IMPRISONMENT

Remaining Days of Freedom

While imprisonment loomed ahead for Means, he continued to focus as much as possible on his work for AIM. In September 1976, after attending a centennial celebration of the victory over Custer at Little Bighorn and participating in a Sun Dance, during which Means was pierced in the chest on both the right

And left sides, he turned himself in to serve the 30-day sentence from the Custer, South Dakota, case.

After his release, Means worked on the planning for an International Indian Treaty Council conference to be held in Geneva, Switzerland. He attended the conference in September 1977 with his new wife, Peggy Phelps, and his daughter Sherry. Among the issues to be decided was what to call themselves. AIM supported the term that finally was accepted: Indians. Representatives from approximately 35 countries attended the conference, which focused on matters relating to land ownership and treaty provisions.

In 1978, Means participated in the Longest Walk, organized by Dennis Banks, which started at Alcatraz and ended in Washington, D. C. Its purposes included protesting new federal legislation that undermined treaty provisions and Indian sovereignty. Means joined the walk in Pennsylvania. He also publicized the Indian Health Service program that focused on sterilizing Indian women,. According to Means, this program pressured women into agreeing to sterilization by threatening them with losing their children or welfare benefits. Means used the media effectively, even appearing on Good Morning, America, Today, and CBS Morning News. Senator Abourezk succeeded in having the sterilization program temporarily stopped, but according to Means it resumed under the term “family planning.”

Behind Prison Walls

Means was ordered to report on July 27, 1978, to begin serving his sentence from the Sioux Falls trial at the South Dakota State Penitentiary. His fame preceded him, and many prisoners, especially other Indians, treated him royally, extending considerable respect and giving him gifts of magazines, cigarettes, and food. Among the prisoners there were Dicky Marshall and Vincent Bad Heart Bull, brother of Wesley Bad Heart Bull.

Means resolved to behave respectfully and politely, although he did not abandon his activism. He embarked on a spiritual fast that led to a weight loss of approximately 70 pounds. When prison officials became concerned for his life, he was sent to a Sioux Falls hospital. Circuit Judge Wayne Christensen ordered that he be force-fed if he refused to eat, and gradually Means regained his strength. He attempted to create a chapter of AIM in the prison; although the warden refused to recognize it as an official prison organization, Means led AIM meetings while incarcerated. He also participated in two meal boycotts to highlight abuses of prisoner rights.

Among those who came to visit Means were Governor Richard Kneip and Senator George McGovern. Means had been highly critical of McGovern previously, but he acknowledged that after the meeting he began to admire him. Means became a trusty after three months in the prison, which meant that he could work at jobs outside the prison and live in a trusty cottage also beyond the walls. Over the next nine months, he held jobs in Senator Abourezk’s Sioux

Falls office, with the Rapid City Indian Service Council, and with the NAACP and Legal Aid.

Not everything went smoothly for Means, however, as he suffered yet another attempt on his life while in prison. One morning as he entered the prison yard for exercise, he was attacked by a man with a homemade knife. Another Indian grabbed a garbage can lid and hit the attacker over the head with it. Vincent Bad Heart Bull pursued the attacker and hit him until guards surrounded them. Marshall called out that it was a setup, and Means’s supporters pulled back. A Sioux Falls grand jury ruled that the Indians were at fault, Bad Heart Bull was put in solitary confinement, and the man who attacked Means, a person named Schillinger, escaped punishment. Means argues in his autobiography that Schillinger was assigned to the prison at Sioux Falls to kill him.

Means received his release in August 1979, having served one year and three days of his four-year sentence.