Billy Mills, the first American Indian to win an Olympic gold medal, gave a speech at Bakersfield College on April 26.

An Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Indian, Mills was raised in poverty and orphaned at age 12. He broke several high school track records and obtained an athletics scholarship to the University of Kansas in the late 1950s.

In 1964, Mills set the Olympic 10,000-meter record at 28 minuteds 24.4 seconds at the Tokyo Olympics.

He was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1984 and is a member of the U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame, the National Distance Running Hall of Fame, the Kansas Hall of Fame, the San Diego Hall of Fame and the National High School Hall of Fame.

Mills is the national spokesman for Running Strong for American Indian Youth, a non-profit organization that helps communities with self-sufficiency programs, youth activities and cultural identity projects. As the national spokesman for Christian Relief Services, he has helped raise more than $212 million in contributions.

He encouraged the crowd by saying “Don’t let others put labels on you.” As a Native American, Mills has had his share of discrimination.

“People stereotype us as drunks,” he said. “I’m an Olympic medalist.”