Means, Russell (1939-2012), became a controversial leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM). AIM works for equal rights for Native Americans and improvement of their living conditions.
Loading the player...Russell Means
In 1973, Means and an AIM founder, Dennis Banks, served as the leaders and spokesmen of a group who that year seized the village of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. There, in 1890, the United States Cavalry had massacred up to 300 Sioux. Means, Banks, and other Native Americans occupied Wounded Knee partly to protest federal policies toward Native Americans and partly over a tribal leadership dispute among the Oglala Lakota Sioux. The occupiers demanded a Senate investigation of the government’s treatment of Native Americans and the return of lands taken from them in violation of treaties between the United States government and various tribes. The occupation lasted 71 days and included several gunfights between the occupiers and federal authorities. It resulted in the deaths of 2 Native American occupiers and the arrest of more than 300 others. Means and Banks were tried on 10 felony charges apiece for their role in the protest, including conspiracy, theft, and assault on federal officers. However, a federal judge dismissed the charges against them both because government prosecutors mishandled the case.
Russell Charles Means was born on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota on Nov. 10, 1939. He was Oglala Lakota and Yankton Sioux. Before he became involved with AIM, Means held a number of jobs, including accountant, ballroom dance instructor, and rodeo rider. Means portrayed Native American characters in such motion pictures as The Last of the Mohicans (1992) and Natural Born Killers (1994). He died on Oct. 22, 2012.
