More sorrow in South Dakota

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.