"From the time he burst onto the national scene during the 1973 standoff at Wounded Knee, Russell Means has been one of the most prominent and polarizing figures Indian County has seen.

A leading figure in the American Indian Movement, Means is as well known for his civil rights actions as he is for his movies role, a fact that sits wells with many and not so well with others.

A charismatic figure, Means is often portrayed as a crusader for indigenous people and an unabashed self-promoter, often in the same breath by the same person. The truth is that the man is complex. He's had numerous run-ins with the law over crimes on a wide variety of charges, some very small (he was arrested during his last attempt at winning Oglala Sioux Tribal chief for missing a federal court date for a series of minor traffic tickets issued in Badlands National Park, others more serious, including a series of battery charges that include one where he tried to make a citizen's arrest on a Bureau of Indian Affairs official, and others somewhere in between, such as recent state charges that he was fishing in the Black Hills without a license.

Still, he remains the rock star of aboriginal rights in a country where the battle for treaty rights and recognition as a sovereign nation continue to be key issues for a economically depressed and fractured group of people."

Get the Story:
The Fives: A short course on Russell Means in the public eye (The Rapid City Journal 10/15)
Means and Two Bulls to meet in Oglala president race (The Rapid City Journal 10/15)

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