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JESS MADOR: Bellecourt had been struggling with complications of pneumonia and diabetes when he died at Abbott Northwestern Hospital. Family members say his health deteriorated after a recent trip to Venezuela where he met with President Hugo Chavez as part of his work with the American Indian Movement. Bill Means, who's known Bellecourt since the late '60s, says he was more committed than ever to the fight for Indian rights.

BILL MEANS: As a matter of fact, before he got real sick, he was talking about all the work that he felt that he still had to do, that he wanted to do as soon as he got out of the hospital.

JESS MADOR: Means is director of the Opportunities Industrialization Center of Minnesota and a co-founder of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations. He's been on the grand governing council of the American Indian Movement since 1972. He says Vernon, whose Ojibwe name was WaBun-Inini, or "Daybreak Man," was a master communicator.

BILL MEANS: I had a, should we say, a special gift for communication with people from all walks of life, from grassroots people all the way to various government leaders. But as a friend, he was loyal. He was probably one of the hardest working men I've ever known. And he just created a trail of goodwill wherever he went.

JESS MADOR: Means says Bellecourt's passion lately was focused on fighting stereotypical sports mascots through the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media. He was planning to protest at the Cleveland Indians game next week. Bellecourt was arrested in Cleveland for mascot protest during the 1997 and 1998 World Series. Charges were dropped the first time, and he was never charged in the second case.

He grew up in White Earth before moving to the Twin Cities. He was a hair stylist and owned a number of hair salons in Saint Paul and in Denver before joining the American Indian Movement. Bellecourt's brother, Clyde, co-founded AIM in 1968, and together, the brothers organized some of the most important Indian protests in American history.

Vernon was spokesman and fundraiser during the 1973 Occupation of Wounded Knee on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation. In 1972, he was a negotiator during the Trail of Broken Treaties caravan occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington. After Wounded Knee, Bellecourt became the leader of AIM'S international work. He made several controversial trips overseas, including a meeting with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Photojournalist Dick Bancroft was a close friend and collaborator of Bellecourt. He documented the American Indian Movement for more than three decades and was known as Aim's official photographer. He says Bellecourt was known for his ceaseless energy and commitment to his work.

DICK BANCROFT: People just really moved toward him because of his energy, and enthusiasm, and his passion. And he never wavered from that. He was totally consistent.

JESS MADOR: Bancroft credits AIM'S work with helping to spread cultural pride among generations of Indians. He says it's also had a lasting impact on him personally.

DICK BANCROFT: The genocide of native peoples in the Americas and particularly the United States was vicious and planned to get rid of these savages, to make Indians white like us. That was the struggle. And it went on and on and on, and they're still here. Vernon Bellecourt helped me see this by taking me by the hand or putting me on an airplane and saying, come on, we got to go there. We got to go there. We got to talk to these people.

JESS MADOR: Bellecourt is survived by his wife, Janice, an ex-wife and their five children. There will be a wake starting Monday afternoon at All Nations Church in Minneapolis. On Tuesday, his body will be transported to White Earth in northwestern Minnesota for a second wake and funeral.

Jess Mador, Minnesota Public Radio News, Saint Paul.