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AIM leader Russell Means, left and assistant U.S. attorney general Kent Frizzell signed a cease-fire agreement, ending the Occupation of Wounded Knee, 1973 (AP Photo/Jim Mone).

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Russel Means Russell Charles Means was an Oglala Sioux who was born on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. Means’ political actions began when he met Dennis Banks and other AIM founders in 1969, and by 1971, he would be AIM’s first national coordinator. In 1972, Means participated in the seven-day occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters. Most famously, Means became the face of the occupation of Wounded Knee and was included in the 1974 Wounded Knee trial, which was thrown out on the grounds of prosecutorial misconduct. In the early 1990s, Means began his acting career and appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows. Means’ activism continued in his old age, he was arrested while protesting a Columbus Day parade in Denver in 2007. Means passed away in 2012 from esophageal cancer.

Sources:
Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth. “Twentieth-Century American Indian Political Dissent and Russell Means.” Wicazo Sa Review 29, no. 1 (2014): 14–18. https://doi.org/10.5749/wicazosareview.29.1.0014.
McLellan, Dennis. “Russell Means dies at 72; American Indian rights activist, actor.” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 23, 2012, https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-russell-means-20121023-story.html.