"Russell Means helped lead the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee, S.D., where a few hundred American Indians declared independence and held off federal forces for 10 weeks, riveting the nation.

Mr. Means, an Oglala Sioux who died Monday at age 72, was the most visible and confrontational activist in the American Indian Movement organization during the 1970s. He once helped occupy the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C., and scaled Mount Rushmore to desecrate the stone monument of George Washington. Underlying his actions, he said, was a conviction that the U.S. had failed to honor its treaties with Indians and had saddled them with corrupt governments.

Later in life, having renounced violence, Mr. Means found a career as an actor. He starred in "The Last of the Mohicans" film in 1992 and "Pocahontas," the 1995 Disney animated production in which he voiced the princess's father, Powhatan.

An imposing big man who wore long braids, earrings and traditional Indian garb, Mr. Means looked every inch the Sioux warrior and talked of insurrection in an era when revolution was in the air."

Get the Story:
Indian Activist Defied Federal Power (The Wall Street Journal 10/23)

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