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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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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
Going
Affair
Absolutely
Grew
Knew
Bureau
Age
Bureaucracy
Faith
Affairs
Young
Indian
Government
Useless

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It’s just unconscionable that America has become so stupid.
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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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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 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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That's our charge as ancestors of unborn generations: to once again become free.
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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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May the Great Mystery continue to guide and protect the paths of you and your loved ones.
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Indian people are relics we do not exist in the present.
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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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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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True to your own ancestors, therefore true to yourself.
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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.
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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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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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Hollywood hasn't changed. It is the most racist, anti-Indian institution in the world.
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Colonialism has completed the destruction of the American Indian in the United States - the cultural destruction.
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