"Americans are the new Indians" -- Russell Means

Russell Means (1939-2012) was an Oglala Sioux activist for the rights of Native American people, and also a libertarian political activist, actor, writer and musician. He appeared on numerous TV series and in several films, including “The Last of the Mohicans”, where he plays the legendary Chingachgook, the father of Uncas and the adoptive father of Hawkeye. He also released his own music CD and he published his autobiography in 1995.

Means was a cultural, political, artistic and visionary American Indian leader, and he came to be described as “the most famous American Indian of the 20th century.”

He was active in politics at the state and national level, and at his native Pine Ridge Indian Reservation – which, as he stated, still to this day bears the legal status of P.O.W. Camp under U.S. federal regulations. He spearheaded the effort to institute an autonomous territory of Lakotah spanning a part of the Northern Continental United States. He became a prominent member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and helped attract national and international media coverage of the efforts and causes of the organization. In this, he became prominent during the 1973 Wounded Knee dispute with the U.S. Government.

Means was also active in international issues of indigenous peoples, including working with groups in Central and South America and with the United Nations for recognition of their rights.

In a televised speech to the 2000 Libertarian Party National Convention, Means said that he prefers the label "Indian" to the more politically-correct "Native American". "Everyone who is born in America is a native American", he said.

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