Russell Means Memorial: Russell's spirit lives on






Photo capture from livestream Little Wound School
http://www.littlewound.us/mustang_video/liveStream.html

Remembering Russell, Warrior for the People

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Photos livestream screen captures by Censored News

 

KYLE, S.D. -- Russell Means, warrior for the people, was honored Wednesday night on Pine Ridge by his family, leaders of the American Indian Movement, friends and spiritual leaders at Little Wound School in Kyle, S.D. Horseback riders arrived with the ashes of Russell, who passed to the Spirit World with the Morning Star on Monday.

 

Russell's brother  Bill Means said, "He will be replaced by thousands. One person is not going to replace him, but through his work, through his family, he will be replaced 1,000 times over."

Chief Leonard Crow Dog, Lakota medicine man who participated in the Occupation of Wounded Knee, said Means was first and foremost a spiritual leader, but the times called for a warrior, and like Crazy Horse, that is what he transformed into. Read Rapid City Journal’s coverage here:

http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/means-legacy-leaves-lasting-impression/article_fe70261c-b672-5736-865c-2944cd7df0b7.html

From the livestream, viewers around the world watched as Russell was remembered.

Speaking on the birth of the American Indian Movement, Clyde Bellecourt described how he read Black Elk Speaks over and over in prison. Clyde said he began dreaming of those images and this gave birth to the American Indian Movement while he was in prison.

Bellecourt said Russell's spirit is alive and he could see it in the spirit of the young people present, and in Russell’s children.

“The Movement is inside of you, inside of each one of you, burning in your heart," Clyde said.

Speakers remembered Russell from the Trail of Broken Treaties and the Occupation of Wounded Knee. Lakotas shared how Chief Frank Fools Crow had designated Russell as a spiritual leader.

During the memorial, Dennis Banks spoke of the legacy of Russell Means and said he was with Russell when he passed. Banks said he brought Anishinabe wild rice to share during the dinner.

Larry Anderson, Dine’ from Fort Defiance, Ariz., said Means taught the children about the traditional way of life and how to be a leader.

“I met Russell Means during the Wounded Knee takeover, just down the road.” Anderson said he was one of five Navajos present during the takeover of Wounded Knee.

Anderson said after he received his education, he heard about Wounded Knee.

“I told my brother who was going to school with me, that’s where I belong. I want to be in Wounded Knee.”

“It is a great honor to be here this evening with my nephews and nieces and grandchildren of Russell Means. He was a great man. He was a great leader.”

Anderson said he was sorry that he was unable to be here after Ted Means passed. Anderson said they drove 15 hours, from the Navajo Nation, for Russell's memorial. “It was a wonderful feeling to see old faces, and new faces.” Anderson said he is now a teacher. “It is fun working with children."

“Russell Means has given us many ways of protecting our culture, our traditions and our people.”

“We will always be allies,” Anderson said, speaking of the commitments made through the Sundance and other ceremonies, to protect “our women and our way of life.”

Anderson then spoke to Russell Means in the Dine’ language, beginning with a greeting and gratitude.

During the evening presentations, Madonna Thunder Hawk described the takeover of Wounded Knee and the firefights. “We were in the medic building, listening to it on the walkie talkie.” She said there was a call for medics as one firefight was going on, as one person had been hit. They tried to negotiate a cease fire, but it wasn’t possible. As she was rushing up the hill, she looked and saw one man running behind the medics with a stretcher, and it was Larry Anderson.

At the memorial, Cheyenne Arapahoe arrived from Oklahoma and spoke of Russell Means and how he gave them strength to maintain their language and culture, in times of the southern battle against rednecks and racism.

“It is really hard to be an Indian, especially a woman,” said a Cheyenne Araphoe women offering a tribute to Russell.

“But when we get together, we stand strong.” She brought photos and video from Russell in Central America to share with the family.

“Russell Means never left his people behind,” said one of the Lakota elders. The elder described how the rain had washed away Russell's footprints and what this means. He also said that Russell created the Yellow Thunder Camp in the Black Hills and upheld the Lakota Treaty, he said.

“All of the treaty lands are still ours, he did that.”
 

The sound of the drum and the AIM song honored Russell Means who was a backbone of the Indian rights movement, and became a symbol of resistance to colonization, repression and injustice.
Please send additional info, and copies of statements, to be added to this article to brendanorrell@gmail.com





Terrance Nelson: Canada and US 'War on Children'

Returning from Iran, Terrance Nelson, former chief of Roseau River Ojibwe, speaks out on the human rights violations of Canada and the US

 

The Crusader

By Terrance Nelson

Censored News

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

October 24th 2012

First of all, thank you so much for your help. The impact of Iranian people and especially Press T.V. helping to show the world the human rights violations in Canada is huge. Despite what they say in the western press, they cannot deny their own sins. They continue to talk about Iran as the "bad guy" but they cannot isolate Iran. They have the Crusader mentality, the belief that there is only one chosen people. According to the Crusader mentality, they have the right to impose their values upon other people. In their minds, God has chosen them to convert all other people to their belief. The Crusader will fail again. Never forget, there are good people in North America also, we are not all Crusaders.

The Mennonite Central Committee is a Christian organization that is non political and was working in Iraq for many years including during the economic sanctions. When we accepted an invitation from the Saddam Hussein Government to visit Iraq in April 1998, it was the MCC that helped us. The MCC are Christians and although I am not a Christian, these people have my deepest respect. The United Nations released a study in December 1995 stating that 567,000 Iraqi children had died in the first five years of economic sanctions. When we were getting ready to go to Iraq with a television camera crew, some of the MCC people were so frustrated by the sanctions that they almost became political. They saw first hand the price that the children in Iraq were paying for the imposition of sanctions. No medicines in some circumstances, cancers being treated with half doses because there was restrictions. Seven of us went in and we documented the suffering..

Iraq was bombed with depleted uranium. I interviewed the Iraqi Minister of Health. He talked of the four fold increase in cancer. I thought, if only the people in the west saw the children in Iraq suffering without medicines that the economic sanctions would be condemned. We were labelled as "dupes" of Saddam by the Jewish media. The children were not children in the minds of the west. The Iraqi had been dehumanized, they were not considered the same as western children. To me, the killing of over half a million children had to mean the west hated Iraqi children. I could not understand how people could dismiss the suffering of children. We put together a seven minute video called A War On Children.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szioDzHfYkQ.

If the west can kill half a million Iraqi children without any regrets, how many Iranian people are they willing to kill. I ask Canadians, Americans, and the British point blank, how far are you willing to go in the war against Iran. Are you willing to kill a 100,000, 300,000, 500,000, a million, three million, ten million Iranians? Israel says that they will bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities. Does that bombing once again use depleted uranium and what happens to the radiation contamination released from the nuclear sites? Who gets poisoned this time? Where do the nuclear clouds drift to?

The road to war starts with dehumanization of people. They must become non human in order to allow us kill them without regret. The west must demonize the Iranian people in order to kill them. When you view the video, a War on Children, how is it possible to dismiss the children as non humans? Steven Harper is a Crusader. The Crusaders were people who were so egotistical that they believed that God chose only them, that the only values that matter was theirs. We killed them in Vietnam, in Korea, in Iraq, in Afghanistan and we will kill them in Iran. We believe that we have the right to kill other people in their own lands? Do we really have the right to impose solutions and values on other people. I saw in Iraq the children who made no war on anyone, they committed no sin against other people but they paid the price for being Iraqi. In Iran, who will pay the price for the mentality of the Crusader?

In one of my presentations to Iranian University students I told them about Manitoba, the province in Canada where I live. In Manitoba, the government licenses tobacco and makes money on taxing all cigarette products even though they know that tobacco causes cancer, the province still licenses it. The government also licenses alcohol and taxes it heavily, the government also controls all gambling. In order to make more money, they have to attract customers into the beer parlour where they sell them alcohol and let them gamble. To get them in, they license nude dancing. Women will dance totally naked for all to see. Sometimes on women's nights, men will dance nude for the women. What if other people in world told us that we should not live like this, that our morals were wrong, how would we react to some other people's values being imposed upon us. So, what makes us superior to the Iranians, how do we impose our values on the Iranians. By what right to we believe that we can go into Iran and tell the Iranian women that we are there to rescue them, to give them freedom.

In Iran, they tell me that 70% of the students at University are women and the literacy rate has climbed dramatically since the Revolution in 1979. Is it the responsibility and the right of the west to go into Iran and impose our values upon the Iranian people. Is our version of freedom for women to be imposed upon the Iranian women. In Tehran, I saw police with no guns. There is no alcohol allowed in public places, drug dealers are harshly dealth with, rape is punished by death. Is it our values, no, but the question is what gives us the right to impose our view of human rights upon the Iranians? As Iranian women increasingly become the doctors, the scientists, the PHDs, they will shape the future. Is Iran perfect, of course not, is there room for improvement, of course, what society is perfect? I traveled to Iran, I saw first hand the beauty of the people and as such, I will not support another war, I will not condone the deaths of Iranians, I will not support the Crusader and I condemn the economic sanctions against Iran as Genocide. It is the same Genocide that was imposed upon the Iraqi.

No American pilot was ever charged with the use of depleted uranium bombs. It has never been even considered a crime to use depleted uranium in bombing populated cities. If Press T.V. shows the world our video, A War on Children, maybe depeleted uranium shell casings can be outlawed, banned from use in future wars. Our video is harsh but we chose to delete even harsher, more horrible images of the children's suffering. There were scenes that cannot be shown in public, the suffering of the children was too tragic to show in the video, we had to delete some of those images. What you see in our video is tame compared to what we saw in the wards of the most acute suffering children. I for one have abandoned any support for the Crusader, the ones who think they have a right to kill people in their own lands.

Once again thank you for your help in exposing the human rights violations in Canada, the violations against the indigenous people of Canada.

On losing a compass, Russell Means

Russell Means perceptions and wit were a compass, and his words were rich fuel

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Looking back through Russell Means statements, I've found a favorite. Means describes the dogs, ponies and smokescreen of the US 'Listening Conferences' on human rights, which terminated in the usual, watered-down babble of the US to the UN. (Read here.)

Reading back through the e-mails, I was happy to see that when Bolivian President Evo Morales took the lead in global climate talks, the defense of Mother Earth, and the Rights of Nature, Russell said, "This is what the tribal councils should be doing."

Unfortunately, this week, the elected leaders at National Congress of American Indians are doing the exact opposite in Sacramento, Calif, as they push for more drilling, mining and destruction of the natural world, and the promotion of US colonization and US militarization, according to their agenda www.ncai.org

During 30 years of interviewing Russell, he became a friend. It is a sad loss to all of us who knew him, and to the global community who depended on his compass, his profound perceptions, and his courage to say what others were too fearful to say.

In closing, here are words of Russell Means, speaking on some of the most censored issues in Indian country.

While I was a staff reporter for Indian Country Today, after its purchase in the late 1990s, the censored issues included the American Indian Movement, Russell Means, and uranium mining on Pine Ridge. This censorship led to the publication of the current Censored News.

Means said, "In 1975, with his control of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota secured by force, Tribal President Wilson set about ceding uranium-rich areas of the sacred Black Hills to the federal government. AIM assisted in protecting Pine Ridge’s traditional families from the constant
onslaught of violence, which culminated in the AIM occupation and government siege of Wounded Knee in the Spring of 1973."
"From 1973 to 1976, the people of Pine Ridge lived under the 'Reign of Terror'—more than 76 Natives, mainly traditional Lakotah and AIM members, were murdered, primarily by Wilson’s goons, a term coined by the elderly women who protested against them. Later, in a perverse play on words, the goons called themselves, 'Guardians of the Oglala Nation' (GOONs)."

Read more at Censored News www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
 

Russell Means: Solidarity with Palestinians

 

"Every policy now the Palestinians are enduring was practiced on the American Indian."

Russell Means

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/10/russell-means-solidarity-with.html

The tribal flag at the Oglala Lakota Nation office is flying at half mast today, Tuesday, in honor of Russell Means, whose lifetime of resistance has inspired a generation of Indigenous rights warriors.

The life of Russell Means, a warrior for the people, will be celebrated on Wednesday, Oct. 24, in Kyle, South Dakota. Means' piercing words and clarity of style on American Indian rights, placed him at the forefront of the struggle of the American Indian Movement that spans four decades.

Means passed to the Spirit World on Monday with the Morning Star at 4:44 am, at home in Porcupine, South Dakota, on Pine Ridge, surrounded by his wife Pearl, family and friends.

From tackling the BIA superintendent on the Navajo Nation during a citizen’s arrest, to leading the Columbus Day protests in Denver, to demanding that the Lewis and Clark Expedition leave South Dakota, to the formation of the Lakotah Republic in his homeland, Means was a symbol of the bold fearlessness of the American Indian Movement.

Whether he was facing off with BIA officials in Washington, or confronting them on the Stronghold in the Badlands where Lakotas fled after the Massacre of Wounded Knee, Means symbolized the AIM stance of never backing down.

Means fight for human rights extended beyond the Occupation of Wounded Knee and the US borders, to solidarity with Palestine. Although Means was hospitalized with cancer and unable to speak at the recent Russell Tribunal on Palestine in New York, his stance was clear. Means said what is happening now to Palestinians is what happened to American Indians. "Every policy now the Palestinians are enduring was practiced on the American Indian," Means said in an interview.

"What the American Indian Movement says is that the American Indians are the Palestinians of the United States, and the Palestinians are the American Indians of Europe.”

When Bolivian President Evo Morales took the lead in global climate talks, the defense of Mother Earth, and upholding the Rights of Nature, Means said, "This is what tribal councils should be doing."

During his lifetime of fighting for justice, Means demanded that the US honor treaties and return stolen lands. He said the only people who get ahead are those who sell out to the colonial system. He said the United States does not want to be reminded of the smallpox blankets, theft, colonialism and mistreatment of the American Indian. Further, he said most Americans do not realize that the financial collapse of this country is only beginning. Americans cannot continue the lifestyles of consumers when there is no money.

Means said Indian lands have become open air concentration camps. "If you chose to stay on the reservation, you are guaranteed to be poor, unless you are part of the colonial apparatus set up by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, set up the United States," he said.

On Indian lands, everyone fights to be part of the tribal governments because that is where the money is. Everyone fights to be part of the colonial system. "The only way you can be part of the colonial system is to obey."

"Our grandmother the Mother Earth is tired of the human race."

Leonard Peltier released this statement:

I wish I was there to talk with you in person and share with you the sorrow that I feel with the passing of Russell Means, my brother, my friend, and inspiration on many levels. Russell Means will always be an icon whenever the American Indian Movement is spoken of and whenever people talk about the changes that took place, the changes that are taking place now for Indian people.

One thing about Russell I always remembered, and I think someone else once said it, you may have loved him, or you may have disliked him, but you couldn't ignore him. I'll always remember when an elder said one time, I was at a ceremony and I asked what this half shaped moon circle on the ground meant, and he said it was a symbol of the circle of life, the never ending of the circle of life, and I said there is only half a circle, and he said the other half was unseen, it is the spirit world. For Indian people it never ends, we don't have a linear existence, so I know I will see Russell again, and I take comfort in that thought. For men like Russell Means don't come along in a lifetime very often. He was truly an inspiration for all of us younger guys at the time. He had good words to say, he was eloquent when he spoke them, and he spoke English as clearly and precisely and as articulate as any one I have ever heard speak. And he knew what he was talking about. And I know all of you out there, as well as myself, will always remember our friend, our brother and fellow activist, and how he stood with us to recapture the freedoms we've lost, and protect the ones that we still have, and bring about a better future for our people, and all people of this Mother Earth, who's nature is in peril.

I really don't know what else to say about our brother Russell, other than to Russell himself, "We'll see you again my brother Russell, in some other time and in some other place, we will always be your friend, and we will always look forward to seeing your face. Mitakuye Oyasin."

In the spirit of Crazy Horse, and Russell Means.

I'll close for now. Leonard Peltier

The family of Russell Means invited others to celebrate his life:

The family of Russell Means invites you to join us in “Honoring the Life of Russell Means." The honoring will highlight his life, leadership and the eternal fire that he re-ignited throughout Indian Country.
October 24, 2012, begins at 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. MST, at Little Wound High School Gymnasium in Kyle, South Dakota USA, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Russell Means, a self-described “Oglala Lakota Patriot and Freedom Fighter," began his journey to the spirit world at 4:44 am, with the Morning Star, at his home and ranch in Porcupine.
This Honoring will be the first of four opportunities for the people to honor his life. The next three Honorings are tentatively scheduled as follows: 2nd Honoring at Wounded Knee’73 Occupation Memorial (Feb 2013); 3rd Honoring at Wind Cave State Park, SD (June 2013); 4th Honoring on Russell’s birthday (Nov 10, 2013) at location to be determined.
There will be a designated media area at the Honoring on Wednesday at Little Wound School. Press credentials required.

Contributions of star quilts, blankets and food to feed the people will be appreciated, and may be brought on Wednesday, October 22, directly to Little Wound High School, Kyle, South Dakota.

Financial contributions to advance the visionary work of Russell Means can be sent to:

TREATY Total Immersion Educational Endowment Fund

Administrative Office

P.O. Box 110

San José, NM 87565
Paypal contributions can be made at: www.treatyschool.org

Russell Means at his best, writing about the dogs, ponies and smokescreen of the US 'listening conferences'

Statement by Russell Means, Republic of Lakotah

on the Occasion of the United States State Department “Listening Session” in Albuquerque, New Mexico, 16 March 2010

Once again, the occupation government of the United States of America has trotted out its dogs and ponies to provide a smokescreen and diversion from its continuing crimes against the indigenous peoples and nations of the Western Hemisphere. The reason for today’s media spectacle is supposedly for the US State Department to “listen” to input from indigenous peoples and nations for inclusion in the U.S.’s report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, universal periodic review process.

As we can see, many indigenous people have been duped to participate, yet again, in a lying and duplicitous process of the United States. The United States has absolutely no interest or intention of admitting to the world its human rights record that is neither justifiable nor defensible. In particular, the record of the United States with regard to historical, and ongoing, violations of over 370 treaties that were negotiated and signed with indigenous nations must be, but will not be, addressed by the United States. Instead, as is its ongoing practice, the United States will use this session, and the one tomorrow on the territory of the Diné (Navajo) Nation, as its justification that indigenous peoples were “consulted,” and “listened to,” while the U.S. simultaneously lies to the world about its disgraceful human rights record.
The Republic of Lakotah will not legitimize this embarrassing process. Instead, we will submit our report directly to the UN Human Rights Council, not to be filtered or sanitized by the State Department. Let us be clear, our report will be scathing. The United States continues, on a daily basis to violate the terms of the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie Treaties with the Lakotah. Our report will indicate that the United States never intended to abide by the terms of the treaties, and has violated them consistently from the time of their signing to the present.
Our report will also cite the United States’ own language in acknowledging that “the treaties retain their full force and effect even today because they are the legal equivalent of treaties with foreign governmentsand have the force of federal law.” Periodic Report of the United States of America to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, April 23, 2007, paragraph 335. In light of the United States’ own admissions, in addition to reporting to the Human Rights Council on the egregious human rights record of the US towards indigenous peoples, the Republic of Lakotah will report to the Council and to the world, the exercise of its own rights under principles of international law. The United States has continually breached the treaties with the Lakotah, and international law allows the Lakotah to return to our status quo ante position prior to the signing of the treaties.
On March 30, 2010, the Republic of Lakotah will repeat its position to the United States, and will transmit its communication to the President of the United States and to the Secretary of State, demanding that the United States cease and desist it activities in Lakotah territory, and insisting that the United States withdraw its presence from our homeland.