Reuben Alvis Snake Jr., was born on January 12, 1937, on the Winnebago Indian Reservation in Thurston County, Nebraska.[7] His parents, Reuben Harold and Virginia Greyhair Snake, divorced, and he experienced many other instabilities during his childhood.[1]
In August 1970, he participated in the Native American occupation of Mount Rushmore (i.e., "Mount Crazy Horse").[8] 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.[3] In 1975, Snake was appointed chairman of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.[3] From 1985 until 1987, Snake was the president of the National Congress of American Indians.[3] While working for the National Congress of American Indians, Snake made buttons that read, "your humble servant".[8] He later went by the nickname, "Your Humble Serpent".[4] Snake also taught culture courses at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA).[3]
By the age of 40 he had already suffered from two heart attacks and diabetes.[5] Snake died on June 28, 1993, at the age of 56.[1]
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.[5]
He was the subject of the posthumous biography, Your Humble Serpent: The Wisdom of Reuben Snake (1995; Clear Light Books; written by Jay Fikes) and a documentary film of the same title (1996; Peacedream Productions; by film director Gary Rhine).[2][7] His archive is located in the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.[4]