Nowa Cumig finds peace as he thanks Mother Earth and Gramma Moon, an escape from the exhaustion of fighting for human rights and the trials of the American Indian Movement. He embraces being a wild rice harvester to connect with Mother Earth and believes everyone gains from the beauty of the natural world.

In 1968, during an unjust jail sentence, Dennis Banks (Nowa Cumig) and Bill Miller discussed the unfair treatment of Native Americans, leading to the formation of the American Indian Movement (AIM). Dennis Banks, George Mitchell, Harold Goodsky, Francis Fairbanks, and Girlie Brown founded AIM, which rapidly spread nationwide.

In 1978, he organized an annual Sacred Run to promote peace. During the same year, he presented an idea to the AIM Oakland chapter “The Longes Walk”. A walk to DC to protest the passing of bills in front of Congress regarding Native rights. The bills would have eliminated land and water rights, limited tribal jurisdictions, enforced assimilation, and cut social services. By the end of July, all demonstrators had returned home, and none of the eleven bills would pass into law.

In 1987, Banks lobbied for laws against desecration of Indian graves in Kentucky and Indiana. He organized reburial ceremonies for over 1,200 disturbed Indian grave sites. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA) governs the return of Native American remains and cultural objects to lineal descendants.

Even after his passing, Dennis Banks' legacy continues reverberating in the American Indian community, a testament to his unwavering commitment to their rights.