Russell Means Quotes

“When a woman grabs my braids and says "How cute!" I crab her breast and say "How cute!" She never touches me again!”

— Russell Means

“If I want my people to be free, Americans have to be free.”

— Russell Means

“All European tradition, Marxism included, has conspired to defy the natural order of all things. Mother Earth has been abused, the powers have been abused, and this cannot go on forever. No theory can alter that simple fact. Mother Earth will retaliate, the whole environment will retaliate, and the abusers will be eliminated.”

— Russell Means

Young people and Indian people need to know that we existed in the 20th Century. We need to know who our heroes are and to know what we have done and accomplished in this century other than what Olympic athletes Jim Thorpe and Billy Mills have done.

— Russell Means

“'Indian policy' has now been brought down upon the American people, and the American people are the new Indians of the 21st Century.”

— Russell Means

“Let me go to Clinton's new proposal: to have uniforms in public schools. And people are doing that. How come they're doing that? Dress codes! I find that abhorrent.”

— Russell Means

“The one thing I've always maintained is that I'm an American Indian. I'm not politically correct.”

— Russell Means

“Everyone who's born in the Western Hemisphere is a Native American. We are all Native Americans.”

— Russell Means

It's just unconscionable that America has become so stupid.

— Russell Means

“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.”

— Russell Means

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

“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

“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.”

— Russell Means

“No one except Hollywood stars and very rich Texans wore Indian jewelry. And there was a plethora of dozens if not hundreds of athletic teams that in essence were insulting us, from grade schools to college. That's all changed.”

— Russell Means

So Indian policy has become institutionalized and the result has been that American people have become more dependent on government and that the American people have become more dependent on corporations.

— Russell Means

“I tell the truth, and I expose myself as a weak, misguided, misdirected, dysfunctional human being I used to be.”

— Russell Means

Hollywood hasn't changed. It is the most racist, anti-Indian institution in the world.

— Russell Means

“I'd like to talk about free markets. Information in the computer age is the last genuine free market left on earth except those free markets where indigenous people are still surviving. And that's basically becoming limited.”

— Russell Means

“I never knew I was an artist until I did 'Last of the Mohicans'.”

— Russell Means

“You see the one thing I've always maintained is that I'm an American Indian. I'm not a Native American. I'm not politically correct. Everyone who's born in the Western Hemisphere is a Native American. We are all Native Americans. And if you notice, I put American before my ethnicity. I'm not a hyphenated African-American or Irish-American or Jewish-American or Mexican-American.”

— Russell Means

We Indians do not teach that there is only one god. We know that everything has power, including the most inanimate, inconsequential things. Stones have power. A blade of grass has power. Trees and clouds and all our relatives in the insect and animal world have power. We believe we must respect that power by acknowledging it's presence. By honoring the power of the spirits in that way, it becomes our power as well. It protects us.

— Russell Means

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.

— Russell Means

[The is] a mistaken belief that [the word Indian] refers somehow to the country, India. When Columbus washed up on the beach in the Caribbean, he was not looking for a country called India. Europeans were calling that country Hindustan in 1492 ... Columbus called the tribal people he met "Indio," from the Italian in dio, meaning "in God."

— Russell Means

“Before AIM, Indians were dispirited, defeated, and culturally dissolving. People were ashamed to be Indian. You didn't see the young people wearing braids or chokers or ribbon shirts in those days. Hell, I didn't wear 'em. People didn't Sun Dance, they didn't Sweat, they were losing their languages. Then there was that spark at Alcatraz, and we took off. Man, we took a ride across this country. We put Indians and Indian rights smack dab in the middle of the public consciousness for the first time since the so-called Indian wars.”

— Russell Means

The only way you can be free is to know is that you are worthwhile as a distinct human being.

— Russell Means

“Freedom is for everyone, whatever lifestyle they choose, as long as it's peaceful and honest”

— Russell Means

“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.”

— Russell Means

If you learn from an experience, that's good - so nothing bad happened to you.

— Russell Means

“They don't understand that a slice of the pie isn't the whole pie - but they wonder why they are always hungry”

— Russell Means

“You can't talk about the environment, you can't talk about political correctness, affirmative action and all the other innumerable things that freedom is about, unless you have a free society based upon the integrity of the individual. If you have a responsible society, these other issues will not come up in a responsible society, and that is what freedom is all about.”

— Russell Means

“I do not want to be civilized. I want to be liberated.”

— Russell Means

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.

— Russell Means

“May the Great Mystery continue to guide and protect the paths of you and your loved ones.”

— Russell Means

“The United States is a fake country”

— Russell Means

“Being an Indian means living with the land. And the only way we'll be able to do that is to gain our freedom.”

— Russell Means

I've always thought it was arrogant to write about yourself, particularly when you're still alive.

— Russell Means

So I'd much rather get across the concept of freedom. It's what's important to Indian children. The only way you can be free is to know is that you are worthwhile as a distinct human being. Otherwise you become what the colonizers have designed, and that is a lemming. Get in line, punch all the right keys, and die.

— Russell Means