Researching Billy Mills - Marine, Runner, and Oglala Lakota: An Interview with Tom Fodor, M.A. student

I'm a first year M.A. student. I graduated from the Naval Academy in May, and I'm a naval officer too. Right now, I'm in a holding pattern waiting to start flight school. I requested to attend graduate school to pursue a passion project in Native American studies that I started researching in undergrad.

I started college as an operations research major. And I realized that it wasn’t fulfilling me. I felt I was better at communication and writing, and I switched to history. I got interested in Indigenous history through Billy Mills. He is an Oglala Lakota, a marine, and a runner. He is the only American to win the 10,000-meter race in the Olympics. As I am a military officer and a runner too, Mills and I overlapped in the running and the military spaces. When I started investigating his history, I discovered that he was still alive, and I asked to interview him. That interview turned into an entire day spent with Billy and his wife Pat. Since then, they have taken me under their wings.

I came to the Native American and Indigenous Studies Center at FSU to work with Dr. Frank, even though my focus is on the northern plains rather than the southeast. His approach to the study of Native American history aligned closest with my own ideas. I am pursuing the non-thesis M.A. at FSU as the timeline lines up best with the time I have got. But down the road, I am hoping to continue working in Indigenous studies.

The broad question that I am looking at right now is what makes Mills special? What can we learn from Mills about the overlapping spheres of being a Native celebrity, a running celebrity, and a United States Marine. As a celebrity runner, news outlets consult Mills every four years for comments on the 10,000-meter race in the Olympic Games. In the time in between he utilizes his platform as a gold medalist to amplify the voices of Native communities that have been silenced. There were other Native athletes who won Olympic gold in other events. Mills is America’s sole 10,000m champion.

Mills won in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. When he flew into Japan, he saw Mount Fuji in the distance. And it reminded him of the Black Hills that hold incredible significance to the Lakota people. In Lakota, those mountains are called Paha Sapa or ‘The Heart of All That Is.’ He understood that to the Japanese Mount Fuji was their ‘Heart of All That Is.’ Mills has always sought to find unity through diversity, to find the values and virtues that drive different cultures and recognize their similarities. Even if they had different names.

There is a strong bond between the Lakota tribe and the military. Given that I am a part of the military community, I could identify with that. They have cultural connection to being “a warrior.” Members of the tribe told me that they see it as their duty to join the military to uphold their end of the treaties that their tribe entered into with the U.S.A. That struck me the most, that the members of the tribe talked about these treaties from ca. 150 years ago as if they were local ordinances despite being littered with broken promises. They joined the military to serve both of their nations.

In December 2024, I went to South Dakota to get a better understanding of what it was like for Mills to grow up there and also engage with the local community. It helped me realize what it means to live on a reservation and to be a Native athlete today. I went to the Lakota Nation Invitational as well, which is a big basketball tournament for high schoolers which is also a cultural event. Attending allowed me to experience the similarities and differences in Native and American youth cultures.

I also went to Wounded Knee, and that was a jarring experience. It is the hallowed site of mass murder, but it is not commemorated like that. I went to Poland and have been to Auschwitz, and I saw the way that that is memorialized. Wounded Knee, though, is just a space to one side of the highway.

When I went to South Dakota, I did not want to go as the white guy invading their space. Mills had put me in touch with mentors to make connections. I spent time at a homeless shelter for Native veterans and at the community center that Mills’ foundation runs. Before traveling, Dr. Frank and I had set up a fundraiser for winter gear, and we shipped most of it as we collected, the many coats, hats, and gloves. The trip helped me hear and see the problems that Native Americans face. The big issues like land ownership, sovereignty and language. And the small issues like not having warm winter coats to wear when you are waiting for the school bus.

Part of my reason for going was to make connections and establish contacts. In order to do more historical research, I need to form relationships with the people who curate the relevant archives. And I need to have connections in and to the community. I want my work to be collaborative and not extractive scholarship.

Looking back, I realized how important it was for me to find similarities with my research subject, Billy Mills. That’s what I would say to others wanting to research in Native American history. Find similarities. When I first met Mills, I was there as a researcher first and foremost, but then we started talking about running, and we could relate over what it means to be a division 1 runner, to train and compete. Through sharing the same hobbies, we were able to connect.

The other advice I have is, never be afraid of taking on new things. If you had told me four or even two-and-a-half years ago that I would be doing an M.A. in Native American history, I would not have believed you. I had chosen a different research topic for my undergrad degree initially, the Hudson River School of Art. One of my teachers noticed that I wasn’t really that interested in it and suggested I find something else to work on. So, I kept looking until I found what I was passionate about. My suggestion is: “Don’t stop pushing yourself until you have found what truly grabs you.”

When I went to South Dakota, I talked to people, and I looked at historical records in museums and archives. But I also traveled around, I saw many sites that were important to Native American history. I drove from the Black Hills to the plains and truly experienced the space that the Oglala Lakota live in. I had not realized how important it was for me as a historian to experience this spatial dimension.

When I was on top of Crazy Horse Mountain and looked out onto the plains, I had this moment when it suddenly hit me. What if this had all belonged to my community and then had been taken away, it made me feel terrible. It was one of those moments that change the way you think.