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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.

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
American
Retain
Values
Elders
Strong
Indian
Become
Traditional
Part
Strength
Come
Takes
Way
Ways
Effort

More quotes by Russell Means

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Hollywood hasn't changed. It is the most racist, anti-Indian institution in the world.
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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.
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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.
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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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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.
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Indian people are relics we do not exist in the present.
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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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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.
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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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'Indian policy' has now been brought down upon the American people, and the American people are the new Indians of the 21st Century.
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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.
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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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True to your own ancestors, therefore true to yourself.
Russell Means
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If you learn from an experience, that's good - so nothing bad happened to you.
Russell Means
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If I want my people to be free, Americans have to be free.
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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.
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Colonialism has completed the destruction of the American Indian in the United States - the cultural destruction.
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I had often wondered how to best decolonize my people... It must be done one human being at a time. Without that kind of help, Western society does not allow people to come to terms with their feelings. With honesty and therapy, my people can be made whole again.
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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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