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

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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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Indian people are relics we do not exist in the present.
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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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They don't understand that a slice of the pie isn't the whole pie - but they wonder why they are always hungry
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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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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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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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If I want my people to be free, Americans have to be free.
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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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Colonialism has completed the destruction of the American Indian in the United States - the cultural destruction.
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That's our charge as ancestors of unborn generations: to once again become free.
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It’s just unconscionable that America has become so stupid.
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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.
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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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Hollywood hasn't changed. It is the most racist, anti-Indian institution in the world.
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If you learn from an experience, that's good - so nothing bad happened to you.
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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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May the Great Mystery continue to guide and protect the paths of you and your loved ones.
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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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