FIGHTING THE LEGAL SYSTEM

One Trial after Another

For the next few years after the Wounded Knee trial, Russell Means faced a series of legal charges and trials, resulting from a legal system that was soundly stacked against Indians in general and against activist AIM Indians in particular. Certainly Means’s propensity for making threats rather than turning the other cheek was a contributing factor to his legal troubles. Sometimes the system eventually worked; other times it did not. In December 1974, about two months after the conclusion of the Wounded Knee trial, another legal

Entanglement came to an end for Means when charges relating to the Scotts-bluff incident were dropped.

The following March, Means and other AIM members drove to Scenic, a small town north of Pine Ridge Reservation. They stopped at the Longhorn Saloon, and Means went to the restroom. Dicky Marshall also entered, and a Lakota whom Means did not know followed them in. Means left but shortly afterward heard a gunshot: Marshall had shot and fatally wounded the other man.

The car Means was riding in, driven by Dave Clifford, was followed by police. When the vehicle got stuck in an effort to elude the police, the occupants were arrested. Means and Marshall were charged with attempted murder, a charge that would be elevated to murder later when the shooting victim, Martin Montileaux, died. Clifford was charged with felony possession of a gun and reckless driving.

Charges from the Custer confrontation also remained alive, but they were resolved when a new attorney general, Mark Meirhenry, was elected to replace Janklow, who had become governor of South Dakota. Meirhenry approved a plea bargain in which the felony charges were dropped in return for Means’s agreement to plead guilty to misdemeanor assault. Means was sentenced to 30 days in jail, with the sentence to be suspended until his other trials were concluded.

That same spring, Means was attacked in a McLaughlin, South Dakota, bar by an off-duty police officer who came at him with a beer bottle. Means defended himself with a pool cue, and the officer subsequently pressed charges against Means. Judge Nichol, who had presided at the Wounded Knee trial, dismissed the charges.

Attempts to Kill Means

As Means attempted to deal with a series of legal trials, he also faced several attempts on his life. On June 7, 1975, while at Fort Rice, North Dakota, he and some of his friends were involved in a fight with locals. Their car was soon stopped by a Bureau of Indian Affairs policeman, Pat Kelly, who was accompanied by his son. Kelly grabbed the driver, Tom Poor Bear, by his hair, and knocked him onto the pavement. Means saw the younger man pointing a rifle at him and then felt a sharp pain in his back, having been shot by the father.

Means and Poor Bear were handcuffed, taken to jail, and put in a cell while Means continued losing blood. He was finally taken to a hospital on Standing Rock Reservation and then transferred to a hospital at Bismarck. Although badly wounded by Kelly, Means was charged with interfering with an officer.

On another occasion, while Means was returning to Rosebud, a car with three off-duty policemen inside pulled alongside him. One of them shot at Means, grazing his forehead, again sending Means to an emergency room.

The next trial for Means involved his alleged interference with Officer Kelly. Kelly testified that Means had assaulted him and his son, but Judge Bruce Van Sickle declared Means not guilty.

Next up was the Sioux Falls trial. Means waived his right to a jury trial, putting his fate in the hands of Judge Richard Braithwaite rather than a group of individuals who he thought would be even less likely than the judge to be impartial.

During a giving recess in the Sioux Falls trial, Means went to Pierre, South Dakota, to face trial for another confrontation that had occurred during the Wounded Knee trial. In June, Means had stopped at Mission Golf Course in Mission, South Dakota, with other AIM members. They ordered food, testing whether the report that the private club routinely served whites but not Indians was true. The manager ordered them to leave; when they refused, he called the police. When Mission’s police chief, Tom Rhoads, arrived, he put his gun to Means’s head, but Means shoved the gun aside and hit Rhoads. After damaging the police car, the AIM members left. Ultimately, Means turned himself in and was arraigned and released on bond. The incident had led to several charges, but Judge Robert Merhige reduced them to simple assault and sentenced Means to 30 days in jail.

The Sioux Falls case would not end so easily. Braithwaite, employing a statute related to rioting to obstruct justice, found Means guilty in January 1976 and sentenced him to four years in prison. He remained free on bond, however, while he appealed the verdict.

Then came another shooting, this time on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. A confrontation developed between Means and his bodyguard, John Thomas, and two Indians named Weston and Weddell. In the scuffle, Weston shot Means in the chest, and Weddell shot Thomas under an eye. Luckily, both wounds were not as serious as they could have been.

Means’s trial for the murder of Martin Montileaux opened in July 1976. Marshall already had been convicted in a separate trial and sentenced to life in prison, and Montileaux, just before dying, had told a deputy that Means was not involved in the shooting. Nonetheless, as Means writes in his autobiography, he had become convinced that he would be found guilty and had developed a plan with two other AIM members to shoot the jury and the judge when the guilty verdict was announced. The three succeeded in smuggling guns into the courtroom, but the “not guilty” verdict surprised and delighted Means. Whether the AIM members actually would have followed through with the shooting remains conjectural.