Jan Crull Jr.

Jan Crull Jr. is a Native American rights advocate, attorney, and filmmaker.

Involvement with Native American matters
From 1979 to the beginning of 1981, Jan Crull Jr. was a volunteer on the Ramah Navajo Indian Reservation in New Mexico where he made many contributions to the well-being of the Ramah Navajos. Although a volunteer, a title -  Assistant to the President and the Chapter (the reservation's local government) - was conferred upon him by a community vote already in mid August 1979.

His securing Federal legislation Public Law 96-333  was a major accomplishment for it provided the Ramah Navajos with a legal right to lands that they had been living on for generations and which made the people living on the lands in question eligible for the services and benefits provided by Federal government agencies and departments. The legislation had had a turbulent nineteen-year history because of disputes regarding it within the New Mexican Congressional delegation, the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs of the U.S. House of Representatives, and local Navajo and Navajo Nation politics and between all of them because of its ties to railroad right-of-ways to the Starlake Coal Fields. While others, including U.S. senators and lawyers from leading Washington, D.C.firms, had been unsuccessful in seeking Congressional action on this matter, Crull had succeeded. Crull did this by working in close association with the United States Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs(then composed of U.S. Senators John Melcher, Daniel K. Inouye, Dennis DeConcini, William S. Cohen, and Mark O. Hatfield); and the New Mexican Congressional delegation (U.S. Senator Harrison Schmitt and especially U. S. Senator Pete Domenici and U.S. Congressman Manuel Lujan Jr.). He also walked the corridors of the Hill knocking on the doors of the rest of the U.S. Senate membership other than those of Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond and the door of each Congressman/woman including non-voting members representing the U.S. Virgin Islands (Melvin H. Evans), Puerto Rico (Baltasar Corrada) and Guam (Antonio Won Pat). In his meetings with them, Crull would always make the Ramah Navajo Indian Reservation's plight germane to each individual member's interests. It was his sheer personality and reasoning which won many of them over since he had nothing to barter with for he was not representing a major corporation with its dollars and jobs or a constituency that could deliver votes. Through these means Crull built a coalition of diverse political bedfellows, ranging from the liberal Claude Pepper to the ultra conservative Steve Symms. He also encountered stiff opposition; and it even came from the unexpected. There were several U.S. House members, such as Thomas Foley and Morris K. Udall who had been dubbed "Indian Angels" because of their past championing of Native American causes. A few of them opposed the Ramah Navajo legislation for reasons including the wanting of a railroad right-of-way to the Star Lake coal fields because they were a potential energy source for power companies within the four states comprising the Four Corners Area. Crull learned that the United States Department of Commerce had conducted an environmental impact study illuminating the adverse effect the railroads' access to Star Lake would have. In a chance encounter with the then United States Secretary of Commerce, Crull explained the Ramah Navajos' circumstances; the fact that a study existed; and the need to have a copy of it. A copy was subsequently given to him which he then shared with the chairman of the Navajo Nation, Peter MacDonald, and key Congressional members. In obtaining it, he also taught the Ramah Navajo how to succeed in obtaining all mineral rights underlying the lands he had secured for them with Public Law 97-434 .

Crull's work for the Ramah Navajos led to his nomination for the Rockefeller Public Service Award  in 1981. His nomination was endorsed by U.S. Senators and U.S. Congressman who had worked with him to secure passage through both houses of the U.S. Congress, specifically Dennis DeConcini, Pete Domenici, Manuel Lujan Jr., John Melcher, and Paul Simon.

In the early 1980s, Jan Crull Jr. served as a professional staffer with the U. S. House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education then chaired by Paul Simon. Crull was responsible for developing legislation reauthorizing the Tribal College Act(The Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act ), creating special provisions for Native Americans in the Library Services Construction Act , and other matters related to Indian education. Sensing the negative impact of what would subsequently be called Reaganomics on Indian education and especially the Tribal Colleges, he called for a meeting of all tribal college presidents and other Indian leaders on the afternoon of July 21, 1981 at the now defunct American Indian Bank in Washington, D.C. There he proposed the creation of an American Indian College Fund akin to the United Negro College Fund and having the U.S. government provide matching funds to a level determined by the U.S. Congress. This "matching idea" was based on the reworking of the old Allen Bill language and incorporating it in the reauthorization legislation for the tribal colleges.

Attorney, investment banker and other career activities
In addition to his involvement with Amerindians, Crull's career path has taken him to teaching at all levels; administering at a top-ranked American public high school; from defending juveniles accused of felonies while in law school to negotiating international business deals with their attending multi layered contracts; and from achieving overviews of corporate matters globally to marketeering in an assortment of locations worldwide. His first light and learning in the investment field came when he interned at Dillon Read and GGvA  in the early 1970s and they were enhanced as he gained expertise over the years with his stays with private investment houses/sovereign funds in Geneva, Vienna and Berlin. His clients have ranged from global manufacturers to, for example, the government of India. He also has served in capacities involving infrastructure development in emerging nations. Although his name has surfaced in various international periodicals and newspapers, his only in depth interview appeared in a trade publication almost two decades ago wherein he warned U.S. manufacturers to examine their trade associations' charters to see if international services were mandated; and if they were, to see to it that they were carried out.

Filmmaker
In the early 1970s, Crull attempted to develop a film about Dutch/U.S. relations regarding West New Guinea in 1962, titled What About My Friend's Children . Because two of the three key figures were already deceased and the third one stymied him, he pieced together a short film that was only an outline of the original. Not in Fiction Only: There and Here Also  was shown half completed. Both projects had Crull being mentored by Joris Ivens even though he, himself, could not devote much time to Crull's endeavors since he was busily engaged with other film work in China. AIDDS: American Indians' Devastating Dilemma Soon , To Mute Them Once Again , and Indian Buckaroos  were short films, originally meant to be feature length which Crull released under the Vigil Film Production Company banner in the early 1990s. While he had been doing them, among other things, his goal was to develop a feature-length documentary film A Free People, Free To Choose. After over one hundred hours of preliminary footage was shot or compiled, the film's subjects got involved in a lawsuit with one another (which had nothing to do with Crull) and the project fell apart although a part of it was salvaged and has been viewed. Erik Barnouw and Malcolm Mackenzie Ross served as Crull's mentors on this project. Crull also had his brush with feature films: David Lean's Ryan's Daughter; When the MGM presidency had become like a revolving door in 1969 of Robert O'Brien, Louis Polk and James Aubrey, Crull had wrangled a letter of introduction to David Lean which was meant to enable him to be on set from late August through mid September before he returned to school in the States. He arrived in the Irish setting only to learn that Lean had no clue as to whom he was or what was to be done with him. He also found a disgruntled crew and cast (composed of Robert Mitchum, Trevor Howard, Christopher Jones, Sarah Miles, Barry Foster, Leo McKern, John Mills, Marie Keen, Gerald Sim, Arthur O'Sullivan and others) who had been on location there for about a half year. He also discovered there were no housing accommodations for him since everyone was living in caravans and finally secured them with locals which still were a distance from the set. Lean palmed him off to his assistants who ignored him. Although the shooting schedule was sparse and erratic, Crull faithfully made it to whatever shoots were done even though he sometimes had difficulty getting to them. His diligence did, however, catch the attention of Freddie Young and Robert Mitchum who took him under their wings and spent time with him, including at a pub run by a distant cousin of Gregory Peck where he taught them a card game "R*t F**k" which he had learned and was endemic to his Phi Kappa Psi (Phi Psi) fraternity house at Northwestern University, one of Northwestern's oldest and prestigious and known over time for its eclectic membership which has included Paul Winter, Bob Voigts, Ralph "Moon" Baker, Herb Peterson, James Franklin Oates Jr., Michael A. Miles, Edmund J. James, Nathan MacChesney, Sherman Hunt, Ralph E. Church, Latham Castle, Zach Braff to cite a few John Trent's Sunday in the Country; and Alan Bridges' Age of Innocence.

Education and family background
Crull was born in the Netherlands to Nederland's Patriciaat families. He became a naturalized American citizen.

After receiving his diploma from Lake Forest Academy, Crull attended Canada's Dalhousie University is where he received his B.A. Honours; the University of Chicago awarded him the A.M. degree; and Tulane University of Louisiana is where he obtained his J.D.