Ah, another notable passing
in South Dakota. Russell Means, American Indian activist and actor, died
Monday of esophageal cancer. He was 72.
Means made news leading the American Indian Movement
in the 1970s. His methods included flamboyance and violence at times. One of
the most memorable protests was the 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee, S.D.,
the site of the massacre of 350 Lakota men, women and children by US
soldiers.
But if you’re not politically inclined, you’re most
likely to remember Means from the 1992 Michael Man film, The Last of the Mohicans. He played Chingachgook. Means and Wes
Studi, playing Magua, were the embodiment of the destruction of indigenous New
World peoples by European invaders. Whether you allied yourself with the English
or the French, whether you were Mohican or Huron, whether you sought accommodation
or revenge—it was basically a death march.
And you saw that all in the faces of Means and Studi, those stunning, evocative faces.
I was very sorry to hear about Means; and that
type of cancer has to have been particularly awful for a man who was
exceptionally articulate in support of his beliefs.
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