"Let me go to Clinton's new proposal: to have uniforms in public schools. And people are doing that. How come they're doing that? Dress codes! I find that abhorrent." -- Russell Means
Russell Charles Means (born November 10, 1939) is an activist for the rights of Native American people. Means has also pursued careers in politics, acting, and music.
"I'd like to talk about free markets. Information in the computer age is the last genuine free market left on earth except those free markets where indigenous people are still surviving. And that's basically becoming limited.""In the government schools, which are referred to as public schools, Indian policy has been instituted there, and its a policy where they do not encourage, in fact, discourage, critical thinking and the creation of ideas and public education."""Indian policy" has now been brought down upon the American people, and the American people are the new Indians of the 21st Century.""So Indian policy has become institutionalized and the result has been that American people have become more dependent on government and that the American people have become more dependent on corporations.""Young people and Indian people need to know that we existed in the 20th Century. We need to know who our heroes are and to know what we have done and accomplished in this century other than what Olympic athletes Jim Thorpe and Billy Mills have done."
Means was born in Wanblee, South Dakota, a community located in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, to Theodora Feather and Harold "Hank" Means. He was baptized Oyate Wacinyapin, translated as "works for the people" in the Lakota language. His parents were a Oglala Sioux couple, who met at an Indian boarding school.
In 1942, the Means family settled in the San Francisco Bay Area, seeking to escape the poverty and violence rampant throughout Pine Ridge. He graduated at San Leandro High School in San Leandro, California in 1958.
After the death of his father in 1967, Means resided in several Indian reservations throughout the United States searching for work. While he resided in the Rosebud Indian Reservation in south-central South Dakota, he developed severe vertigo. Physicians at the reservation clinic believed that he had been brought in inebriated, and after they refused to examine him for several days, Means was finally diagnosed with a concussion due to a presumed fist fight in a saloon. A visiting specialist later discovered that the reservation physicians had overlooked a common ear infection, costing Means his hearing in one ear. After recovering from the infection he worked for a year in the Office of Economic Opportunity, where he came to know several legal activists who were managing legal action on behalf of the Lakota people. After a dispute with his supervisor, Means left Rosebud for Cleveland, Ohio. In Cleveland, he worked with Native American community leaders against the backdrop of the American Civil Rights Movement.
In 1968, Means enrolled in the American Indian Movement, and would become one of the most prominent leaders within the organization. In 1969, Means was involved with a group of Native Americans who occupied Alcatraz Island for a period of 19 months. The takeover of federal property was a dramatic protest to highlight issues of American Indian rights. He was appointed the group's first national director in 1970, at a period of protests and activism. Later that year, Means was one of the leaders of AIM's takeover of Mount Rushmore, a federal monument. On Thanksgiving Day 1970, a group of Native Americans including Means seized the Mayflower II, a replica ship of the Mayflower. In 1972, he participated in AIM's occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) headquarters in Washington, D.C. In 1973, he led AIM's occupation of Wounded Knee, which became the group's most well-known action after armed conflict with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and state law enforcement.
In 1974, Means ran for the presidency of his native Oglala Sioux nation against the incumbent Dick Wilson. Although the official vote count showed Wilson winning by over two hundred votes, Means was charged with vote fraud and intimidation by Wilson's agents. An investigation by a federal court concluded there had been fraud and ordered a new election. Wilson's government refused to carry this out, and the court declined to enforce the ruling.
Turning to international issues of rights for indigenous peoples in the United States, Means worked with the United Nations to establish the offices of the International Indian Treaty Council in 1977. At the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, he assisted in the organization of community institutions, such as the KILI radio station and the Porcupine Health Clinic in Porcupine, South Dakota.
In the 1980s, AIM divided into several competing factions. The division occurred in part over differences regarding support for the persecuted Native Americans in socialist Nicaragua. Means announced his support for the Miskito group MISURASATA (later known as YATAMA), which was allied with the Contras. He traveled to the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua in 1985 and 1986 on fact-finding tours. Some members of AIM, and many leftists in the United States, supported the Sandinistas, despite their removal of thousands of Miskito from their territory. At that time, the Grand Governing Council of the American Indian Movement of Minnesota asked Means to cease representing himself as a leader of AIM, however other chapters of AIM continued to support Means.
In 1988, the faction headed by the Bellecourt brothers released a statement saying that Means had publicly resigned from AIM on no less than six occasions, first in 1974. As of 2004, Means's website states that he was a board member of the Colorado AIM chapter, which is associated with the competing faction.
In 1993, the organization divided into two main factions: AIM- Grand Governing Council, based in Minnesota, and AIM-Autonomous Chapters, allied with Means.
Since the late 1970s, Means has often supported libertarian political causes, in contrast with several of the other leaders of AIM.
In 1987, Means ran for nomination of President of the United States under the Libertarian Party, and attracted considerable support within the party (finishing 2nd with 31.41%), however lost the nomination to Congressman Ron Paul.
In 2001, Means began an independent candidacy for Governor of New Mexico. His campaign failed to satisfy procedural requirements and was not selected for the ballot. Nearly thirty years after his first candidacy, he ran for president of the Oglala Sioux with the help of Twila Lebeaux, narrowly losing to incumbent John Yellow Bird Steele. In the 2004 and 2008 Presidential Elections, Means supported independent Ralph Nader.
In the debate over what to call indigenous peoples of the United States, Means has publicly stated his preference for "American Indian", rather than "Native American", a later term. He has argued that American Indian derives, not from a confusion with India, but from the Italian expression in Dio, meaning "in God". In addition, Means notes that since treaties and other legal documents in relation to the United States government use "Indian", continuing use of the term can help today's American Indian people forestall any attempts by others to use legal loopholes in the struggle over land and treaty rights.
Following the non-binding United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in September 2007, a group of American Indian activists presented a letter to the U.S. State Department, indicating they were withdrawing from all treaties with the U.S. Government. In December, they began contacting foreign governments to solicit support for energy projects on the territory.
On December 20, 2007, Means announced the withdrawal by a small group of Lakota Sioux from all treaties with the United States government. Means and a delegation of activists declared the Lakotah a sovereign nation with property rights over thousands of square miles in South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana. The Republic of Lakota website asserts that their group met with what they termed "traditional treaty councils" in eight communities. But, they acknowledge their delegation does not act for elected tribal governments. At a presentation in Washington, Means also stated that his group does not "represent collaborators, the Vichy Indians and those tribal governments set up by the United States of America".
On January 8, 2008 elected leaders President Rodney Bordeaux of the 25,000-member Rosebud Sioux Tribe, and Chairman Joseph Brings Plenty of the 8,500-member Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, said that Means did not speak for their members or any elected Lakota tribal governments. While acknowledging problems with the federal government's implementation of treaties, they opposed his plan to renounce treaties with the United States. They said the issue instead was to enforce existing treaties.
Means began an acting career in 1992, appearing as the Chief Chingachgook in The Last of the Mohicans. He appeared in Natural Born Killers and Into the West. He was a voice actor in the animated film Pocahontas (1995), playing the title character's father, Chief Powhatan. He also appears as a character in the Access Adventure Game Under a Killing Moon. Means starred in Pathfinder, a 2007 movie about Vikings' battling Native Americans in the New World. Recently Means co-starred in Rez Bomb from director Steven Lewis Simpson, the first feature filmed on his native Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He stars with Tamara Feldman and Trent Ford and Chris Robinson.
In 1997, Means published an autobiography, Where White Men Fear to Tread.
Means played 'Billy Twofeathers' in Thomas and the Magic Railroad. In 2004 Means made a guest appearance on the HBO program Curb Your Enthusiasm. Means played Wandering Bear, a calm and resolute American Indian with skills in landscaping and herbal medicine.
Russell Means recorded a CD entitled Electric Warrior under indie label SOAR. Songs include "Une Gente Indio", "Hey You, Hey Indian", "Wounded Knee Set Us Free", and "Indian Cars Go Far".
The American pop artist Andy Warhol painted 18 individual portraits of Russell Meansin his 1976 American Indian Series. The Dayton Art Institute includes a Warhol portrait of Means in their collection.
