoglycemic, in which your blood pressure drops. I would get low blood pressure and the media would say “low esteem, minority, orphan, poverty.” I was learning how to deal with it a little bit.
So I’m into my last lap in the Olympic Games and I’m getting low blood sugar, and we are 120 metres to go and it’s like now! I gotta go now, I gotta go now. Lifting my knees, pumping my arms, trying to lengthen my stride. Coming off the final curve, a runner from what I thought was Germany came from lane one. As I go by him I just kind of glance out of the cornerof my eye and he’s running and kind of looking at me, and I saw an eagle on his singlet—his running jersey. To me it was like—wings of an eagle. My dad said, “If you do these things someday you’re going to have wings of an eagle.” It was just so powerful—wings of an eagle—I can win, I can win, I can win! I go by the runner; thirty metres to go. I could see the finish line, but my thoughts were, “I may never be this close again. I’ve gotta do it now. Wings of an eagle!”
When I won and I felt the tape break across my chest, I came to a stop. An official came up to me, and I mumbled “I have to find the German runner to tell him that the eagle on his singlet helped me win.” Later I found the German runner and there was no eagle on his singlet; it was just a perception.
You empower the community; the community empowers you. From that new empowerment you bring understanding—understanding unity through diversity.
A gang member wants to belong, but is not in a position to develop that uniqueness within him, so he joins a gang. They belong, but their contribution to the community is chaos, pain, anger, and taking advantage of innocent people. They don’t make a creative contribution to society.
It’s important that we educate our young people and tell them how the virtues and values have to be used. All they are missing is going inward and developing that uniqueness within them. That uniqueness is sacred. A child at its very first breath has a uniqueness within, and it’s the parenting that will help bring it out, and prepare that uniqueness through education.
What is the story behind your story?
It is what I took from sport; it’s the journey and notthe destination that empowers us. It is the journey that empowered me as an athlete. It’s taking the virtues and the values of our culture, traditions, and spirituality and trying to live those on a daily basis to try to heal a broken soul that empowered me as a human being. It was the daily decisions I made to train; it was the daily decisions I made to try to implement the values and virtues of our culture into my life. Some days I failed miserably and some days I succeeded,but I succeeded more often than I failed and I tried daily to implement them. It’s the daily decisions that we make in our lives—not just the talent we possess—that choreograph our destiny.
Travelling to 106 different countries, I’ve taken a true sense of global unity with the dignity, the character, and the beauty of global diversity. Not only the theme of the Olympics, but more importantly the future of humankind. Summing all that up—we are all related.
What is your vision for your community?
My vision, hope, and dream is that we learn to see things from a global perspective. No longer can it just be the Ojibwa, or the Anishinahbe, or the Cree, or the Lakota. It has to be the 350 to 500 million Indigenous Peoples worldwide that control much of the last known natural resources of the world. The industrial countries of the world are looking to develop those resources; we own the resources but we don’t necessarily control them.
We need to prepare ourselves from now on for how we can take a leadership role in the development of those natural resources. For whom and with whom will determine the role we play for the balance of the 21st century and 22nd century. We can be totally excluded or we can be major players in choreographing our journey well into the future civilization of the world.
What role should our traditions and cultures have in the lives of our first nations youth?
When I was just a young boy my dad told me I had broken wings. He said, “Son, if you do these things, someday you will have wings of an eagle.” My dad’s spirit has been withme every day of my life since the time he died. He told meI had broken wings. He told me, “You have to look past the hurt, the jealousy, the self-pity, way down deeper where the dreams lie. Find your dream; it’s the pursuit of the dream that will heal you. I hope you try sports.”
He died when I was twelve; my mom died just a fewmonths before I turned nine. The culture, the tradition, the spirituality, in many ways rejected me. Yet it was actually individuals who rejected me—individuals who could have taught me the culture, the tradition, the spirituality. But people had their own perceptions of me: half-white, half- Lakota, going off to college. There were other individuals who saw good in that, and they empowered me. I had people like my dad, my grandpa, other people teaching me to take the culture, traditions, spirituality, virtues, and values and transfer them into a current-day economic pursuit. Then I would become a warrior of the 21st century.
I’m confused . . . I’m moving forward . . . I’m moving backwards. My junior year in college I came so close to committing suicide. That’s when I heard my dad’s voice: “Don’t.” He told me I needed a dream to heal a broken soul. So instead of committing suicide I wrote down a dream: Gold medal – 10,000 Metre Run. Believe, believe, believe.
I graduated from college, and decided I wanted to be this world-class athlete. I was a quality distance runner in the United States, but I couldn’t break through that door to lead me to world class. Then I realized what I had to do—rather than focusing on being a world-class athlete, I had to focus on healing a broken soul. So I went back to the virtues and the values of our culture. I tried to live by those virtues and values on a daily basis.
After I crossed the finish line, it was just an instant—two or three split seconds of reliving everything. It’s like a lifetime goes by. I remember saying a prayer and thanking my dad for challenging me to follow a dream. And I’ve never shared that with anyone before, other than my family.
If you had one message to send to the native com- munity of north america, what would it be?
It would be twofold: one, we are all related, and two, we have an obligation when we say we have to respect Mother Earth.
Why is education important for our young people and their communities?
We live in such a highly technical society, and if we don’t prepare ourselves to choreograph our journey into this rapidly changing world and the opportunities it will ultimately bring, the world will choreograph our journey for us. They will do it in this manner: They will strip our lands of the natural resources at all cost. We will get minimum benefit from it and we will be left so far behind in the globalization of humanity that we will ultimately create our own demise. So we need to prepare ourselves, and that calls for education.At this point there are many, many gangs on the reserves of Canada and the US, and there are Native American gangsin the urban areas. There is one difference between a gang member and true First Nations/American Indian warrior.The gang member wants to belong; the warrior wants tobe unique and develop that uniqueness. Through your educational pursuits, or learning a trade, or following a career, you discover that strength within you to develop that uniqueness and take it to the community.
