Paul DeMain, publisher of Indian Country Today, said there were plenty of activists before AIM but that the group became the "radical media gorilla." The movement eventually faded away, the result of Native Americans becoming self-aware and self-determined, Means said. "And there was a plethora of dozens if not hundreds of athletic teams that in essence were insulting us, from grade schools to college. "No one except Hollywood stars and very rich Texans wore Indian jewelry," Means said. Means told the AP in 2011 that before AIM, there had been no advocate on a national or international scale for aboriginal Americans, and that they were ashamed of their heritage. government's treatment of Native Americans and demand the government honour its treaties with tribes. But Means was also known for his role in the movie The Last of the Mohicans and had run unsuccessfully for the Libertarian nomination for president in 1988.ĪIM was founded in the late 1960s to protest the U.S.
He was often embroiled in controversy, partly because of AIM's alleged involvement in the 1975 slaying of Annie Mae Aquash. Means was an early leader of AIM and led its armed occupation of the South Dakota town of Wounded Knee, a 71-day siege that included several gunbattles with federal officers. He told The Associated Press he was forgoing mainstream medical treatments in favor of traditional native remedies and alternative treatments away from his home on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Means, a Wanblee native who grew up in the San Francisco area, announced in August 2011 that he had developed inoperable throat cancer. Means died early Monday at his ranch in in Porcupine, S.D., Oglala Sioux Tribe spokeswoman Donna Solomon said. Russell Means, a former American Indian Movement activist who helped lead the 1973 uprising at Wounded Knee, reveled in stirring up attention and appeared in several Hollywood films, has died.
0 kommentar(er)
