The passing of Russell Means was a loss for the world

[umbertino]

by: Albert Bender

December 11 2012

On October 22, 2012, Indian rights activist Russell Means passed on after a magnificent life of struggle to better the lives of American Indians. Means had a tremendous impact on Native American struggles of the latter part of the 20th century and he will be sorely missed, but his passing was a huge loss not just for Native America, not just for all of America, but for the world. He became the warrior conscience of the U.S. as a nation and exposed the oppression of American Indians to the globe.

Means reawakened Native people to the need for direct action in dealing with the "powers that be." Contrary to popular belief, there had been a long unbroken string of Native activism throughout the 20th century, but the government-leaning mainstream news media had for the most part managed to keep information of Indian resistance hidden behind the "Buckskin Curtain." What distinguished Means and the American Indian Movement (AIM) was that they were able to break through the "Curtain" with justifiably sensational tactics that the media could not ignore. The 1973 Wounded Knee occupation and other protests had to be covered, and that riveted the moral conscience of America and the entire world. All just-minded citizens, of all races, creeds and colors, morally supported the actions of AIM. Public opinion in the U.S. was on the side of Means and the warriors of AIM. One thing that was said about AIM in those days was that they would never lose a fight by default; when called upon AIM always showed up.

It has been said that American Indians are the "miners' canary" which indicates that justice in this society can be measured by how Native people are treated. Given that criterion this country is still sadly lacking in that category.

As for Means, he started out working in an office as a computer operator. He was trained as an accountant, was a straight A student and was awarded a scholarship to Arizona State University. Indian youth, in particular, should find this inspirational at a time when less than half of Native young people graduate from high school.

Means became a steadfast fighter for Indian rights. Among his many accomplishments: He founded the first radio station on his reservation and the first independent health clinic. He was also was a founder of the International Treaty Council which was responsible for the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which impacted peoples worldwide.

In the mid-1970s, I had the priceless opportunity to meet Means, Vernon and Clyde Bellecourt, Jimmie Durham and others prominent in the American Indian Movement, at an AIM rally. I actually remember him as rather quiet. In fact, I don't recall him even speaking on stage at the event.

Means was not only an activist, but also an avid painter, screenplay writer and actor. In these roles he always drew attention to Native issues both contemporarily and historically. He was also an author, writing a several-hundred-page autobiography entitled "Where White Men Fear to Tread." The book, written in language that ranges from the sublime to the earthy, is filled with profound philosophical and political insights. It is a huge indictment of racism and an expose of the appalling conditions in Indian Country that gave rise to AIM. Although I don't agree with all of Means' political views in the volume (specifically on Nicaragua and socialism) it is otherwise a stellar work indicting the U.S. for its horrific treatment of Native people.

Uncompromising to the end, when Means was first diagnosed with esophageal cancer in the summer of 2011 he announced he was eschewing mainstream medical treatment in favor of traditional Native medicine. Through it all, he remained the iconic symbol of American Indian resistance to the ongoing centuries of the race war conducted against Native Americans by the U.S. government.

Means reinforced the iconic image of the intrepid, dauntless Indian warrior willing to risk all consequences in his endless quest for indigenous justice. Exposed in his odyssey was the federal government's equally endless quest to silence him "by any means necessary." He was shot, stabbed (all assassination attempts), imprisoned, harassed incessantly, but he never slowed down. Means was a source of boundless inspiration to all who were committed to "The Cause." Means has walked on, but the movement lives on.

Photo: In a Jan. 31, 1989 file photo, Russell Means, who headed the American Indian Movement, (AIM) testifies before a special investigative committee of the Senate Select Committee on Capitol Hill, in Washington. Marcy Nighswander /AP

http://www.peoplesworld.org/the-passing-of-russell-means-was-a-loss-for-the-world/

[dog53]

I have followed Russell Means for more then 30 years. He was a true light in the darkness. He was the Indian rights movement. His appearance in " last of the Mohican's" was wonderful. Him not being a actor he pulled it off as though he had been acting his whole life. He has done so much to help the people. He will be remembered forever. May he set by the counsel fires of his ancestors for eternity and be at peace at last.

[umbertino]

Dog...Thanks for your words. They are appreciated.

I have to admit I was totally un-aware of Mr. Means and his life history... I can only say he does sound like a Great Human Being.

[NonLinear]

Dog...Thanks for your words. They are appreciated.

I have to admit I was totally un-aware of Mr. Means and his life history... I can only say he does sound like a Great Human Being.

A little more reading material...

The American Indian Movement's Grand Governing Council repudiates Russell Mean's challenge to the jurisdiction and authority of the Dine (Navaho) Nation's Criminal Courts. His recent reckless mis-representation of the American Indian Movement's well established position supporting the sovereign authority and powers of Indian nation's governments plays into the hands of all the anti-Indian forces that want to erode the sovereignty of Indian nations.

http://www.aimovemen...ssellmeans.html

[umbertino]

A little more reading material...

The American Indian Movement's Grand Governing Council repudiates Russell Mean's challenge to the jurisdiction and authority of the Dine (Navaho) Nation's Criminal Courts. His recent reckless mis-representation of the American Indian Movement's well established position supporting the sovereign authority and powers of Indian nation's governments plays into the hands of all the anti-Indian forces that want to erode the sovereignty of Indian nations.

http://www.aimovemen...ssellmeans.html

Thank you. Will check.

[dog53]

A little more reading material...

The American Indian Movement's Grand Governing Council repudiates Russell Mean's challenge to the jurisdiction and authority of the Dine (Navaho) Nation's Criminal Courts. His recent reckless mis-representation of the American Indian Movement's well established position supporting the sovereign authority and powers of Indian nation's governments plays into the hands of all the anti-Indian forces that want to erode the sovereignty of Indian nations.

http://www.aimovemen...ssellmeans.html

Yep he certainly did have Ba!!`s didn't he. I have read all this crap before and that's exactly what it was. Russel was far from perfect but who is. He always had the heart of his people behind him. This is all propaganda from the same lame a$$ federally funded so called Indian movement that's in place now. Thats government sanctioned as long as they play nice nice. Give me a break. Yes means did go to prison because he was a warrior ready to die and to kill for what he believed to be right. Something you obviously wouldn't know anything about.

Russel didnt always do it right but he had the Ba!!`s to do it.

On 27 February 1973, members and supporters of the American Indian Movement (AIM), mostly Lakota Sioux, occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota – the site of what is sometimes described as the last battle of the Indian wars, where in December 1890 the US 7th Cavalry, the regiment led by General Custer at the Little Big Horn, massacred some 350 Lakota, mostly women and children.

The 300 protesters were soon surrounded by some 800 federal marshals, FBI agents and national guardsmen in a siege that lasted 71 days and led to the deaths of two Native Americans, one a Cherokee, and left one agent paralysed.

As the spokesman for AIM brought to Washington to negotiate, Russell Means, who has died aged 72 after suffering from throat cancer, became the leading face of Native Americans. Viewed as the most notorious Indian since Sitting Bull, he assumed a position of de facto leadership that often put him at odds with his fellow activists, as well as with the authorities. With long braids and a sculpted face, Means looked the part. Years later he would pursue an acting career, most notably as Chingachgook in Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans (1992). But Means had always been a keen actor in the sort of political theatre which was a prominent, if only occasionally successful, part of 1960s protest.

He almost literally drifted into Native American activism. Born Russell Charles Means into the Oglala Sioux on the Pine Ridge reservation, South Dakota, his Oglala name was Oyate Wacinyapin, "works for the people". During the second world war, his father, Hank, moved the family to San Francisco to work in shipyards. Russell faced discrimination growing up in Vallejo, and became a delinquent. He tried college four times, but moved across the west back to reservations, finally finding work first with the Rosebud Sioux tribal council, then with the federal Office of Economic Opportunity.

In Cleveland, Ohio, he met Dennis Banks, co-founder of AIM, which he joined in time to take part in the 1969 occupation of Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay. He became AIM's national director and organised the boarding of a replica of the Mayflower during Thanksgiving Day celebrations at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, in 1970. In 1971, at the Mount Rushmore national memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota, he urinated on the giant visage of George Washington, and filed a $9m defamation suit against the Cleveland Indians baseball team and their mascot, Chief Wahoo. The following year, he led the Trail of Broken Treaties occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, which ended, as the protest at Wounded Knee would, with promises of meetings with government officials.

After Wounded Knee, Means and Banks were charged with assault, conspiracy and larceny but were acquitted in 1974 due to the prosecution's misconduct and collusion with the FBI. Means ran for president of the Oglala but lost the election amid claims of voter fraud and intimidation against the incumbent, which led to riots outside a Sioux Falls courthouse. He was shot by an agent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1975, and survived two assassination attempts within the next year. In 1976 he was acquitted of abetting murder in a bar-room brawl, but convicted of charges stemming from the Sioux Falls riot. He was sent to prison, where he was stabbed, but was released in time to join the celebration, at the Little Big Horn, Montana, of the 100th anniversary of Custer's last stand.

Means was often involved in political conflicts within AIM and was frequently accused of self-promotion, not least when he agreed to become the running mate of Larry Flynt, the publisher of Hustler magazine, in his attempt to become the Republican candidate in the 1984 US presidential election. Four years later he lost his bid to become the Libertarian party's presidential nomination to the future Republican senator and candidate Ron Paul.

He split AIM over his support for the Miskito Indians of Nicaragua, driven from their lands by the Sandinista government. Many AIM members refused to follow Means's support of the rightwing Contra movement, amid accusations of widespread fraud with monies given to the Contras to benefit the Miskito. In 1988 he resigned, for the sixth and final time, from AIM, which split officially five years later.

Means's acting career then blossomed. After The Last of the Mohicans, he appeared in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994) and was the voice of Powhatan in Disney's Pocahontas and its sequel (1995, 1998). In more than 30 films and television movies he played such heroes as Jim Thorpe and Sitting Bull, as well as sending himself up in the TV comedy Duckman. Means published an autobiography, Where White Men Fear to Tread (1995), in which he defended the use of violent confrontation: "It told the world that John Wayne hadn't killed us all."

In 2007 Means was arrested in Denver for blocking the city's Columbus Day parade – which he accused of celebrating genocide – and, following the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples the same year, he tried to unilaterally declare an independent Lakota nation.

Divorced four times, he is survived by his fifth wife, Pearl, and 10 children.

• Russell Charles Means, Native American activist and actor, born 10 November 1939; died 22 October 2012

[dog53]

Sorry its very hard for me to let this go.

Please read and try to understand

Chief Joseph

We were taught to believe that the Great Spirit sees and hears everything, and that he never forgets, that hereafter he will give every man a spirit home according to his deserts; If he has been a good man, he will have a good home; if he has been a bad man, he will have a bad home. This I believe, and all my people believe the same.

I am tired of talk that comes to nothing It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and all the broken promises. There has been too much talking by men who had no right to talk.

It does not require many words to speak the truth.

If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian, he can live in peace. Treat all men alike.Give them all the same law.Give them all an even chance to live and grow.All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The Earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. Let me be a free man,free to travel, free to stop,free to work,free to trade where I choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers,free to think and talk and act for myself, and I will obey every law, or submit to the penalty."

You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who was born free should be contented to be penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases.

We are taught to believe that the Great Spirit sees and hears everything, and that he never forgets: that hereafter he will give every man a spirit-home according to his deserts.... This I believe, and all my people belive the same

Chief Seattle's

How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us.

If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?

Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap which courses through the trees carries the memories of the red man.

The white man's dead forget the country of their birth when they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it is the mother of the red man. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters; the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and man --- all belong to the same family.

So, when the Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land, he asks much of us. The Great Chief sends word he will reserve us a place so that we can live comfortably to ourselves. He will be our father and we will be his children.

So, we will consider your offer to buy our land. But it will not be easy. For this land is sacred to us. This shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you the land, you must remember that it is sacred, and you must teach your children that it is sacred and that each ghostly reflection in the clear water of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water's murmur is the voice of my father's father.

The rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst. The rivers carry our canoes, and feed our children. If we sell you our land, you must remember, and teach your children, that the rivers are our brothers and yours, and you must henceforth give the rivers the kindness you would give any brother.

We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his father's grave behind, and he does not care. He kidnaps the earth from his children, and he does not care. His father's grave, and his children's birthright are forgotten. He treats his mother, the earth, and his brother, the sky, as things to be bought, plundered, sold like sheep or bright beads. His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert.

I do not know. Our ways are different than your ways. The sight of your cities pains the eyes of the red man. There is no quiet place in the white man's cities. No place to hear the unfurling of leaves in spring or the rustle of the insect's wings. The clatter only seems to insult the ears. And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around the pond at night? I am a red man and do not understand. The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of a pond and the smell of the wind itself, cleaned by a midday rain, or scented with pinon pine.

The air is precious to the red man for all things share the same breath, the beast, the tree, the man, they all share the same breath. The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man dying for many days he is numb to the stench. But if we sell you our land, you must remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.

The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also receives his last sigh. And if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred as a place where even the white man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow's flowers.

So we will consider your offer to buy our land. If we decide to accept, I will make one condition - the white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brothers.

I am a savage and do not understand any other way. I have seen a thousand rotting buffaloes on the prairie, left by the white man who shot them from a passing train. I am a savage and do not understand how the smoking iron horse can be made more important than the buffalo that we kill only to stay alive.

What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of the spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected.

You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children that we have taught our children that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.

This we know; the earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected.

Even the white man, whose God walks and talks with him as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all. We shall see. One thing we know which the white man may one day discover; our God is the same God.

You may think now that you own Him as you wish to own our land; but you cannot. He is the God of man, and His compassion is equal for the red man and the white. The earth is precious to Him, and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator. The whites too shall pass; perhaps sooner than all other tribes. Contaminate your bed and you will one night suffocate in your own waste.

But in your perishing you will shine brightly fired by the strength of the God who brought you to this land and for some special purpose gave you dominion over this land and over the red man.

That destiny is a mystery to us, for we do not understand when the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses are tamed, the secret corners of the forest heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills blotted by talking wires.

Where is the thicket? Gone. Where is the eagle? Gone.

The end of living and the beginning of survival.

All things share the same breath - the beast, the tree, the man... the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.

Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

Crazy Horse/Tashunkewitko, Oglala

A very great vision is needed and the man who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky. I was hostile to the white man...we preferred hunting to a life of idleness on our reservations. At times we did not get enough to eat and we were not allowed to hunt. All we wanted was peace and to be left alone. Soldiers came and destroyed our villages. Then Long Hair (Custer) came...They say we massacred him, but he would have done the same to us. Our first impulse was to escape but we were so hemmed in we had to fight.

One does not sell the earth upon which the people walk.

A very great vision is needed and the man who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky.

I was hostile to the white man...We preferred hunting to a life of idleness on our reservations. At times we did not get enough to eat and we were not allowed to hunt. All we wanted was peace and to be let alone. Soldiers came...in the winter..and destroyed our villages. Then Long Hair (Custer) came...They said we massacred him, but he would have done the same to us. Our first impulse was to escape...but we were so hemmed in we had to fight. After that I lived in peace, but the government would not let me alone. I was not allowed to remain quiet. I was tired of fighting...They tried to confine me..and a soldier ran his bayonet into me. I have spoken.

We did not ask you white men to come here. The Great Spirit gave us this country as a home. You had yours. We did not interfere with you. The Great Spirit gave us plenty of land to live on, and buffalo, deer, antelope and other game. But you have come here; you are taking my land from me; you are killing off our game, so it is hard for us to live. Now, you tell us to work for a living, but the Great Spirit did not make us to work, but to live by hunting. You white men can work if you want to. We do not interfere with you, and again you say why do you not become civilized? We do not want your civilization! We would live as our fathers did, and their fathers before them." . . . .

Tecumseh - Shawnee

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and Demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, Beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and Its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, Even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and Bow to none. When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the food and For the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, The fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and nothing, For abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts Are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes They weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again In a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.

Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.

Our land is more valuable than your money. It will last forever. It will not even perish by the flames of fire. As long as the sun shines and the waters flow, this land will be here to give life to men and animals. We cannot sell the lives of men and animals. It was put here by the Great Spirit and we cannot sell it because it does not belong to us

Red Cloud, Oglala Sioux

I am poor and naked but I am the chief of a nation. We do not want riches but we do want to train our children right. Riches would do us no good. We could not take them with us to the other world. We do not want riches. We want peace and love.

Black Elk, Lakota

I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heapen and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young.And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people dream died there. It was a beautiful dream. . . the nations hoop is broken and scattered. There is no center any longer, and the sacred tree is dead.

And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell, and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.

Sitting bull

We want no white person or persons here. The Black Hills belong to me. If the whites try to take them, I will fight. "If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place. He put in your heart certain wishes and plans, and in my heart he put other and different desires. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.

Behold, my brothers, the spring has come; the earth has received the embraces of the sun and we shall soon see the results of that love! Every seed has awakened and so has all animal life. It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being and we therefore yield to our neighbours, even our animal neighbours, the same right as ourselves, to inhabit this land.

Chief Joseph's Surrender Speech - October 5th, 1877

"Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Too-hul-hul-sote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets; the little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are, perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."

Russel Means was not a bad man. He was just another indian

[Rayzur]

High 5 and pluses down the line for ya Dog..... Kuddos in standing for the truth you speak about Russell Means ^5.

[UNEEK]

Thank you for that thorough bit of info - very interesting read

[R2D2]

Russel Means should be thought of as the native American M.L.king is known to the Aferican-American. A true spirit of the Native Americans. Peace my brother.

[dog53]