The Black Hills Alliance
Means returned to Pine Ridge after his release from prison and set about attempting to strengthen AIM’s activities on the reservation. The organization supported an effort by Means’s brother Ted and Ted’s wife to open a health center in Porcupine. Another brother, Dace, worked at a crisis center operated by AIM, and Means helped establish an AIM-run radio station, KILI.
Means also became deeply involved in the Black Hills Alliance, which sought to preserve the Black Hills from destruction through mining and development. Means’s cousin Madonna had helped found Women of All Red Nations (WARN), which discovered that the water in Pine Ridge was contaminated with uranium and other toxic substances. The Black Hills Alliance sponsored a convention entitled the International Gathering for Survival in 1980 to consider how to best protect the land.
At that gathering, Means gave a speech, “For America to live, Europe must die.” Means considers the speech to be his most famous. In the speech, which is reprinted in his autobiography, Where White Men Fear to Tread, he draws an important distinction between being (a spiritual process) and gaining (a material action). The Euro-American mentality, he argues, is about gaining— that is, acquiring wealth, land, and other possessions. The European mindset, he points out, is cultural rather than genetic. Indians can adopt it, and non-Indians can reject it. He concludes his speech by noting that he is not a leader (a statement with which a great many people would disagree) but rather “an Oglala Lakota patriot.” In arguing against the European mindset, Means argues in favor of a Lakota (or more broadly, Indian) perspective, which respects the earth and is ultimately necessary for survival. Resisting the European attitude, he states, is a prerequisite for that survival. The attitude that
Means conveys in his speech perhaps resonates even more in the twenty-first century given the growing concern about climate change and other environmental issues.18
Also in 1980, Means’s fifth child, and his first with Peggy, was born. She received the name Tatuye Topa Najinwin (Woman Who Stands Strong in the Four Winds), a name reflective of Means’s mother, who had died also that year.
Yellow Thunder Camp
A major focus of the next several years for Means was a camp in the Black Hills named Yellow Thunder Camp. Its name came from Raymond Yellow Thunder, the man whose murder in Gordon had sparked such controversy. Means lived at the camp for the next two years and called that period “the finest and most important time of my life.”19
The camp became a spiritual and educational experience, welcoming all, including non-Indians. The whole community and area became the classroom, and instruction included lessons in the Lakota language. Means and Ward Churchill developed a proposal to establish the camp as a youth camp, a proposal that local rangers supported but that Forest Supervisor James Mathers strongly opposed. Mathers further informed Means and the others at Raymond Yellow Thunder Camp that their fire permit would not be renewed and they would have to leave. They refused, and prepared for the threatened removal by the National Guard. The eviction did not materialize, but the camp leaders were subjected to a federal lawsuit, beginning a long period of legal action to retain the camp.
The first Sun Dance at the camp was held during the summer of 1982, led by Leonard Crow Dog. Meanwhile, legal action to preserve the camp continued, and Means turned to Congress for help. Representative Shirley Chisholm of New York sponsored a bill to set aside 800 acres for a spiritual youth camp, but opposition from the South Dakota congressional delegation helped prevent the bill from advancing.
A casualty of Means’s focus on Raymond Yellow Thunder Camp was his marriage. Peggy taught on Pine Ridge Reservation, and commuting to her job from the camp would entail driving some 250 miles each day. In addition to the practical difficulty of living at the camp for her, Means felt that she considered the camp a rival for his affection.20 Means would marry for a fourth time in 1984, to Gloria Grant Davis, and they would have a son, Tatanka Wanbli Sapa Xila Stibe (Black Buffalo Eagle) in February 1985.
EXPANDING THE FOCUS Running for Vice President
Russell Means steadily expanded his focus in the 1980s to develop not only a national view of the U. S. government’s treatment of their country’s native peoples, but also an international perspective on how nations had repressed
Indigenous peoples. At the same time, he expanded his political activism from AIM and other Indian organizations within the United States to national efforts that transcended, while still encompassing, Indian issues. With that transition in mind, perhaps the most bizarre effort in Means’s life possesses a logic that at first it seems to lack. That action was Means’s seeking of the vice presidency of the United States on a ticket headed by pornographer Larry Flynt.
When Flynt proposed to Means that he join in Flynt’s effort to win the Republican presidential nomination, Means already had sought political office. He had come close to winning the 1974 race for president of the Oglala Nation on Pine Ridge Reservation. He would again seek the position in 1984, only to be removed from the primary ballot on the grounds that he had been convicted of a felony.
Means received his invitation from Flynt in 1983.After seeking advice from his brother Bill and AIM associates, he accepted the offer. Means appeared to be attracted by Flynt’s belief in First Amendment rights to self-expression, by his desire to defeat President Ronald Reagan, and by his belief that true obscenity lay in actions other than sexual ones. The political alliance did not last long, as Means became disillusioned not by Flynt’s politics, but rather by his failure to put much effort into winning the nomination.
Nicaragua and the Miskito Indians
Also in the 1980s, AIM hoped to place the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty before the International Court of Justice. The group sought the support of Nicaragua in this quest, as AIM needed a member nation to sponsor its case. Nicaragua declined to do so—a decision that offended Means and perhaps influenced his decision to investigate Nicaragua’s treatment of its Miskito Indians. The Miskitos wanted autonomy within their region, and they and other Indian peoples in Nicaragua had formed a coalition called MISURASATA, led by Brooklyn Rivera, that was negotiating with the Sandinista government.
When Means announced his support for MISURASATA, some members of AIM strongly objected. AIM and the International Indian Treaty Council were supporting the Sandinistas at this point, consistent with their usual support for left-leaning organizations. Means, however, did not see himself as either liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican. When he looked closely at the Nicaraguan Indians’ relationship to the Nicaraguan government, he saw a parallel to American Indians’ problems with the U. S. government.
In October 1985, Means flew to Costa Rica to meet with MISURASATA leaders and to visit Miskito refugee camps. After returning to the United States, he appeared on the Larry King Show to discuss what he had found and then returned to Costa Rica. On this trip, Means wanted to visit Miskito villages within Nicaragua. This dangerous enterprise, although successful, required Means to survive Sandinista bombing from planes (he received a shrapnel wound in his stomach) and a nighttime race by boat to reach a Colombian island, Puerto Cabezas, and safety.
Moonies
The short-lived Larry Flynt alliance demonstrated Means’s willingness to accept allies wherever he could find them. In the spring of 1986, that willingness led him to the Unification Church (now called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification), founded by Sun Myung Moon in 1954. Its members are commonly known, after the founder, as Moonies.
Means accepted an invitation to attend a convention of the political arm of the Unification Church in 1986. At the convention, Means rubbed shoulders with conservative Republicans who supported the pro-Contra position of the church. Again what might have seemed like an unusual coming together had its basis in shared views: The Contras were rebels who were opposing, with the support of the U. S. government, the Nicaraguan Sandinistas.
The Unification Church sponsored a speaking tour for Means and invited him to a conference in Korea. Means’s friendship with the Moonies, like his opposition to the Sandinistas, elicited considerable opposition from longtime colleagues in AIM and supporters who usually championed liberal causes.
The Presidential Candidate
Means had sought important political offices, both tribal and national, but in 1986 he embarked on his most ambitious political quest yet: the presidency of the United States. Again his quest appeared unusually quixotic to many, as he ran as a Libertarian.
The impetus for his entry into the race came from Honey Lanham, who called Means after his return from Korea and raised the prospect of his running for president as a Libertarian candidate. After further conversations with Lanham and with a Libertarian from Montana, Larry Dodge, and visits to Libertarian groups in Texas, Means agreed to seek the nomination at the party’s national convention in Seattle. The attraction for Means was such Libertarian characteristics as belief in limited governmental intrusion into people’s lives, a commitment to the free market, and, as Means saw it, an unyielding loyalty to principle. According to Means, Libertarian ideology closely parallels Lakota culture.21
Means worked hard to earn delegates to the convention, visiting 46 states. He did well with state delegates but came up short at the convention, losing the nomination to Texas Congressman Ron Paul, still a favorite of Libertarians and Tea Party members well into the twenty-first century. Nonetheless, Means became the first Indian to run for president of the United States.
His failure to receive the Libertarian nomination was not Means’s only loss in 1987. The struggle to keep Yellow Thunder Camp open finally came to an end when the U. S. Supreme Court refused to take up the case, and the camp was forced to close. At that point, Means and his wife, Gloria, decided to move to Arizona and live near her Navajo people. They took up residence in the town of Chinle.
A Movie Star
One of Russell Means’s talents from his early days with AIM has been the ability to communicate eloquently and effectively. In 1991, he received an offer to communicate through, for him, a very new medium: film. Means was asked to play the role of Chingachgook, one of the “last of the Mohicans,” in the film by that title based on the James Fenimore Cooper novel. Although completely unfamiliar with film acting and initially distressed by what he considered the unrealistic language of the script, Means quickly became absorbed with the project. He became convinced that the film depicted Indians faithfully as human beings rather than as the stereotypes presented in so many Westerns. In addition, his film character represented qualities that Means seemed to see in himself: a strong enemy when necessary, but also a loyal friend and honorable individual.
Means came to enjoy acting and followed The Last of the Mohicans with many other appearances in films and television shows. His film roles include appearances in Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers (1994), Wagons East (1994), Windrunner (1995) as Jim Thorpe’s ghost, Buffalo Girls (a 1995 television movie) playing Sitting Bull, Wind River (1998) as Washakie, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998) as the voice of Pocahontas’s father, Cowboy Up (2000), Black Cloud (2004), Pathfinder (2005) as the title character, Intervention (2006), Rez Bomb (2008), The Last Horseman (2010), and The Sasquatch and the Girl (2010) as the narrator. In March 2010, Means was honored for his film accomplishments at the annual American Indian Stories N’ Motion Film Festival at Haskell Indian Nations University.
Means has made appearances on many television series, including Touched by an Angel (1996), Walker, Texas Ranger (1996), Profiler (1997), Nash Bridges (1998), Family Law (2001), and Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004). In addition, Means has participated in a number of documentaries, including narrating Paha Sapa: Struggle for the Black Hills (1993), which appeared on HBO. He also has released two recordings of protest songs that he wrote: Electric Warrior (SOAR Records, 1993) and The Radical (American Indian Music Company, 1996), the latter for a company that he founded.
Even painting is a mode of communication that Means has taken up. His first show was in Santa Monica, California, in 1998. He followed it with another show in Southampton, New York, in 2000. In 2007, he participated in an international art show in Paris.
RESISTING AND SURVIVING The Republic of Lakotah
With the dawn of a new century, Russell Means continued working on behalf of Lakotas and other Indians. As he pointed out in his speech “For America to Live, Europe Must Die,” Indian survival requires resistance. This point is especially salient given that he considers survival not merely remaining alive, but
Also retaining one’s culture, dignity, and self-worth as a people and as an individual.
That resistance led Means and some other Lakotas to withdraw from the treaties that Means had worked so hard to compel the U. S. government to enforce. In December 2007, a group of Lakotas traveled to Washington, D. C., to announce the withdrawal. They also declared their independence as a nation, establishing the Republic of Lakotah. The nation encompasses portions of Nebraska, Montana, and the Dakotas, although it is not recognized by tribal governments.
According to the Republic of Lakotah web site, the nation has a six-part strategy for its development: (1) political activism, including supporting tribal candidates who choose real freedom for their people; (1) education, especially through schools that employ total immersion in the Lakota culture; (3) improved health care; (4) use of sustainable energy; (5) continued awareness of international affairs and use of international bodies to combat U. S. genoci-dal policies; and (6) improved housing that is safe, sufficient, and energy efficient.
Means’s political activism during the new century also involved candidacies for governor of New Mexico and president of the Oglala Nation. The former effort, which began in 2001, failed when procedural issues kept him off the ballot. His effort to win the Oglala presidency in 2004 came up short, although he finished first in the primary. He then lost the run-off election to Cecelia Fire Thunder, the first woman to head the Oglala Nation.
Means responded negatively to a listening session held by members of the U. S. State Department in Albuquerque on March 16, 2010, claiming that the government was using the session, and one the following day with members of the Navajo Nation, to argue that it has listened to Indians while it maintains its same policies. Means said that the Republic of Lakotah would submit its own report to the United Nations Human Rights Council detailing continued violation of treaties. Means promised, additionally, that he would communicate to the President of the United States and the Secretary of State the Republic’s demand that the United States withdraw completely from the Republic of Lakotah.
The T. R.E. A.T. Y. Total Immersion School
A major Means goal, and an important element in furthering his plan for a successful Republic of Lakotah, has been establishing an approach to education that involves total immersion in Lakota culture. He has worked diligently with many others to establish such a school at Porcupine, South Dakota. The school, which was scheduled to admit its first students in the summer of 2010, is called the T. R.E. A.T. Y. Total Immersion School. The acronym refers to a “true revolution for the elders, ancestors, treaties, and youth.” It also refers to the many treaties with native peoples signed, and then broken, by the U. S. government over the years.
Clyde Warrior
Clyde Warrior (1939-1968), a Ponca from Oklahoma, was called by Vine Deloria one of the three great Indians whom he knew. A brilliant student at Cameron Junior College in Lawton, Oklahoma, Warrior later attended the University of Oklahoma and Northeastern State College in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, earning a degree in education. He also was deeply influenced by Ponca culture, absorbing the history and stories of the Poncas from his grandparents.
While attending a conference heavily populated with members of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) in 1961, Warrior became convinced that members of NCAI were too cautious and too influenced by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Consequently, he helped form the National Indian Youth Council, which encouraged self-determination and development of personal competence. From 1 965 until his death, Warrior and his wife, Della, offered a series of summer training institutes for high school and college students, known as the Institute for American Indian Studies.
Clyde Warrior participated in the African American civil rights movement, represented NIYC at the March on Washington, D. C., in 1963, and studied the effects of schools on Indian children. His "We Are Not Free" speech, which he gave before the National Advisory Commission on Rural Poverty in 1967, was especially influential. In this address, he argued that Indian poverty is the result of the U. S. government administering Indian lands the way a colonial power manages a colony. Freedom for Indians to decide for themselves what is good, he argued, is a requirement for their advancement. Only then can Indians develop lasting competence and self-worth.
Clyde Warrior died of a heart attack on July 1 9, 1 968, leaving behind an organization that would continue helping to empower Indians through such efforts as voter registration, job training, college preparation, and access to health care and social services.
The Total Immersion Educational Endowment Fund purchased an 85-acre ranch, including a house in which the Indian agent for Pine Ridge had lived. Means and his brothers donated an additional 160 acres. Solar panels were added to the building in 2009, consistent with Means’s determination to be as respectful as possible toward the earth. Another addition to Pine Ridge was a youth center to help cure addictions among the reservation’s young people.
The timeline for the T. R.E. A.T. Y. Total Immersion School calls for it to operate with a full attendance in years 2 to 5, and for students to begin graduating and applying what they learned in years 6 to 12. If the school is successful, it will be a lasting emblem of Russell Means’s commitment, as his name indicates, to working for the people. Vine Deloria wrote, “I am thankful that in my time I have been allowed to know three great Indians—Clyde Warrior, Hank Adams, and Russell Means. If we had a hundred like them we would now rule the world. But every race is given only a few people of this stature
In each century.”22 If Deloria got anything wrong about Means in his statement, it is his reference to ruling the world. Means’s work has been devoted to preserving freedom, not rule; to being free to live as one wishes; to practicing one’s religions, cherishing one’s culture, holding close those one cares especially about. He surely has experienced too much of the negative effects of being controlled to want to rule anyone.
World History
