Author: Mark Madrid

Mark has been active in the struggle for Indigenous rights since the 1970’s, serving on the medical team for the AIM sponsored Longest Walk in 1978 and assisting with constructing the Roundhouse, at the well respected Muscogee, Philip Deer’s grounds in Oklahoma, that served as the focus for the Youth and Elder conferences for years after. He served as a liaison to the Indigenous rights movement for progressive communities in the 1970’s. In 1976, Mark worked with PLENTY, a United Nations NGO that helped rebuild villages in Guatemala after the earthquakes that killed thousands and devistated the country. Mark also assisted those communities in setting up vital communications networks. After returning from Guatemala, Mark lived on the Hollywood Florida Seminole reservation and worked for the Seminole tribe. During this time he developed and implemented the tribe’s own television station and continues to produce a children’s show in the two dialects Mvskoke and Mikosuke that are alive and well in the tribe. Mark was a member of the Screen Actors Guild and has held several roles from Miami Vice to the film “Captiva Island”. Mark stated, “We are going into the future, the 21st century, American Indians are not relegated to the past. We are a society of people still trying to follow the path of Techumsah. All Indian peoples are of one body, one heart, one spirit. Because we have to be the one’s to take charge of our destiny, we have to tell our story.”