Reuben Snake

Early life and education Reuben Alvis Snake Jr., was born on January 12, 1937, on the Winnebago Indian Reservation in Thurston County, Nebraska. His parents, Reuben Harold and Virginia Greyhair Snake, divorced, and he experienced many other instabilities during his childhood. In 1972, he became the national chairman of the American Indian Movement (AIM), a civil rights organization focused on Native Americans, and worked as a leader for the Trail of Broken Treaties.

Death and legacy By the age of 40 he had already suffered from two heart attacks and diabetes.

A year after his death, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was amended by President Bill Clinton under the name the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, which allowed for the use of peyote in religious ceremony.

Publications