The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of 55,700,000 acres (225,000 km²) of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American Tribes and Alaska Natives.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is one of two bureaus under the jurisdiction of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs: the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education, which provides education services to approximately 48,000 Native Americans.

The BIA’s responsibilities once included providing health care services to American Indians and Alaska Natives. In 1954, that function was legislatively transferred to the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, now known as the Department of Health and Human Services, where it has remained to this day as the Indian Health Service (IHS).

Organization[link]

Located at 1849 C Street, N.W. in Washington, D.C., since May 22, 2009, the BIA is headed by an Assistant Secretary—Indian Affairs. The current appointee is Larry EchoHawk, an enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma.

The BIA serves the 566 federally recognized tribes through four offices:

• The Office of Indian Services: operates the BIA’s general assistance, disaster relief, Indian child welfare, tribal government, Indian Self-Determination, and Indian Reservation Roads Program.
• The Office of Justice Services: directly operates or funds law enforcement, tribal courts, and detention facilities on federal Indian lands. OJS funded 208 law enforcement agencies, consisting of 43 BIA-operated police agencies, and 165 tribally operated agencies under contract, or compact with the OJS. The office has seven areas of activity: Criminal Investigations and Police Services, Detention/Corrections, Inspection/Internal Affairs, Tribal Law Enforcement and Special Initiatives, the Indian Police Academy, Tribal Justice Support, and Program Management. The OJS also provides oversight and technical assistance to tribal law enforcement programs when and where requested. It operates four divisions: Corrections, Drug Enforcement, the Indian Police Academy, and Law Enforcement.^[1]
• The Office of Trust Services: works with tribes and individual American Indians and Alaska Natives in the management of their trust lands, assets, and resources.
• The Office of Field Operations: oversees 12 regional offices; Alaska, Great Plains, Northwest, Southern Plains, Eastern, Navajo, Pacific, Southwest, Eastern Oklahoma, Midwest, Rocky Mountain, and Western; and 83 agencies, which carry out the mission of the Bureau at the tribal level.

History[link]

Cato Sells, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1913

1940 Indians at Work magazine, published by the Office of Indian Affairs, predecessor agency to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

First called the Office of Indian Affairs, the agency was created as a division in 1824 within the War Department. Similar agencies had existed in the U.S. government since 1775, when the Second Continental Congress created a trio of Indian-related agencies. Benjamin Franklin and Patrick Henry were appointed among the early commissioners to negotiate treaties with Native Americans to obtain their neutrality during the American Revolutionary War.

In 1789, the United States Congress placed Native American relations within the newly formed War Department. By 1806, the Congress had created a Superintendent of Indian Trade, within the War Department, who was charged with maintaining the factory trading network of the fur trade. The post was held by Thomas L. McKenney from 1816 until the abolition of the factory system in 1822.

The government licensed traders to have some control in Indian territories and gain a share of the lucrative trade. In 1832 Congress established the position of Commissioner of Indian Affairs. In 1869, Ely Samuel Parker was the first Native American to be appointed as commissioner of Indian affairs.

The abolition of the factory system left a vacuum within the U.S. government regarding Native American relations. The current Bureau of Indian Affairs was formed on March 11, 1824, by Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, who created the agency as a division within his department, without authorization from the United States Congress. He appointed McKenney as the first head of the office, which went by several names. McKenney preferred to call it the "Indian Office", whereas the current name was preferred by Calhoun.

In 1849 Indian Affairs was transferred to the Department of the Interior. The bureau was renamed as Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in 1947 (from the original Office of Indian Affairs). The Bureau of Indian Affairs has been involved in many controversial policies. One of the most controversial was the late nineteenth-early twentieth century decision to educate native children in separate boarding schools, with an emphasis on assimilation that prohibited them from using their indigenous languages, practices, and cultures. It emphasized being educated to European-American culture.^[2] Some were beaten for praying to their own creator god.^[3]

20th century[link]

With the rise of American Indian activism in the 1960s and 1970s, and increasing demands for enforcement of treaty rights and sovereignty, the 1970s were a particularly turbulent period of BIA history.^[4] The rise of activist groups such as the American Indian Movement (AIM) worried the U.S. government; the FBI responded both overtly and covertly (by creating COINTELPRO and other programs) to suppress possible uprisings among native peoples.^[5][6][7]

As a branch of the U.S. government with personnel on Indian reservations, BIA police were involved in political actions such as: the occupation of BIA headquarters in Washington, D.C. in 1972; the Wounded Knee Incident of 1973, where activists at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation occupied land for more than two months;^[8] and the Pine Ridge shootout (for which Leonard Peltier was convicted of killing two FBI agents).^[9]

The BIA was implicated in supporting controversial tribal presidents, notably Dick Wilson, who was charged with being authoritarian; using tribal funds for a private paramilitary force, the Guardians of the Oglala Nation (or "GOON squad"), which he employed against opponents; intimidation of voters in the 1974 election; misappropriation of funds, and other misdeeds.^[10] Many native peoples continue to oppose policies of the BIA, particularly problems in enforcing treaties, and handling records and income for trust lands.

On November 3, a group of around 500 American Indians with the AIM took over the BIA building in Washington, D.C., the culmination of their Trail of Broken Treaties walk. They intended to bring attention to American Indian issues, including their demands for renewed negotiation of treaties, enforcement of treaty rights and improvement in living standards. They occupied the Department of Interior headquarters from November 3 to November 9, 1972.^[11]

Feeling the government was ignoring them, the protesters vandalized the building. After a week, the protesters left, having caused $700,000 in damages. Many records were lost, destroyed or stolen, including irreplaceable treaties, deeds, and water rights records, which some Indian officials said could set the tribes back 50 to 100 years.^[12][13]

Legal issues[link]

Employee overtime[link]

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has been sued four times in class action overtime lawsuits brought by the Federation of Indian Service Employees,^[14] a union which represents the federal civilian employees of BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs), BIE (Bureau of Indian Education), AS-IA (Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs) and OST (Office of the Special Trustee for Indian Affairs). The Union is represented by the Law Offices of Snider & Associates, LLC,^[15] which concentrates in FLSA overtime class actions against the federal government and other large employers. The grievances allege widespread violations of the FLSA ^[16] and claims tens of millions of dollars in damages.

Trust assets[link]

Cobell vs. Salazar, a major class action case related to trust lands, was settled in December 2009. The suit was filed against the US Department of Interior, of which BIA is part. A major responsibility has been the management of the Indian trust accounts. This was a class-action lawsuit regarding the federal government's management and accounting of more than 300,000 individual American Indian and Alaska Native trust accounts. A settlement fund totaling $1.4 billion is to be distributed to class members. This is to compensate for claims that prior U.S. officials had mismanaged the administration of Indian trust assets. In addition, the settlement establishes a $2 billion fund enabling federally recognized tribes to voluntarily buy-back and consolidate fractionated land interests.^[17]

Mission[link]

The Bureau is currently trying to evolve from a supervisory to an advisory role; however, this has been a difficult task as the BIA is remembered by many Native Americans as playing a police role in which the U.S. government historically dictated to tribes and their members what they could and could not do in accordance with treaties signed by both.^[18]

Commissioners and Assistant Secretaries[link]

Commissioners of Indian Affairs^[19]

Heads of the Bureau of Indian Affairs

• 1824–1830 Thomas L. McKenney
• 1830–1831 Samuel S. Hamilton

Commissioners of Indian Affairs

• 1832–1836 Elbert Herring
• 1836–1838 Carey A. Harris
• 1838–1845 Thomas Hartley Crawford
• 1845–1849 William Medill
• 1849–1850 Orlando Brown
• 1850–1853 Luke Lea
• 1853–1857 George Washington Manypenny
• 1857–1858 James W. Denver
• 1858–1858 Charles E. Mix
• 1858–1859 James W. Denver
• 1859–1861 Alfred B. Greenwood
• 1861–1865 William P. Dole
• 1865–1866 Dennis N. Cooley
• 1866–1867 Lewis V. Bogy
• 1867–1869 Nathaniel G. Taylor
• 1869–1871 Ely S. Parker
• 1871–1872 Francis A. Walker
• 1873–1875 Edward Parmelee Smith
• 1875–1877 John Q. Smith
• 1877–1880 Ezra A. Hayt
• 1880–1881 Rowland E. Trowbridge
• 1881–1885 Hiram Price
• 1885–1888 John D.C. Atkins
• 1888–1889 John H. Oberly
• 1889–1893 Thomas Jefferson Morgan
• 1893–1897 Daniel M. Browning
• 1897–1904 William A. Jones
• 1904–1909 Francis E. Leupp
• 1909–1913 Robert G. Valentine
• 1913–1921 Cato Sells
• 1921–1929 Charles H. Burke
• 1929–1933 Charles J. Rhoads
• 1933–1945 John Collier
• 1945–1948 William A. Brophy
• 1948–1949 William R. Zimmerman (acting)
• 1949–1950 John R. Nichols
• 1950–1953 Dillon S. Myer
• 1953–1961 Glenn L. Emmons
• 1961–1966 Philleo Nash
• 1966–1969 Robert L. Bennett
• 1969–1972 Louis R. Bruce
• 1973–1976 Morris Thompson
• 1976–1977 Dr. Benjamin Reifel

Assistant Secretaries of the Interior for Indian Affairs^[19]

• 1977–1978 Forrest Gerard
• 1979–1981 William E. Hallett
• 1981–1984 Kenneth L. Smith
• 1985–1989 Ross Swimmer
• 1989–1993 Eddie Frank Brown
• 1993–1997 Ada E. Deer
• 1997–2001 Kevin Gover
• 2001–2001 James H. McDivitt (acting)
• 2001–2003 Neal A. McCaleb
• 2003–2004 Aurene M. Martin (acting)
• 2004–2005 Dave Anderson
• 2005–2007 Jim Cason (acting)
• 2007–2008 Carl J. Artman
• 2008–2009 George T. Skibine (acting)
• 2009–present Larry EchoHawk

See also[link]

	Indigenous peoples of North America portal
	Government of the United States portal

• Bureau of Indian Affairs Police
• Indian Department
• Indian agent
• Indian reservations
• National Indian Gaming Commission
• Indian Claims Commission
• Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada
• American Indian Movement AIM
• Outline of United States federal indian law and policy

References[link]

Additional reading[link]

• Belko, William S. "'John C. Calhoun and the Creation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs: An Essay on Political Rivalry, Ideology, and Policymaking in the Early Republic," South Carolina Historical Magazine 2004 105(3): 170–197. ISSN 0038-3082
• Cahill, Cathleen D. Federal Fathers and Mothers: A Social History of the United States Indian Service, 1869–1933 (U of North Carolina Press, 2011) 368 pp. online review
• Deloria, Jr., Vine, and David E. Wilkins, Tribes, Treaties, & Constitutional Tribulations (Austin, 1999)
• Jackson, Helen H. A Century of Dishonor: A Sketch of the U. S. Government's Dealings with Some of the Indian Tribes (1881) online edition
• Leupp, F. E. The Indian and His Problem (1910) online edition
• Meriam, Lewis, et al., The Problem of Indian Administration, Studies in Administration, 17 (Baltimore, 1928)
• Pevar, Stephen L. The Rights of Indians and Tribes (Carbondale, 2002)
• Prucha, Francis P. Atlas of American Indian Affairs (Lincoln, 1990)
• Prucha, Francis P. The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians (Abridged Edition 1986) excerpt and text search
• Schmeckebier, L. F. Office of Indian Affairs: History, Activities,and Organization, Service Monograh 48 (Baltimore 1927)
• Sutton, I. "Indian Country and the Law: Land Tenure, Tribal Sovereignty, and the States," ch. 36 in Law in the Western United States, ed. G. M. Bakken (Norman, 2000)

Primary sources[link]

• Francis P. Prucha, ed. Documents of United States Indian Policy (3rd ed. 2000) excerpt and text search

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bureau of Indian Affairs (United States)

• A History of the Bureau of Indian Affairs
• Background information about the Cobell Litigation
• Indian Schools papers, 1929–1945, in the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University
• Broken Promises: Evaluating the Native American Health Care System by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, September 2004
• Proposed and finalized federal regulations from the Bureau of Indian Affairs
• Bureau of Indian Affairs Indian Relocation Records at Newberry Library

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Dennis Banks (born April 12, 1937), a Native American leader, teacher, lecturer, activist and author, is an Anishinaabe born on Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. Banks is also known as Nowa Cumig (Naawakamig in the Double Vowel System). His name in the Ojibwe language means "In the Center of the Ground." He has been a longtime leader of the American Indian Movement, which he cofounded in 1968 with Native Americans in Minneapolis.

Work with AIM[link]

In 1968 Banks co-founded the American Indian Movement (AIM) in Minneapolis. They were seeking to ensure and protect the civil rights of Native Americans living in urban areas, whom they believed were being discriminated against by law enforcement. Their related goals became to protect the traditional ways of Indian people and to engage in legal cases protecting treaty rights of Natives, such as hunting and fishing, trapping, and wild rice farming.

Banks participated in the 1969-1971 occupation of Alcatraz Island, initiated by Indian students from San Francisco of the Red Power movement, and intended to highlight Native American issues and promote Indian sovereignty on their own lands. In 1972 he assisted in the organization of AIM's "Trail of Broken Treaties", a caravan of numerous activist groups across the United States to Washington, D.C. to call attention to the plight of Native Americans. The caravan members anticipated meeting with United States Congress leaders about related issues; but government officials, most notably Harrison Loesch, the Interior Department Assistant Secretary responsible for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), refused to meet with delegates.^[1] The activists seized and occupied the headquarters of the Department of Interior and vandalized the offices of the BIA. Many valuable Indian land deeds were destroyed or lost during the occupation.

Banks went to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in 1973 when the local civil rights organization asked for help in dealing with law enforcement authorities in nearby border towns. Residents of Pine Ridge believed the police had failed to prosecute the murder of a young Lakota man. Under Banks' leadership, AIM led a protest in Custer, South Dakota in 1973 against judicial proceeding that reduced the charges to a second degree offense against a white man accused of murdering a Native American.

AIM became involved in the political faction wanting to oust the elected chairman of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Richard Wilson. A failure of an impeachment proceeding against him led to a large protest. Banks and other AIM activists led an armed takeover and occupation of Wounded Knee. After a siege of 71 days by federal armed law enforcement, which received national attention, the occupation was ended. Thirty resident families returned to the village to find that their homes and businesses had been looted and destroyed by the activists. The town was never rebuilt. Banks was the principal negotiator and leader of the Wounded Knee forces. Subsequent investigation of Wilson found questionable accounting practices, but no evidence of criminal offenses.

As a result of involvement in Custer and Wounded Knee, Banks and 300 others were arrested and faced trial. He was acquitted of the Wounded Knee charges, but was convicted of incitement to riot and assault stemming from the earlier confrontation at Custer.

Aquash murder and trial[link]

Refusing the prison term, Banks went underground and organized a small armed AIM group. It included Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, considered the highest-ranking woman in AIM. About this time, the two were also involved in a personal relationship.^[2] After disappearing from Denver in late 1975, Aquash was found murdered in February 1976 at the Pine Ridge Reservation. She had been shot in the back of the head execution style, and her murder was unsolved for decades.

Banks was given amnesty in California by then Governor Jerry Brown, who refused to extradite him to South Dakota to face the charges related to activities in Custer. He also received financial support from actor and AIM sympathizer Marlon Brando.

In January 2003 a federal grand jury indicted Arlo Looking Cloud and John Graham in the murder of Aquash. Since 2004 they have been convicted by federal and state juries; each is serving a life sentence. Witnesses at the 2004 trial of Arlo Looking Cloud included Kamook Nichols, Banks' former wife, who testified that she believed Aquash had been ordered killed by AIM leaders who feared she might be an informant. Aquash and Nichols had heard Leonard Peltier brag in 1975 about having shot FBI agents earlier that year at Pine Ridge. Peltier was convicted of the shooting of the agents in 1977.^[2]

In 2008, Vine Richard "Dick" Marshall was indicted by a federal grand jury for aiding and abetting the murder of Aquash; he was alleged to have provided John Graham with a gun. He was acquitted of the charge. In 1975 he had been serving as one of Banks' bodyguards; Aquash was brought to his house on the Pine Ridge Reservation in December 1975 before being taken to the site of her murder.^[3] Authorities continue to investigate the Aquash murder.

Education and career[link]

During his time in California from 1976 to 1983, Banks earned an associate's degree from the University of California, Davis. He taught at Deganawida Quetzecoatl University (DQU), a Native American-controlled institute of alternative higher learning, where he became the first American Indian chancellor. In 1978 he established the first spiritual run from Davis to Los Angeles, which is now an annual event. In the spring of 1979, he taught at Stanford University.

After Governor Brown left office, in 1984 Banks received sanctuary from the Onondaga Nation in upstate New York. While in New York, Banks organized the Great Jim Thorpe Longest Run from New York to Los Angeles; the goal was to restore the gold medals Thorpe had won at the 1912 Olympics to the Thorpe family.

In 1985 Banks left Onondaga to surrender to law enforcement officials in South Dakota. He served 18 months in prison related to the 1973 charges for the Custer riot. After his release, he worked as a drug and alcohol counselor on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. During 1987, grave robbers in Uniontown, Kentucky were halted in their digging for artifacts in American Indian grave sites. Banks organized the reburial ceremonies. His activities resulted in the states of Kentucky and Indiana passing strict legislation against grave desecration.

In 2006, Banks led Sacred Run 2006^[4], a spiritual run from San Francisco's Alcatraz Island to Washington, D.C. The runners followed the ancient Native American tradition of bringing a message of "Land, Life and Peace" from village to village. They traveled around 100 miles every day and entered Washington, D.C. on Earth Day, April 22, 2006. Along the way, they took a southern route in solidarity with those who are rebuilding after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Major events were held in Albuquerque, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Knoxville, and Washington, D.C.

Over the past 30 years since "The Longest Walk" in 1978, Sacred Runs have become an international movement. Sacred Run 2006 had runners from Japan, Australia, Ireland, and Canada, as well as many from the United States. International "The Longest Walk 2" followed in 2008 the Sacred Run 2006 route, as well as the original route of 1978 walk, ending with the "Manifesto for Change" delivered by Dennis Banks to Representative John Conyers.

Banks is a member of the Board of Trustees for Leech Lake Tribal College, a public, two-year college located just outside Cass Lake, Minnesota. He participates in governance of and fundraising for the college, which has a student body that is primarily Native American.

Other activities[link]

Banks has had roles in the movies War Party (1988), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Thunderheart (1992), and Older Than America (2008).

The musical release Still Strong (1993) features Banks' original work as well as traditional Native American songs. He can also be heard on other albums: Peter Gabriel's Les Musiques du Monde and Peter Matthiessen's No Boundaries.

Marriage and family[link]

According to birth records from Minnesota, Dennis has six children: Janice Banks (born 2 March 1962), Darla Banks (born 18 February 1963), twins Deanna Jane and Dennis James Banks (born 20 April 1964), Red Elk Banks (born 7 June 1970), and Tatanka Wanbli Banks (born 7 September 1971).^{[citation needed]}

At Pine Ridge Reservation Banks met Darlene Kamook Nichols, who was 17 and still in high school. He was 32. After she graduated, they started seeing each other and married. They had four daughters and a son together: Tokala, Tiopa, Tisina and Tatanka.^[5] They later divorced. (Kamook Nichols remarried and is now known as Darlene Ecoffey).

Banks had one stepdaughter, Danielle Louise Dickey. She was murdered in 2007 on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota. He has a granddaughter named Migizi Roberts from Minneapolis Minnesota.

autobiography[link]

• Banks, Dennis & Yuri Morita (1993).Seinaru　Tamashii: Gendai American Indian Shidousha no Hansei, Japan, Asahi Bunko.
• Banks, Dennis & Richard Erdoes (2004). Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement, Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-3580-8

References[link]

External links[link]

• Nowa Cumig Institute
• SacredRun, 2007
• Still Strong
• Dennis Banks at the Internet Movie Database
• Dennis Banks at AllRovi

Russell Means
Russell Means in 1987.
Born	Russell Charles Means (1939-11-10) November 10, 1939 (age 72) Wanblee, South Dakota, United States
Occupation	Activist, politician, actor, writer, musician
Years active	1968 – present
Spouse	Gloria Grant Means (three previous marriages) A total of 10 children, two with Gloria

Russell Charles Means (born November 10, 1939) is an Oglala Sioux activist for the rights of Native American people. He became a prominent member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) after joining the organization in 1968, and helped organize notable events that attracted national and international media coverage. The organization split in 1993, in part over the 1975 murder of Anna Mae Aquash, the leading woman activist in AIM.^[1]

Means has been active in international issues of indigenous peoples, including working with groups in Central and South America, and with the United Nations for recognition of their rights. He has been active in politics at his native Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and at the state and national level.

Since 1992, he has acted in numerous films and released his own music CD. He published his autobiography Where White Men Fear to Tread in 1997.

Early life[link]

Means was born in Wanblee, South Dakota, a community located in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, to Theodora Feather and Harold "Hank" Means.^[2] He was baptized Oyate Wacinyapin, which means "works for the people" in the Lakota language. His Oglala Sioux parents met as students at an Indian boarding school.^[2]

In 1942, when Russell was three, the Means family resettled in the San Francisco Bay Area, seeking to escape the poverty and problems of the reservation. His father worked at the shipyard. Means grew up in the Bay area, graduating in 1958 from San Leandro High School in San Leandro, California.^[3] In his 1995 autobiography, Means recounted a harsh childhood; his father was alcoholic and he himself fell into years of "truancy, crime and drugs" before finding purpose in the American Indian Movement in Minneapolis.^[4]

His father died in 1967, and in his 20's, Means lived in several Indian reservations throughout the United States while searching for work. While at the Rosebud Indian Reservation in south-central South Dakota, he developed severe vertigo. Physicians at the reservation clinic believed that he had been brought in inebriated. After they refused to examine him for several days, Means was finally diagnosed with a concussion due to a presumed fist fight in a saloon. A visiting specialist later discovered that the reservation doctors had overlooked a common ear infection, which cost Means the hearing in one ear.^[5]

After recovering from the infection, Means worked for a year in the Office of Economic Opportunity, where he came to know several legal activists who were managing legal action on behalf of the Lakota people. After a dispute with his supervisor, Means left Rosebud for Cleveland, Ohio. In Cleveland, he worked with Native American community leaders against the backdrop of the American Civil Rights Movement.^[5]

Involvement with the American Indian Movement[link]

Means participated - together with his father - in the 1964 Alcatraz occupation. In 1968 at age 29, Means joined the American Indian Movement (AIM), where he rose to become a prominent leader.^[6] In 1970, Means was appointed AIM's first national director, and the organization began a period of increasing protests and activism. On Thanksgiving Day 1970, Means and other AIM activists staged their first protest in Boston: they seized the Mayflower II, a replica ship of the Mayflower, to protest the Puritans' and United States' mistreatment of Native Americans.^[7] Later that year, Means was one of the leaders of AIM's takeover of Mount Rushmore, a federal monument. In 1972, he participated in AIM's occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) headquarters in Washington, D.C. Many confidential records were taken or destroyed, and more than $2 million in damages was done to the building.

In 1973, Dennis Banks and Charles Camp led AIM's occupation of Wounded Knee, which became the group's most well-known action. ^[7] Means appeared as a spokesman and prominent leader as well. The armed standoff of more than 300 Lakota and AIM activists with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and state law enforcement lasted for 71 days. A visiting Cherokee from North Carolina and an Oglala Lakota activist from Pine Ridge Reservation were killed in April 1973. Earlier an FBI agent was shot and became paralyzed from his wounds.

In 1974, Means resigned from AIM to run for the presidency of his native Oglala Sioux Tribe (OST) against the incumbent Richard Wilson. The official vote count showed Wilson winning by more than 200 votes. Residents complained of intimidation by Wilson's private militia. The report of a government investigation confirmed problems in the election, but in a related court challenge to the results of the election, a federal court upheld the results.

In the late 1970s, Means turned to an international forum on issues of rights for indigenous peoples. He worked with the United Nations to establish the offices of the International Indian Treaty Council in 1977. At the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, he assisted in the organization of community institutions, such as the KILI radio station and the Porcupine Health Clinic in Porcupine, South Dakota.

In the 1980s, AIM divided into several competing factions. The division was in part over differences among members regarding support for the indigenous peoples in Nicaragua, a nation then led by a socialist government. Means announced his support for the Miskito group MISURASATA (later known as YATAMA), which was allied with the Contras. He traveled to the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua in 1985 and 1986 on fact-finding tours. Some members of AIM supported the Sandinistas of the national government, although they had forced removal of thousands of Miskito from their traditional territory. At that time, the Grand Governing Council of AIM, based in Minnesota, asked Means to cease representing himself as a leader of AIM.^{[citation needed]} Other chapters of AIM continued to support Means.

On January 8, 1988, Means held a press conference to announce his retirement from AIM (for the sixth time), saying it had achieved its goals.^[8] That January, the AIM Grand Governing Council, headed by the Bellecourt brothers, released a press release noting this was the sixth resignation by Means since 1974, and asking the press to "never again report either that he is a founder of the American Indian Movement, or [that] he is a leader of the American Indian Movement". The AIM General Governing Council noted there were many open issues and legislation regarding Native Americans for which they were continuing to work.^[9]

In 1993, the organization divided officially into two main factions: AIM Grand Governing Council, based in Minnesota, which has the legal right to use the name; and American Indian Movement of Colorado, based in Colorado and allied with Means.

On 3 November 1999, Means and Robert Pictou-Branscombe, a maternal cousin of Aquash from Canada, held a press conference in Denver at the Federal Building to discuss the slow progress of the government's investigation into Aquash's murder. It had been under investigation both by the Denver police, as Aquash had been kidnapped from there, and by the FBI, as she had been taken across state lines and killed on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Both Branscombe and Means accused Vernon Bellecourt, a high-ranking leader of AIM, of having ordered the execution of Aquash. Means said that Clyde Bellecourt, a founder of AIM, had ensured that it was carried out at the Pine Ridge Reservation. Means said that an AIM tribunal had banned the Bellecourt brothers but tried to keep the reason for the dissension internal to protect AIM.^[10]

The Associated Press (AP) reporter Robert Weller noted that this was the first time that an AIM leader active at the time of Aquash's death had publicly implicated AIM in her murder. There had long been rumors.^[11] Means and Branscombe accused three indigenous people: Arlo Looking Cloud, Theda Nelson Clark and John Graham, of having been directly involved in the kidnapping and murder of Aquash.^[10] The two men were indicted in 2003 and convicted in separate trials in 2004 and 2010, respectively. By then in a nursing home, Clark was not indicted.

As of 2004, Means' website states that he was a board member of the Colorado AIM chapter, which is affiliated with AIM-Autonomous Chapters.^[12]

Other political involvement[link]

Since the late 1970s, Means has often supported libertarian political causes, in contrast with several of the other leaders of AIM. In 1987, Means ran for nomination of President of the United States under the Libertarian Party, and attracted considerable support within the party, finishing 2nd (31.41%) at the 1987 Libertarian National Convention.^[13] He lost the nomination to Congressman Ron Paul.^[14]

In 2001, Means began an independent candidacy for Governor of New Mexico. His campaign failed to satisfy procedural requirements and he was not selected for the ballot. In the 2004 and 2008 Presidential Elections, Means supported independent Ralph Nader.

Nearly thirty years after his first candidacy, Means ran for president of the Oglala Sioux in 2004 with the help of Twila Lebeaux, losing to Cecilia Fire Thunder, the first woman elected president of the tribe. She also defeated the incumbent John Yellow Bird Steele.^[15]

Since the late 20th century, there has been a debate in the United States over the appropriate term for the indigenous peoples of North America. Some want to be called Native American; others prefer American Indian. Means says that he prefers "American Indian", arguing that it derives not from explorers' confusion of the people with those of India, but from the Italian expression in Dio, meaning "in God".^[16][17] In addition, Means notes that since treaties and other legal documents in relation to the United States government use "Indian", continuing use of the term can help today's American Indian people forestall any attempts by others to use legal loopholes in the struggle over land and treaty rights.

Following the non-binding United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in September 2007, a group of American Indian activists presented a letter to the U.S. State Department, indicating they were withdrawing from all treaties with the U.S. Government. In December, they began contacting foreign governments to solicit support for energy projects on the territory.

On December 20, 2007, Means announced the withdrawal by a small group of Lakota Sioux from all treaties with the United States government.^[18] Means and a delegation of activists declared the Republic of Lakotah a sovereign nation, with property rights over thousands of square miles in South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana.^{[19][dead link]} Means said that his group does not "represent collaborators, the Vichy Indians and those tribal governments set up by the United States of America".^[20]

On January 8, 2008 the elected leaders President Rodney Bordeaux of the 25,000-member Rosebud Sioux Tribe, and Chairman Joseph Brings Plenty of the 8,500-member Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, said that Means did not speak for their members or for any elected Lakota tribal governments. While acknowledging problems with the federal government's implementation of treaties, they opposed his plan to renounce treaties with the United States. They said the issue instead was to enforce existing treaties.^{[21][dead link] [22]}

In January 2012, he announced his endorsement of Ron Paul in his bid for President.^[23]

Other activities[link]

Acting[link]

Since 1992, Means has appeared as an actor in numerous films and TV movies: first as the chief Chingachgook in The Last of the Mohicans. He appeared as Arrowhead in the made-for-TV movie The Pathfinder (1996), his second appearance in a movie adapted from a novel by James Fenimore Cooper. He appeared in Natural Born Killers (1994), as Jim Thorpe in Windrunner: A Spirited Journey, as Sitting Bull in Buffalo Girls (1995), and had a cameo in the miniseries Into the West (2005).

He was a voice actor in the animated film Pocahontas (1995) and its sequel Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998), playing the title character's father, Chief Powhatan. Means appeared as Billy Twofeathers in Thomas & the Magic Railroad (2000).

Means starred in Pathfinder, a 2007 movie about Vikings' battling Native Americans in the New World. Recently Means co-starred in Rez Bomb from director Steven Lewis Simpson, the first feature filmed on his native Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He stars with Tamara Feldman and Trent Ford and Chris Robinson.

He also appears as a character in the Access Adventure Game Under a Killing Moon.^[24] In 2004 Means made a guest appearance on the HBO program Curb Your Enthusiasm. Means played Wandering Bear, an American Indian with skills in landscaping and herbal medicine.

Writing[link]

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (August 2011)

In 1995, Means published an autobiography, Where White Men Fear to Tread, written with Marvin J. Wolf. He recounted his own family's problems: his alcoholic father, and his own "fall into truancy, crime and drugs" before he found the American Indian Movement.^[4] Writing in the New York Times Book Review, the author Brent Staples said of Means:

"His repeated assertion that Native American culture is cosmologically superior to Europe’s seems patronizing, even coming from an Indian. The first law of the universe, after all, is that evil and stupidity are randomly distributed. Had the Lakota and others been the seers Mr. Means seems to think they were, they would have avoided at least some of the disasters that befell them."^[25]

In 1998 Vernon Bellecourt, a longtime leader of AIM, criticized Marvin Wolf for failure to consult with other AIM leaders about events that Means recounted. He said, "Not one of the people in the movement was asked by Means' co-author, Marvin J. Wolf, to confirm Means' version of events. It's a very reckless book. It puts out a lot of inaccuracies and petty attacks on people that are seen as very divisive."^[26]

The journalist Malcolm Brenner, who had covered Native American issues for newspapers from the Shiprock, New Mexico area, wrote in his review: "Over and over again, Means makes blanket condemnations of all 'White People' that he would assuredly bust my chops for if I made them about Indians... Readers should understand that this book is Russell Means' version of reality, and it does not necessarily bear any relationship to the truth...Ultimately, this book is a chronicle of Means' bottomless rage..." which Brenner notes may have been justified by "the circumstances of his life in particular or American Indian lives in general," but he thought Means' stance was overdone.^[27]

Patricia Holt, book editor for the San Francisco Chronicle wrote of the book, "It's American history -- warts, wounds and all."^[4] Mari Wadsworth of the Tucson Weekly wrote, "Critical readers do well to remain skeptical of any individual, however charismatic, who claims to be the voice of authority and authenticity for any population, let alone one as diverse as the native tribes of the Americas."^[28]

Music[link]

Russell Means recorded a CD entitled Electric Warrior under indie label SOAR.^[29] Songs include "Une Gente Indio", "Hey You, Hey Indian", "Wounded Knee Set Us Free", and "Indian Cars Go Far".

Representation in other media[link]

The American pop artist Andy Warhol painted 18 individual portraits of Russell Means in his 1976 American Indian Series. The Dayton Art Institute holds one of the Warhol portraits of Means in its collection.^[30]

Personal life[link]

Means has been married four times; his first three marriages ended in divorce. He has a total of ten children.^[2]

Means is married to Gloria (Grant) Means, a Dine educator and former rodeo rider.^[2] They have two sons: Tatanka Means, who is an actor, and Nataanii Nez Means. Means is also the stepfather of Gloria's son Scott from her previous marriage.

On December 29, 1997, Means was arrested for assault and battery of his 80-year-old father-in-law Leon Grant, a member of the Dine (Navajo) Nation. AIM Governing General Council issued a press release to reiterate its separation from Means.^[26]

In August 2011, Means was diagnosed with esophageal cancer.^[31][32] In late September, Means reported that through tomotherapy, the tumor had diminished greatly.^[33] At the start of November 2011, he said that his tumor was "95% gone."^{[citation needed]} On December 5, Means stated that he "beat cancer," that he beat "the death penalty."^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikinews has related news: Lakota activists declare secession from US

Wikinews has related news: Lakota Freedom Delegation says spokesman Russell Means 'hijacked' organization

Wikinews has related news: 'No treaty withdrawal', says Lakota elder

• Russell Means official website
• Russell Means Freedom
• Russell Means at the Internet Movie Database
• Republic of Lakotah Official Web Site
• American Indian Movement on Russell Means

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The Shinnecock Indian Nation is a federally recognized tribe,^[2] headquartered in Suffolk County, New York,^[1] on the south shore of Long Island. Shinnecock are an Algonquian people from Long Island. They now reside on the Shinnecock Reservation within the geographic boundaries of Southampton on the east end of Long Island.

Federal recognition[link]

The Shinnecock were recognized by the United States government in June, 2010 after a 30-year court battle.^[2][3] The Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, George T. Skibine issued the final determination of the tribe's recognized status on June 13, 2010.^[1]

Reservation[link]

The Shinnecock Indian Reservation is a self-governing reservation. By 1859, the current borders of 800 acres (3.2 km²) were established. Every Labor Day Weekend the reservation hosts a powwow. The reservation has a museum, shellfish hatchery, education center, community center, playground,^[4] and Presbyterian church. The reservation is three miles (5 km) west of Southampton, New York. In 1903, it had a population of 150.^[5]

History[link]

Shinnecock and their neighbors

The Shinnecock are believed to have spoken a dialect of Mohegan-Pequot-Montauk, similar to their neighbors the Montaukett on Long Island. Their western neighbors were Lenape people who most likely spoke an R-dialect of Munsee. The languages became extinct sometime in the mid-19th century, as numbers of native speakers were drastically reduced. A few words have survived to the modern day.

They were culturally affiliated with, as well as politically subject to, the Pequot and Narragansett, the more powerful tribes of southern New England across Long Island Sound.

Like the other Native peoples of Long Island, the Shinnecock make wampompeag (wampum), shell beads strung onto threads that were used as currency, record-keeping, and for aesthetic purposes. These shell beads have been found at inhabited sites as far west as the Rocky Mountains, showing their value in trade. Although other New England tribes produced wampompeag, the Indians of Long Island are reputed to have made the best. The tribe was subject to raids by the Pequot and other New England tribes to control this valuable trade commodity. The Europeans quickly learned the value of the Shinnecock wampompeag in trade with other tribes.

Indian populations declined due mostly to new infectious diseases carried by European colonists. In addition, their communities were disrupted by land encroachment by Dutch, and later English colonists. Many Shinnecock joined the Brothertown Indians in New York and lost their distrinct community identity. Others intermarried with local colonists.

In 1703, a leasehold was established for tribal members in Southampton. In 1792, the state of New York passed a law reorganized the Shinnecock Indian Tribe as a trusteeship. The law also established annual elections for three tribal trustees, which have continued from 1792 to the present. In fall of 2010 the Shinnecock gained a national reservation. For over two centuries, the trustees have managed the tribe's land and resources.^[1]