[Originally posted as http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/10/25/remembering-russell-means/ ]
Veterans Today
October 25, 2012
by Stephen Lendman
Over a year ago, he knew he had inoperable esophageal cancer.
It spread to his tongue, lymph nodes and lungs. It was just a matter of
time. On October 22, it took him. His journey to the spirit world
began.
In August 2011, he said:
“I’m not going to argue with the Great Mystery. Lakota belief is that
death is a change of worlds. And I believe like my dad believed.”
“When it’s my time to go, it’s my time to go. I’ve told people after I
die, I’m coming back as lightning. When it zaps the White House,
they’ll know it’s me.”
Earlier he said:
“The Universe which controls all life, has a female and male balance
that is prevalent throughout our Sacred Grandmother, the Earth.”
“This balance has to be acknowledged and become the determining
factor in all of one’s decisions, be they spiritual, social, healthful,
educational or economical.”
On October 24, he’ll be honored in Pine Ridge, SD, the Republic of
Lakota. Other gatherings will also celebrate his life and work.
Speaking for herself and children, Means’ wife, Pearl Daniel Means, said the following:
“Hello our relatives. Our dad and husband, now walks among our
ancestors. He began his journey to the spirit world at 4:44 am, with the
Morning Star, at his home and ranch in Porcupine.”
“There will be four opportunities for the people to honor his life,
to be announced at a later date. Thank you for your prayers and
continued support. We love you. As our dad and husband would always say,
‘May the Great Mystery continue to guide and protect the paths of you
and your loved ones.’ ”
World headlines spread the news. The New York Times
said “Russell Means, Who Clashed With Law as He Fought for Indians, Is
Dead at 72.” He was America’s “best known Indian since Sitting Bull and
Crazy Horse.”
In 1968, he joined the American Indian Movement (AIM). In 1970, he
became its national director. In 1995, he published his autobiography
titled, “Where White Men Fear to Tread.”
“Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” author Dee Brown
said “reading Means’ story is essential for any clear understanding of
American Indians during the last half of the twentieth century.”
New York Times writer Robert McFadden said:
Shortly before being diagnosed with inoperable throat cancer, he “cut
off his braids. (It was) a gesture of mourning for his people. In
Lakota lore, he explained, the hair holds memories, and mourners often
cut it to release those memories, and the people in them, to the spirit
world.”
The Washington Post headlined “Russell Means dies at 72; American Indian activist helped lead uprising at Wounded Knee,” saying:
“(S)elf-styled modern Indian warrior….forced international attention
on the plight of Native Americans for more than four decades.”
Reuters headlined “American Indian activist Russell Means dead at 72,” saying:
He waged a “lifelong campaign (struggling for) the rights and dignity of his people….”
AP
called him “a modern Indian warrior. He railed against broken treaties,
fought for the return of stolen land, and even took up arms against the
federal government.”
The Los Angeles Times said “he helped thrust the plight of Native Americans into the national spotlight.”
Press TV called him “an outspoken champion of American Indian rights.”
Means once said, “Every policy now the Palestinians are enduring was practiced on the American Indians.”
“What the American Indian Movement says is that the American Indians
are the Palestinians of the United States, and the Palestinians are the
American Indians of Europe.”
He called Indian lands open air concentration camps, saying:
“If you chose to stay on the reservation, you are guaranteed to be
poor, unless you are part of the colonial apparatus set up by the Bureau
of Indian Affairs, set up the United States.”
Prisoner of conscience Leonard Peltier issued a statement, saying in part:
“I wish I was there to talk with you in person and share with you the
sorrow that I feel with the passing of Russell Means, my brother, my
friend, and inspiration on many levels.”
“Russell Means will always be an icon whenever the American Indian
Movement is spoken of and whenever people talk about the changes that
took place, the changes that are taking place now for Indian people.”
“We’ll see you again my brother Russell, in some other time and in
some other place, we will always be your friend, and we will always look
forward to seeing your face. Mitakuye Oyasin (All Are Related from a
traditional Lakota Sioux prayer).”
Russell Means.com
said he “lived a life like few others in this century…” He disliked
being called a Native American. “The one thing I’ve always maintained is
that I’m an American Indian.”
“Everyone who’s born in the Western Hemisphere is a Native American. We are all Native Americans.”
He also said he put “American” before ethnicity. “I’m not a
hyphenated African-American or Irish-American or Jewish-American or
Mexican-American.”
Means was born on November 10, 1939 in Wanblee, SD, on the Pine Ridge
Oglala Lakota Sioux Indian Reservation. With Dennis Banks and Leonard
Peltier, he participated in the 1973 Wounded Knee siege and tragedy.
For 71 days, they and other AIM activists held off hundreds off FBI
thugs, federal marshals, National Guard troops, and complicit Indian
vigilantes. They were called “GOONS (Guardians of Our Oglala Nation).”
They sold out for whatever benefits they got in return.
On February 27, Oglala Sioux activists reclaimed Wounded Knee. They wanted their 1868 treaty rights honored.
It stated that “(t)he government of the United States desires peace,
and its honor is hereby pledged to keep it.” It also reaffirmed all
Indian rights granted under the 1851 Treaty.
From 1778 – 1871, Washington negotiated 372 treaties. All were systematically spurned.
At Wounded Knee, AIM represented over 75 Indian Nations. For nearly
two and a half months, they held on. They were free. It wasn’t easy.
Washington cut off electricity. Food and other essential deliveries were
blocked.
Activists were shot and killed. When it ended, hundreds of arrests
followed. An FBI/Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) reign of terror began.
It lasted three years.
Roving death squads murdered at least 342 AIM members and supporters.
Hundreds more were harassed and beaten. Many more were arrested. Their
crime was wanting to live free on their own land.
Leonard Peltier was victimized. He was wrongfully convicted on two
first-degree murder counts. On June 1, 1977, he got two consecutive life
sentences.
Despite bogus charges and prosecutorial injustice, he’s been denied
parole, retrial, clemency, or a pardon. Other nations, past and present
congressional members, and hundreds of world dignitaries say he should
be unconditionally released.
Means was more fortunate. He stayed free to remain active. In 1978,
he joined The Longest Walk. Participants protested racist anti-Indian
legislation at that time. It included forced sterilization of Indian
women.
Earlier in 1964, Means, his father, and others occupied Alcatraz.
They did so peacefully in accordance with their rights. According to
broken treaty obligations, abandoned prison property belongs to Indian
tribes.
On December 17, 2007, Means and other Lakota people went to Washington. They declared independence. They called it “the latest step in the longest running legal battle” in history.
It’s not a cessation, they said. It’s a lawful “unilateral
withdrawal” from treaty obligations permitted under the 1969 Vienna
Convention on the Law of Treaties.
Means said:
“We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all
those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are
free to join us.”
“We offer citizenship to anyone provided they renounce their US citizenship.”
“United States colonial rule is at an end.”
Signed documents were delivered to the State Department. Sovereignty
was declared. The Republic of Lakota was established. It’s based on the
1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie. It created the Great Lakota (Sioux) Nation.
It states in part:
“The territory of the Sioux or Dahcotah Nation, commencing the mouth
of the White Earth River, on the Missouri River; thence in a
southwesterly direction to the forks of the Platte River; thence up the
north fork of the Platte River to a point known as the Red Buts, or
where the road leaves the river; thence along the range of mountains
known as the Black Hills, to the head-waters of Heart River; thence down
Heart River to its mouth; and thence down the Missouri River to the
place of beginning.”
It gave Lakota people portions of northern Nebraska, half of South
Dakota, one-fourth of North Dakota, one-fifth of Montana, and 20% of
Wyoming.
It didn’t matter. Unilateral withdrawal from all treaties and agreements became policy. America never honored its own.
On September 29, 2012 Means reiterated what he and others declared in December 2007, saying:
“We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all
those who live in the five state area that encompasses our country are
free to join us.”
He cited longstanding problems and grievances. They include land
theft, resource plunder, poverty, unemployment, repression, and overall
human deprivation. All of it remains out of sight and mind.
Means had three weeks to live. Lakota spokesman Salomon called his
death a “great loss.” It came a day after former Senator George McGovern
died. He and former Senator James Abourezk tried to negotiate an
equitable Wounded Knee settlement.
Commenting on Means and McGovern, Abourezk said he “lost two good
friends in a matter of two to three days. I don’t pretend to understand
it.”
Death, of course, has final say. What matters most is showing up
every day and working for right over wrong. Means said he wants to be
remembered as an American Indian patriot. He spent most of his adult
life proving it.
