Russell Means, Native American activist, dies

47K views · 1.3K reactions | Russell Means delivers a powerful speech on the state of emergency that exists on Indian reservations in South Dakota. The Lakota language is dying and the children are being taken from the people. Please sign our petition to bring the Lakota children home so the culture can be sustained! lakotalaw.org/action | Lakota People's Law Project | Facebook

In 1989, Lakota activist and AIM leader Russell Means stood before Congress to deliver a fiery and unapologetic speech about Native sovereignty and independence. Speaking not as a “minority” within the United States, but as a representative of sovereign nations, he challenged the very foundation of U.S. policy toward Indigenous peoples.Means declared that American Indians are not “wards of the state,” but citizens of their own nations, bound by treaties with the United States, treaties that the