American Indian Movement activist turned actor Russell Means died early today of cancer at his ranch on the Pine Ridge Reservation near Porcupine. He was 62.
Means, a Wanblee native who grew up in the San Francisco area, announced last August that he had inoperable throat cancer and was abandoning mainstream medical treatments in favor of traditional American Indian remedies and alternative treatments.
Means helped lead AIM’s 1973 armed occupation of Wounded Knee, a 71-day siege that included several gunbattles with federal officers and 3 deaths…an FBI agent and 2 protesters.
Means told the AP in 2011 that before AIM, there had been no advocate on a national or international scale for American Indians…who were ashamed of their heritage…but that all of that had changed now.
He also said that AIM faded away as more and more Native Americans became self-aware and self-determined.
In the 1980s, Means got involved in politics. In 1984, he agreed to be Larry Flynt’s vice president in the Hustler magazine publisher’s quixotic bid to grab the Republic presidential nomination from incumbent Ronald Reagan.
Four years later, he made his own unsuccessful bid for the Libertarian nomination for president.
Means also entered Oglala Sioux tribal politics, winning the tribal presidential primaries in both 2002 and 2004 but losing in the general election both times.
In 2002, he was defeated by John Yellow Bird Steele…who became just the second OST president to win back-to-back terms…and fell in 2004 to Cecilia Fire Thunder…the first female president of the OST.
Means was probably best-known in the final 2 decades of his life as an actor…starting in 1992 with his portrayal of Chingachgook alongside Daniel Day-Lewis’ Hawkeye in “The Last of the Mohicans.”
Among his other work was the 1994 film “Natural Born Killers,” the voice of Chief Powhatan in Disney’s 1995 animated “Pocahontas” and TV shows that included Curb Your Enthusiasm, Walker-Texas Ranger, and Nash Bridges.
Means also became an author with his 1995 autobiography, “Where White Men Fear to Tread.” He said he tried to pull no punches in it, talking about his failures as well as his victories.
Means said that in the book “I tell the truth, and I expose myself as a weak, misguided, misdirected, dysfunctional human being I used to be.”
Openly critical of mainstream media, Means often refused interviews and verbally blasted journalists who showed up to cover his public appearances. In his later years, he communicated mostly through YouTube videos and blog posts on his personal website.
Russell Means was married 5 times and is survived by his wife of 13 years, Pearl Daniels. He had 9 children and, in Lakota tradition, adopted many others. Means had cut off his iconic braids last year in what he called at the time a traditional Lakota gesture of mourning for his people.
