Russell Means, a former American Indian Movement activist
who helped lead the 1973 uprising at Wounded Knee, reveled in stirring up
attention and appeared in several Hollywood films, has died. He was 72.
Means died early Monday at his ranch in in Porcupine,
S.D., Oglala Sioux Tribe spokeswoman Donna Solomon said.
Means, a Wanblee native who grew up in the San Francisco
area, announced in August 2011 that he had developed inoperable throat cancer.
He told The Associated Press he was forgoing mainstream medical treatments in
favor of traditional American Indian remedies and alternative treatments away
from his home on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Means was an early leader of AIM and led its armed occupation
of the South Dakota town of Wounded Knee, a 71-day siege that included several
gunbattles with federal officers. He was often embroiled in controversy, partly
because of AIM's alleged involvement in the 1975 slaying of Annie Mae Aquash.
But Means was also known for his role in the movie "The Last of the
Mohicans" and had run unsuccessfully for the Libertarian nomination for
president in 1988.
AIM was founded in the late 1960s to protest the U.S.
government's treatment of Native Americans and demand the government honor its
treaties with Indian tribes. Means told the AP in 2011 that before AIM, there
had been no advocate on a national or international scale for American Indians,
and that Native Americans were ashamed of their heritage.
"No one except Hollywood stars and very rich Texans
wore Indian jewelry," Means said. "And there was a plethora of dozens
if not hundreds of athletic teams that in essence were insulting us, from grade
schools to college. That's all changed."
The movement eventually faded away, the result of Native
Americans becoming self-aware and self-determined, Means said.
Paul DeMain, publisher of Indian Country Today, said
there were plenty of Indian activists before AIM but that the group became the
"radical media gorilla."
"If someone needed help, you called on the American
Indian Movement and they showed up and caused all kind of ruckus and looked
beautiful on a 20-minute clip on TV that night," DeMain said.
Means said he felt his most important accomplishment was
the founding of the Republic of Lakotah and the "re-establishment of our
freedom to be responsible" as a sovereign nation inside the borders of the
United States. His efforts to have his proposed country recognized by the
international community continued at the United Nations, he said, even as it
was ignored by tribal governments closer to home, including his own Oglala
Sioux Tribe.
But others may remember him for his former organization's
connection to Aquash's slaying. Her death remains synonymous with AIM and its
often-violent clashes with federal agents in the 1970s.
Authorities believe three AIM members shot and killed
Aquash on the Pine Ridge reservation on the orders of someone in AIM's
leadership because they suspected she was an FBI informant. Two activists -
Arlo Looking Cloud and John Graham - were both eventually convicted of murder.
The third has never been charged.
Means blamed Vernon Bellecourt, another AIM leader, for
ordering Aquash's killing. Bellecourt denied the allegations in a 2004
interview, four years before he died.
DeMain, an Indian journalist who researched the case,
said AIM's leaders know who ordered Aquash's killing but have covered up the
truth for decades.
Also in 1975, murder charges were filed against Means and
Dick Marshall, an AIM member, in the shooting death of Martin Montileaux of
Kyle at the Longbranch Saloon in Scenic. Marshall served 24 years in prison.
Means was acquitted.
In addition to his presidential bid, Means also briefly
served as a vice presidential candidate in 1984, joining the Larry Flynt ticket
during the Hustler magazine publisher's unsuccessful bid for the Republican
nomination.
But Means always considered himself a Libertarian and
couldn't believe that anyone would want to call themselves either a Republican
or a Democrat.
"It's just unconscionable that America has become so
stupid," he said.
His acting career began in 1992 when he portrayed
Chingachgook alongside Daniel Day-Lewis' Hawkeye in "The Last of the
Mohicans." He also appeared in the 1994 film "Natural Born Killers,"
voiced Chief Powhatan in the 1995 animated film "Pocahontas" and
guest starred in 2004 on the HBO series "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
Means recounted his life in the book "Where White
Men Fear to Tread." He said he pulled no punches in his autobiography, admitting
to his frailties and evils but also acknowledging his successes.
"I tell the truth, and I expose myself as a weak,
misguided, misdirected, dysfunctional human being I used to be," he said.
MEANS, Russell
Born: 11/10/1939 Pine Ridge, South Dakota U.S.A.
Died: 10/22/2012, Porcupine, South Dakota, U.S.A.
Russell Means – westerns – actor:
The Last of the Mohicans – 1992 (Chingachgook)
Wagons East – 1994 (Chief)
Buffalo Girls (TV) – 1995 (Sitting Bull)
Pocahontas – 1995 [voice of Powhatan]
Windrunner – 1995 (Wa Tho Huck)
Pathfinder – 1996 (Arrowhead)
Walker, Texas Ranger (TV) – 1996 (Luther Iron Shirt)
Song of Hiawatha – 1997 (Mudjekeewis)
Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998) [voice of
Powhatan]
Wind River – 2000 (Washakie)
Cowboy Up – 2001 (Joe)
Images of Indians: How Hollywood Stereotyped the Native
American (TV) – 2003 [himself]
Black Cloud – 2004 (Bud)
Into the West (TV) – 2005 (older Running Fox)
Winnetou: The Beginning – 2013 (Intshu-tshuna)
