Quote

Being is a spiritual proposition. Gaining is a material act. Traditionally, American Indians have always attempted to be the best people they could. Part of that spiritual process was and is to give away wealth, to discard wealth in order not to gain.

Russell Means

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Russell Means
Age: 72 †
Born: 1939
Born: November 10
Died: 2012
Died: October 22
Activist
Actor
Autobiographer
Film Actor
Musician
Peace Activist
Politician
Television Actor
Voice Actor
Pine Ridge Reservation
Give
Materials
Gaining
Best
Wealth
Proposition
Giving
American
Indians
Always
Spiritual
Propositions
People
Process
Indian
Away
Gain
Discard
Order
Gains
Traditionally
Part
Material
Attempted

More quotes by Russell Means

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That's our charge as ancestors of unborn generations: to once again become free.
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Indian people are relics we do not exist in the present.
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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.
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When a woman grabs my braids and says How cute! I crab her breast and say How cute! She never touches me again!
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It’s just unconscionable that America has become so stupid.
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Indians in America are yet to be considered human beings, even though the Pope issued a papal bull in 1898 that declared us to be human beings. But to show you the institutional racism, the sports teams are still using the Indians as mascots.
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It takes a strong effort on the part of each American Indian not to become Europeanized. The strength for this effort can only come from the traditional ways, the traditional values that our elders retain.
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I've always thought it was arrogant to write about yourself, particularly when you're still alive.
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Hollywood hasn't changed. It is the most racist, anti-Indian institution in the world.
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Imagine going to the holy land in Israel, whether you're a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim, and start carving up the mountain of Zion. It's an insult to our entire being. It's bad enough getting four white faces carved in up there [on Mount Rushmore], the shrine of hypocrisy.
Russell Means
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In the government schools, which are referred to as public schools, Indian policy has been instituted there, and its a policy where they do not encourage, in fact, discourage, critical thinking and the creation of ideas and public education.
Russell Means
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I knew at that young age that going to the Bureau of Indian Affairs was useless, absolutely useless. I grew up having no faith in the bureaucracy of government.
Russell Means
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I’m a human being, I’m not anyone’s mascot! And I am America’s conscience. And that’s what they don’t want to look at. They would rather look at a cartoon character than at the deceit of this country and this government.
Russell Means
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True to your own ancestors, therefore true to yourself.
Russell Means
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'Indian policy' has now been brought down upon the American people, and the American people are the new Indians of the 21st Century.
Russell Means
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If I want my people to be free, Americans have to be free.
Russell Means
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Children in poverty aren't trying to get out of poverty they're just trying to rip off a pair of Nikes. So we Indian people are a microcosm of what's happening in America. We are now consumers, and our culture has gone.
Russell Means
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Even though the American Indian Movement on a national-international scale has proven to be extremely dysfunctional, the American Indian Movement I was associated with I'm very proud of. We were a revolutionary, militant organization whose purpose was spirituality first, and that's how I want to be remembered.
Russell Means
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So I'd much rather get across the concept of freedom. It's what's important to Indian children. The only way you can be free is to know is that you are worthwhile as a distinct human being. Otherwise you become what the colonizers have designed, and that is a lemming. Get in line, punch all the right keys, and die.
Russell Means
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I find freedom to be the most important issue facing any human being today, because without freedom, then life is pointless. The more dependent you become on centralized power, the more easily you are lead around.
Russell Means