PINE RIDGE, S.D. - As a young man, Russell Means picked up the gun and became a militant symbol of the American Indian Movement, but today, at age 63, he preaches that the ballot is more powerful than the bullet.
Nearly 30 years have passed since Means and 350 other heavily armed American Indians made a 71-day stand at Wounded Knee, occupying the site where as many as 300 Indian men, women and children were killed by the 7th Cavalry in 1890. Gunbattles erupted during the takeover, staged to protest broken treaties and lost land. Two Indians were killed and a federal marshal seriously wounded.
Means followed a path of confrontation, including courthouse sit-ins, and in 1978 served a year in jail for his role in a riot at the Sioux Falls courthouse.
Time has not dulled his sharp tongue or his anger. Ask him about President Bush, and he'll say, "The guy has an IQ of 94."
Sen. Majority Leader Tom Daschle? "He's the worst part of [Bill] Clinton; he'll do anything."
A swing vote
Means' militancy has always been laced with irreverence. But the Russell Means of today is a political pragmatist, not the firebrand of yesterday.
He has become a Constitution-thumping libertarian who is campaigning to become the Oglala Sioux tribal president in an election scheduled for Tuesday. If elected, Means says, he will make sweeping changes in tribal government and challenge the legal underpinnings of federal Indian policy. He'll be attempting to seize by ballot the tribal government he has so long criticized from the outside.
American Indian voters were the decisive factor in the recent U.S. Senate race in South Dakota, where the Democrats mounted a registration drive on the reservations.
Sen. Tim Johnson, a Democrat, was losing to Republican John Thune by 700 votes, but he eked out a 528-vote victory after receiving a heavy vote from the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Means says Johnson's victory proves that Indians have the "swing power vote" in South Dakota, and they should not let the Democrats take them for granted. In the next election, he will urge Indians to vote Republican, he says. He gives two reasons: to dump Daschle and to gain respect in political circles.
"If we vote with the Republicans, we'll make a statement to South Dakota and the national Republican and Democratic parties that we are a force to be reckoned with, so when we go to Washington, the doors of power will be open just a bit wider than they are now," he explains.
Means says Daschle has opposed the tribes on key issues and does not deserve their support. For example, South Dakota's tribes view the Black Hills as sacred land taken from them in violation of a treaty. In 1985, Sen. Bill Bradley, a New Jersey Democrat, introduced the Sioux Nation Black Hills Act, legislation calling for the return of 1.3 million acres of federal land to the tribes. The tribes also would have received about $200 million in compensation.
Daschle, who was then a freshman senator, was an ardent opponent of the legislation, and today, as Senate majority leader, still opposes any legislation that would return land to the tribes. The bill died, but Means wants to see it revived.
Means also points to Daschle's support for the transfer of 150,000 acres of Missouri River land to the state of South Dakota. The Crow Creek Sioux tribe says the land belongs to the entire Sioux Nation, and the land transfer violated a treaty. The tribes say the lost land includes sacred burial sites.
Means bristles at the mention of Daschle's name. "I will do everything I can do to see that he is defeated when he comes up for re-election in two years," Means says.
American Indians on reservations are the only U.S. citizens governed by a special set of federal laws that controls just about every facet of their lives. Means says Indian law is antiquated, and he blames it for the plight of the Oglala Sioux and other Indians on reservations.
At Pine Ridge, as many as eight out of 10 residents are unemployed, and many people live in substandard housing. The infant mortality rate and the incidence of diabetes, alcoholism and suicide are comparable to the rates in Third World nations.
Federal regulations
"The web of federal regulations that have been woven so tightly around people on reservations keeps them locked in enforced poverty," Means says. "They are in a cocoon, a prison, and they can't move without government authority."
Under federal law, Indians on reservations have a special relationship with the U.S. government. Essentially, they are wards of the federal government and subject to the plenary powers of Congress, but the tribes also have sovereign governments.
Means points out that the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 required the tribes to set up governments and constitutions. Under the system, tribal councils wield enormous power because tribal constitutions lack the safeguards to protect the rights of members.
"Tribal governments are communist governments bred and fostered by the United States government since 1934," he says, adding, "We are ruled by tribal committee, and it's controlled by a federal agency, the Bureau of Indian Affairs."
If elected tribal chairman, Means says, he will push to scrap the tribal constitution and adopt a new one that mirrors the Constitution. Indians have been U.S. citizens since 1924, but Indian law is rooted in legal decisions made before they gained citizenship, he says.
"We've been citizens for 78 years, and what I'm saying is the U.S. Constitution only allows for one kind of citizen, and that means that there is no such thing as Indian law," he says, "Right now, there are legal scholars who'll tell you that the U.S. Constitution does not apply to Indians on the reservation. When I'm elected, I'm going to put the courts on notice that we're U.S citizens, and Indian law no longer applies, that Indian law is a bogus concept."
Means has a strong following at Pine Ridge, but not everyone is enthusiastic about his bid. For some, Means - with his long braids, silver jewelry, black leather jacket, designer jeans and stylish cowboy boots - is just too urbane for "the rez."
Tom Poor Bear, a longtime AIM activist, questions the sincerity of Means' presidential bid.
Poor Bear says Means capitalized on the exposure from his early days in the movement to gain a foothold in the entertainment world. Means has appeared in 10 movies, made numerous TV appearances and formed a production company.
"He's appeared in front of cameras so much they've robbed him of his soul," Poor Bear says.
Though Means' methods have softened, he says he's still a revolutionary at heart.
"You have an apartheid system in America that I have struggled against for 30 years, and I even took up arms against the United States government," he says. "My struggle hasn't stopped. Now I'm telling the Indian people of South Dakota to recognize their political power and utilize it."