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Please explore this site promoted by Billy Mills.
While I have no first hand experience with this organization, it appears to be performing good works all over the US in many areas for all age groups in a very positive way.
American Indian Youth Running Strong http://www.indianyouth.org/
Image: http://www.alposters.com/
The following is excepted from the site: http://www.runningpast.com/billy_mills.htm
Billy Mills
Billy Mills was born on June 30, 1938 in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. He is an Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Indian and he was raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Billy’s given Lakota name is Makata Taka Hela which means “love your country” or more traditionally translated, “respects the earth”.
The 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games
No American had ever won the 10,000 meter race in an Olympics. Billy Mills’ qualifying time was almost a full minute slower than the favorite’s, Ron Clarke of Australia. The pre-race media coverage focused on Clarke and his expected duel with Mohammad Gammoudi of Tunisia. Billy went largely un-noticed. The field for 10,000 meter the final included many Olympic gold medalists and world record holders.
From our favorite book on running history, Fast Tracks – The History of Distance Running by Raymond Krise and Bill Squires, comes this description of the 1964 Olympic 10,000 Meter Final:
“I knew he was gonna win when I saw him. I could just feel it, like a thunderstorm coming in August. Even on the other side of the world, I could tell. He’s a United States Marine.
They’re interviewing him now and his father was a Sioux Indian and he is a Marine lieutenant and he has an Olympic gold medal for running 6 miles.
You can’t get any more American than that.”
Post Olympic Career
In 1965 he set U.S. records for the 10,000 meters and the three mile, and he set a world record in the six mile run at the AAU championships.
Mills finished his career in the U.S. Marine Corps as an officer assigned to the Department of the Interior. He later became a successful life insurance salesman, then switched careers to become a professional speaker.
Billy has served on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports and was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans by the Jaycees in 1972. He was selected as a 1990 Healthy American Fitness Leader and was a recipient of the 1993 Distinguished Service Citation, the highest award given by the University of Kansas and it’s Alumni Association.
He was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame in 1984, and is a member of the United States Track and Field Hall of Fame, the National Distance Running Hall of Fame, the Kansas Hall of Fame, the San Diego Hall of Fame, and the National High School Hall of Fame.
His life story was made into the film, Running Brave, starring Robby Benson and produced by Englander Productions in 1983.
Current Activities
Billy Mills remains active in Native American causes today. He uses his speaking skills as an advocate for and a role model to young Native Americans. He is the national spokesman for Running Strong for American Indian Youth®, a non-profit organization that help communities with self-sufficiency programs, youth activities and cultural identity projects. As the national spokesman for Christian Relief Services, he has helped raise more than $212 million in contributions.
In 1991, Billy wrote Wokini: A Lakota Journey to Happiness and Understanding with Nicholas Sparks, now in it’s fourth printing. He and his wife Patricia live in Sacramento, California, where Mills owns and operates Billy Mills Speakers Bureau.
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Quotes by Billy Mills
“Every passion has its destiny”
“My life is a gift to me from my Creator. What I do with my life is my gift back to the Creator.”
“What I took from the Olympic Games was not winning an Olympic gold medal but an understanding of global unity through dignity of character and pride of global diversity. And global unity through global diversity is also the future of mankind.”
“The ultimate is not to win, but to reach within the depths of your capabilities and to compete against yourself to the greatest extent possible. When you do that, you have dignity. You have the pride. You can walk about with character and pride no matter in what place you happen to finish.”
“I was constantly told and challenged to live my life as a warrior. As a warrior, you assume responsibility for yourself. The warrior humbles himself. And the warrior learns the power of giving.”
“God has given me the ability. The rest is up to me.
Believe. Believe. Believe…”
[From Billy Mills’ book, Wokini (New Life)]
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