Native activist led Wounded Knee siege
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Russell Means, a former American Indian Movement activist who helped lead a 1973 uprising against the U.S. government and appeared in several Hollywood films, has died. He was 72.
Means died early Monday at his ranch in South Dakota, an Oglala Sioux Tribe spokeswoman, Donna Salomon, said.
Means announced in August 2011 that he had developed inoperable throat cancer. He told the Associated Press he was forgoing mainstream medical treatments in favour of traditional American Indian remedies and alternative treatments away from his home on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Means led AIM’s armed occupation of the South Dakota town of Wounded Knee, a 71-day siege that included several gun battles with federal officers. AIM was founded in the late 1960s to protest against the U.S. government’s treatment of Native Americans and demand the government honour its treaties with Indian tribes.
Means denied the group ever promoted violence.
“You people who want to continue to put AIM in this certain pocket of illegality, I can’t stand you people,” Means said during an April gathering commemorating the uprising’s anniversary. “I wish I was a little bit healthier and a little bit younger, because I wouldn’t just talk.”
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. “That’s all changed.”
Means was also known for his role in the movie The Last of the Mohicans.
Means’s death came a day after former U.S. Sen. George McGovern died in South Dakota at the age of 90. McGovern had travelled to Wounded Knee with U.S. Sen. James Abourezk during the 71-day siege to try to negotiate an end.
“I’ve lost two good friends in a matter of two to three days,” Abourezk said Monday. “I don’t pretend to understand it.”