Russell Means.

• Author: Roberts, Chris
• Position: American Indian Movement activist - Interview

THE PROGRESSIVE INTERVIEW

As I enter the reservation, a wooden sign reads, "Land of the Oglala Sioux and Chiefs Red Cloud, Black Elk, and Crazy Horse." The hand-painted lettering is all the more striking in comparison to the official government signs along the road that are riddled with bullet holes--each one progressively worse as I reach the outskirts of Porcupine, South Dakota. I realize now why Russell Means, the American Indian Movement (AIM) activist, insisted I experience the reservation firsthand. I pull off the main road and drive a half-mile over a winding dirt road to his ranch house.

The house dates back to 1917 and was the private residence of the first Indian agent assigned to Porcupine. Means finds this to be particularly ironic, as the building will be used to house his Total Immersion School to educate youngsters in the traditional Sioux manner. The house sits on eighty-five acres and includes a horse-breeding facility. The horses will be trained for hunting and jumping, and they will further integrate the children into the ways of Plains culture that have been lost over the years of assimilation.

I'm greeted at the door by Pearl Means, Russell's third wife. She is warm and friendly. Russell enters the room. He is more than six feet tall and wears his long, black hair in the traditional braid ties. He moves around the room with a frenetic energy. I can see why he was a fancy dance champion in his youth.

Means helped change the way American Indians are treated in this country. He became a leader of AIM shortly after the organization came together in 1968. He was involved in the 1972 action that damaged the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington, D.C. But it was the 1973 siege and occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, that made him nationally known. Over the course of seventy-one days, a greatly outnumbered group of American Indians held the U.S. government at bay, as America watched. In the center of the whirlwind stood Means: proud, defiant, and willing to die for his rights.

Means took his experience with direct action to other Indian communities throughout the country during the 1980s. In 1991, he started an acting career, which has allowed him to press the cause for Indian rights before a larger audience. An inspirational speaker, he is in demand on the college circuit.

At sixty, he shows no signs of slowing up. His all-consuming passion now is the total immersion program he has begun to implement at Pine Ridge. It will consist of a school through the third grade that will focus on Lakota Sioux culture. Means is also working on a total immersion community that will be based on a traditional Native way of life. His passion for these projects was palpable.

Q: What lasting effect did the occupation of Wounded Knee have on the Indian community at Pine Ridge?

Russell Means: It gave birth to self-dignity and self-pride and the idea that we can self-determine on our own merits. In 1973, the full-blood Indians...