American Indian, Russel Means, Speaks......

[TM7]

 Lakotah Russel Means of the Wounded Knee rebellion speaks.....on the way things are,,,interesting,,,.fyi....TM7
 
.............................................................
.
[embed=425,349]http://youtu.be/-LA-S64QY3o[/embed]
.
.

Freedom is A Responsibility

Uploaded by THElNFOWARRlOR
January 19, 2011

The United States is one big Indian reservation - and we are all in it. So says Russell Means, legendary actor, political activist and leader for the American Indian Movement. Means led the 1972 seizure of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington, D.C., and in 1973 led a standoff at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, a response to the massacre of at least 150 Lakotah men, women, and children by the U.S. Seventh Cavalry at a camp near Wounded Knee Creek.

American Indian Russell Means gives an eye-opening 90 minute interview in which he explains how Native Americans and Americans in general are all imprisoned within one huge reservation. Means is a leader for the Republic of Lakotah, a movement that has declared its independence from the United States and refused to recognize the authority of presidents or governments, withdrawing from treaties it made with the federal government and defining its borders which cover thousands of square miles in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana.

Means explains how American Indians have been enslaved within de facto prisoner of war camps as a result of the federal government's restriction of their food supply and the application of colonial tactics, a process that has now also been inflicted on the United States as a whole which has turned it into "one huge Indian reservation," according to Means.

Means warns that Americans have lost the ability of critical thought and with each successive generation become more irresponsible and as a consequence less free, disregarding a near-perfect document, the Constitution, which was derived from Indian law. Means chronicles the loss of freedom from the 1840's onwards, which marked the birth of the corporation, to Lincoln's declaration of martial law, to the latter part of the 19th century and into the 20th when Congress "started giving banks the right to rule," and private banking interests began printing the money.

More Information:

www.prisonplanet.tv/

[Dee]

Russell Means also stated that: He would not take "Medical Treatment" from American medical doctors for "terminal throat cancer" which at 72 yoa he termed the "white man's disease", but would opt instead for "Lakota treatments", which involve both "spiritual, and herbal" treatments. What a guy! Standin up for what he belives even if it kills him. Not only "talkin the talk", but also "walkin the walk".
In a very RECENT statement from a MEDICAL CENTER IN ARIZONA, Means offers that HE IS RECEIVING "RADIATION TREATMENT" FOR "esophageal cancer", FROM THE ONLY DOCTOR IN THE UNITED STATES THAT HAS THE ABILITY TO "PINPOINT" CANCER CELLS TO KILL THEM, AND LEAVE THE GOOD CELLS ALONE.
In 1976 Russell Means was allowed to speak to native Americans at the IBM facility in Boulder, Co. on an individual basis. After my father spoke with him, he told Means that I was out of town at the moment.
Your video, has some truth in it, but I would like to know when it was made, and Means has many times profited from the very system he preaches against. It is easy to make a video against "the white man's technology" when your safe, secure, healthy, AND RICH. Ahhhhh, but when you find out you may die, then we will see what your really made of, AND WHAT YOU "REALLY BELIEVE".

Is the government too big, and too invasive? Of course it is. But I didn't need Russell Means to tell me that. And by the way. I'm a card carrying Cherokee, and proud of it, so no one can say I'm a racist. And so to all you white boys: keep gamblin!   
P.S. Alex Jones of infowars.com put this video out. Could you in all honesty expect anything less?

[Dee]

I really can't argue with most of what you said.

[Mike in Virginia]

'Tis my opinion that whatever the descendants of Native Americans want, they should have if the government can make it happen.  They deserve free everything that white people have to buy.  Our recent forefathers took all the Indians had.  The Indian once had all the land, and never did he abuse it.  We took it away from them and abused the hell out of it and are still doing so.  Since our government has stomped the Indian way of life almost out of existence, and since our government is well established on Indian land, we owe it to them to provide whatever assistance the want or require.  I believe they should have vast tracts of land at whatever location they choose.  For fee.  I believe white people should be displaced to make that happen.  If the gov't came to my house and said, "Sorry, you have to get out.  This area now belongs to the tribe that lived here before."  I'd get my stuff and get out.  I'd leave plenty of provisions here to start the new owners off comfortably. 
I'd hate think I had to live in Europe, but that's where the white people came from, and I don't believe we have a right to U.S. lands or an established government here.  We might own it legally, but we don't own it honorably.  For those who say the horrific atrocites inflicted on the encroaching whites make the Indian unworthy to own it all, I say those atrocities were what the Indians had to resist, other than bows and spears and hatchets againt hordes of horse mounted soldiers with guns. 
It's not the same issue as all as the illegal aliens from Mexico or the descendants of Africans.  The Spanish speaking people who come across our borders are coming because they will starve in Mexico, but still they break our laws to come.  The descendants of the slaves are not here by choice.  WE brought them here.  However, just because we dislocated them and abused them as slaves, does not mean our government now owes them anything, because they've been given every chance to possess the American dream.  Whomever does not attain that dream, white or black, is lacking in fortune, ability, or energy. They are unlike the Native Americans who were beaten and slaughtered into giving up their original home.
I think my main point is, we destroyed an entire culture, simply because we could.  We ought to try and give it back.  The entitlements white people get should be taken away and transferred to the Indians, along with extra funds, free buildig materials, free food, free medical (we brought them disease) and wide open tracts of land.  They should be honored as the only true Americans and they are entitled to seats in the legislature without having to be voted in.  They are now to few for their votes to matter.  America is under a moral obligation to do someting for them, but we won't do more than the little already done.     
 

[BBF]

Will" American Idol" give you a hint?
How about Big Brother, The Real World, Glass House, or Jersey Shore.

[Cabin4]

All the Means stuff aside. Describing the US as becoming one big reservation is a very good description that many people will be able to relate to. The DNA of our country is changing for the worse and we can all pretty much point to cancer of Washington and the 50 state houses.

[BBF]

That Quota thingee that was in effect years ago to keep an ethnic balance to the country was a very good thing. Who(what bunch) brought that to an halt?

[finisher]

A while back on another thread, I bumped heads with some racist pig who was griping about Mexicans taking over LA. I didn't waste too much time going back and forth with him and I actually did empathize with some of his complaints, but the sentiments of a presumed "superiority" of one genetic line over another was quite evident in his words and it is very difficult to reason with one of such narrow and short sighted mentality.


This topic reminded me of that thread, and I thought how ironic that so many here on this site complain about "FOREIGN INVADERS" The guy I mentioned complained about how people of a (I'll just say) "certain pigmentation, or lack of" were no longer safe where they lived because of all the "Mexican" gangs, and were even leaving in exodus numbers (apparently he missed the "white flight" of the early seventies).


I find it quite ironic that the descendants of those that helped to usurp this land are becoming very much, in behavior and attitude, like the descendants of those whom were brought over as slaves long ago to serve the usurpers.


I see it quite often here in southern Oregon; blond haired blue eyed "Slim Shady"s, "Vanilla Ice"s and "Eminem"s with their pants sagging below their asses, speaking in Ebonics (and surprisingly naturally), living on welfare, jammin' that hip hop gangster crap that they try to pass off as music. They fancy themselves as "Hard gangstahs".


These aren't just teenagers either. They range in age from about 35 on down. And if they happened to come across a REAL LA gangster, they'd get torn a new orifice.


IRONIC. And It seems to be happening all over the country. We reap what we sow. Where does it say in the bible about the "sins of the father" being suffered by seven of his generations. WELL AMERICA, the piper is commin' a callin'.


THIS IS AMERICA if you haven't seen it happening then you need to get out of your rural bubbles and see the major cities. You might not like the cities but this my friends is where policy is made because this is where the money flows. And in the real world, IT IS ALWAYS ALL ABOUT THE MONEY.


To those that proclaim themselves to be "white", I say choose to be a human being. You cannot be both. You have been sold out by your own for the sake of the ALL MIGHTY DOLLAR; IN GOD WE TRUST.


Soon...soon. We'll all have a better idea of what the natives of this land went through. But it might require some outside party to open our eyes to the irony of it.


Some of my ancestors were the last of the Apache hold outs. There is no written documentation of my lineage and I couldn't claim benefits even if I wanted that blood money. I have no identity. I am of an extremely mixed and diverse line and I am stronger and SEE and understand more because of it. And I call myself HUMAN BEING.


I've got more native genes in my big toe than many of the "card carriers" that I've seen in Oregon and California have in their whole body. Most of the natives that run the casinos in Southern California are of the blond haired, blue eyed variety that wear pony tails and live in Pacific Palisades; an extreme contrast from life on the res.


But I don't go around crying about it. Fact is, if the natives hadn't been so busy fighting among themselves when the Europeans were usurping all the land, things may have turned out different. But humility, simplicity, and lack of ambition seem to be common traits in the native American line. I hardly see these traits as faults. Maybe the tendency for petty territorial bickering could be counted as a fault. And maybe they've passed it on to their usurpers.


I see the BIG PICTURE, and it is beyond my ability to put into words, much less to try and make someone else open their eyes and seee. It is a mentally overloading and overwhelming picture of spiritual horror and at the same time humorous irony.


Secure for sea and stand by for heavy rolls.

[SHOOTALL]

With all due respect to Native Americans (my wife is part Cherokee ) it seems they were here first but came here like everyone else. No they were not treated correctly nor were the African Americans or Hispanics or Chineese etc.. Nor were many whites that were treated as bad as slaves. The point is not what was done or what some group feels they are owed . Why is the entire white race  owe for the actions of a few ? It would seem better for all peoples in America to bond together and get the nation in order and not allow each to be split and aginst the other.

[Ranger99]

I really don't want to get in a
big fuss about this, but I need
to put this in. . .


I've never taken anything from anyone.
I've never had any slaves.
My parents didn't have any slaves.
They almost starved to death as
kids during the Depression trying
to make enough to eat picking
cotton, and having a vegetable patch
to have something to eat.
They didn't inherit anything.
I didn't inherit anything.
Everything my parents had they
busted their guts for.
Everything I have I've busted
my guts for.
There is some indian blood in my
family.
There is some Anglo blood in
my family.
I have some friends with 100%
indian blood.
We don't call each other paleface
or injun.


I don't owe anyone in this nation
anything.


I pay all my own bills with the labor
of my hands.
If anyone feels guilty, and thinks they
owe somebody something, it would
probably be best if they sold all their
possessions and gave the money to
whomever they feel guilty toward.


I have zero guilt and will have none
painted on me.

[finisher]

TM7 thank you for posting this. I really needed to see it. Russel Means looks an awful lot like my great grandfather. My brother is starting to look more and more like my memory of him as the years go by.


I remember both my great grandfather and my grandfather telling us these things when we were kids. We had no clue and thought they were just a couple of crazy rambling old men. But I think now that being given the gift of wide sight can sometimes make one a little crazy.


I do recall that they were both very well read. In fact I recall that it was what they spent most of there time doing in their final years. This video kind of makes me feel the void of losing them even more.


The big picture is just a little too much for most of our feeble brains to handle.


Though I don't agree at all that our government should just cash it in and "give" these people all the help they can. I think that the current direction in which this nation is heading is poetic justice in itself.


Ranger99: Perhaps you and yours may be free of any injustice towards these people, and although I'm not the religious type, the bible does say that the sins of the father will be suffered by seven generations (or something to that effect).
It is not my intention that this be taken literally. For example, not your fathers specifically but in the sense of "those who came before us"

The focus is not about "you and yours" It is about HUMANITY as a whole. Again the broader, bigger picture that seems so elusive to most comes to bare.


I don't see where any "painting" is being done. The past is the past but it will always be a part of who we are. If nothing is learned from the past as is the case so often with people (modern man is very short sighted in nature it seems) then what are we to do? If old demons are buried and forgotten, then we may be unable to recognize them when the try to resurface generations down the line.


I can understand that no one today wants a cross hanging over their heads for atrocities committed so long (or not so long) ago (depending on ones perspective), and rightfully so. I do not bear the cross of what my Spanish ancestors did to the natives further south or to the jews during the inquisitions.


Those examples have had a few hundred more years of time to heal however. But one thing I do not want to project to any of the descendants of those persecuted is an air about my attitude that might give them the impression that although it is now a different time, I might not be too much different in mentality from my ancestors that actually committed the atrocities.


It isn't fair, but in dealing with people, we must be aware of how we come across in the eyes and ears of others for it is quite often very different from how we perceive ourselves in their eyes and ears.


I don't get the sense that this man is trying to "PAINT" anyone with guilt. Rather I get the sense that he is trying to warn and help all of us short sighted, ignorant shmucks that do not see the "reservation" that has been slowly and subtly erected around the minds and souls of us all for the last century or so by a seemingly invisible elite in power.


He's saying that you OWE it to yourself and yours to open your eyes, free your mind, and broaden your vision in order to free yourself... and yours.

[Mike in Virginia]

Off topic a bit:  I had to live in San Diego a few months in 1987 to attend a school.  On the weekends, I went across the border into Mexico to see the sights.  I visited several different towns.  I suppose it was a much different place then.  No border hostilities, no drug hoodlums, or at least none I knew about.  The only warning I received was drink Coke or beer, but not the water.
Anyway, the Indians there seemed to be the kindest, genltlest, meekest, and the prettiest people I've ever encountered.  When I encountered one on the sidewalk, they always stepped into the street and lowered their eyes until I passed. What tribe or place they were from, I don't know.  Maybe the same as SW U.S. Indians.  The children were unbelievably cute.  However, the were dirt poor.  They had  nothing at all, yet they were extremely clean.  The men stout and handsome, the women trim and well groomed, the children always in clean clothes.  But they lived in shacks made from scrap lumber. 
I think what I mean to say is that I have more respect and admiration for the early natives in any place than I do for the greedy people who took their homes.  When whats-his-name sings "I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free . . ." I don't think he's considering how we became free Americans, or how the folks from Spain came to be Mexicans. 
Unlike some have said on this post, I do feel I owe the original people more than I can pay, but I don't owe the descendants of slaves a dern thing.  One group was completely displaced and disrupted, yet they kept their pride.  The other group wants the U.S. to provide them with whatever they want, like the illegals flooding across the southern border. 
Some, not all.  I suppose that's true with any race, except the Native Americans, who, from what I know, expect little from the gov't and get even less. 
At that same school I attended in California, I met people from North and South Dakota who told me the Indians there were unclean thieves; the same kind of people we might imagine living in New York and Chicago slums.  I didn't believe it then, and I don't now.  As I said above, I respect them above any people on this dying world. 

[hunt-m-up]

 
Some, not all.  I suppose that's true with any race, except the Native Americans, who, from what I know, expect little from the gov't and get even less. 
At that same school I attended in California, I met people from North and South Dakota who told me the Indians there were unclean thieves; the same kind of people we might imagine living in New York and Chicago slums.  I didn't believe it then, and I don't now.  As I said above, I respect them above any people on this dying world.

Sorry, but this portion of your post is a broad generalization and very much incorrect. There are tribes that are very adept at pulling in every possible government dollar made available to them and continue to ask for and expect more. Having done business with 3 different tribes for over 10 years I can tell you there is a great deal of fraud and abuse of tax dollars going on there. Some tribes are well run, some very poorly. Most of those that have really embraced gaming and diversified in other ways as Dee alluded to are doing quite well. Government provided housing, modern single family ranches and split levels, with plywood over the broken windows and copper plumbing sold for cash are common. There are new schools, hospitals and government buildings with grafitti and unmowed lawns/weeds because they don't/won't take care of them.
Also, in this area, I would say roughly 75% of those who are looking to further themselves don't live on the res because they can't deal with the situation there. I applaud all of those who are trying to further themselves and those who are trying to help them, for their efforts.  To make this out to be some fairytale situation is very incorrect. They are constantly battling education issues, alcoholism/diabetes, teen pregnancy and domestic violence at a level far beyond the rest of society.

[hunt-m-up]

In re-reading my post I should have said they are battling those issues at the rate that probably rivals any inner city.

[ironglow]

I really don't want to get in a
big fuss about this, but I need
to put this in. . .


I've never taken anything from anyone.
I've never had any slaves.
My parents didn't have any slaves.
They almost starved to death as
kids during the Depression trying
to make enough to eat picking
cotton, and having a vegetable patch
to have something to eat.
They didn't inherit anything.
I didn't inherit anything.
Everything my parents had they
busted their guts for.
Everything I have I've busted
my guts for.
There is some indian blood in my
family.
There is some Anglo blood in
my family.
I have some friends with 100%
indian blood.
We don't call each other paleface
or injun.


I don't owe anyone in this nation
anything.


I pay all my own bills with the labor
of my hands.
If anyone feels guilty, and thinks they
owe somebody something, it would
probably be best if they sold all their
possessions and gave the money to
whomever they feel guilty toward.


I have zero guilt and will have none
painted on me.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 
     This thread is EXACTLY how I feel concerning the issues being discussed here.  So many here are saying we should no blame all Muslims for what a few are currently doing.. Fair enough...don't blame ME for what someone having my skin tone or my ethnic background has done to another human being...especially if the trespass happened 150 or 500 or more years ago..involving NOBODY who is alive today and an which nobody today can even truly remember.  What little I have ..I earned..no gifts, no inheritance ..except one old shotgun which I gave to a nephew.
   I could claim Ranger's statement here, because it would apply perfectly to my life, even in details...
  I honestly believe I don't owe anyone any more than they owe me.  If anyone thinks they owe another group of people for past wrongs perpetrated by somebody else..they can try to right it if they wish.  That's their perogative.. but do it on your own, not with taxes I have paid..
   Probably one of the most irritating claims I can think of is when someone is referring wrongs done 200, 300, 400 or 500 years ago, and they say "That's what WE did to them"..
   Pardon me...do you have a mouse in your pocket?  Where in blazes did you get that WE from?  Perhaps you're French..and that word is OUI!   ..But it should not include me..I wasn't even alive back then!

[finisher]

Russel  Means is not debating over what "race" holds the record for human wretchedness or who should pay who for whatever was done back when. From my experience and travels, human wretchedness knows no prejudice to color or genetics.


I get the impression that he is quite adjusted to the simple fact that the American Indian, like the tribes of Mexico and South America are a conquered people, right wrong or indifferent.


Because of his background and, education and exposure to the world outside of the reservation (POW camp), he possesses a very broadened perspective of the way the system works. I may be pushing it a bit by putting like this but one could say he has "seen" beyond the boxed categories of "left and "right"; conservative and liberal and all the other psychological shelters of ideology under  which  so many American bury their heads.


No, I think he is quite painfully aware of the reality of the existence for the American Indian as well as the average TV watching  American "Joe".


He mentions the writings of George Orwell and vents his frustration at how people cannot see the obvious (or excessively subtle depending on the thickness of ones skull) parallels between the society Orwell describes and our own.


He is praising the Constitution as a near perfect document and is trying to tell people to wake up! "Hey man, you had a good concept here and you just pissed it away to the corporations, lawyers, and politicians- power brokers and whores, all of them. And you let them do it RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU"


I dare say that he may even feel like saying "Hell, my people and culture were crushed so that you could do this?" and even further, he might think "if you were to pull your heads off of your screens and educate yourselves in order to build a better nation (again) then perhaps the passing of the time of the Indian could be considered a worthy sacrifice.


People, get off of "who" deserves what and who the bad guys were, and listen to what he is saying.


Our service men aren't getting their asses shot off for any great cause. It is a threat that our "RULERS" have fostered and financed since the days when "papa" Bush was being addressed as MR. Director. DON'T FOOL YOURSELF.


 And don't even come at me about patriotism because I've done my time above and beyond FOR MY COUNTRY AND THE CORPORATIONS AND CONGLOMERATES FOR WHICH IT STANDS and I'll say what I think because I've earned that right and I'll back it up with logic, objective reasoning, critical analysis, and my own physical and psychological scars- not a bunch of political, religious, ideological "right" or "left" wing BS.

It's ALWAYS ALL ABOUT THE MONEY... MONEYthat doesn't even exist if you truly have any grasp about how the banking and economic system works.


Sure man must be governed, but by what... an oppressive pyramid that statistically will always crumble upon itself due to feeding upon it's own; or as Means states, the LAWS OF NATURE?


IF A MAN WHO IS CLASSICALLY EDUCATED REFUSES TO SEE IT FOR WHAT IT IS THEN IT IS BECAUSE HE HAS ALREADY SOLD OUT HIS OWN SOUL OR AS MANY MAY PUT IT, "BOUGHT IN" TO THE COMPANY. As in Orwell's writings, you're either a "party member" or your a "prole". Anything else is simply a THOUGHT CRIMINAL.


Means is only trying to tell Americans to pull their heads out from where the sun don't shine; to educate and enlighten yourselves; broaden your narrow "left" and "right" perspectives; and FREE YOUR MINDS!


Hard to do when one does little serious reading and spends too much time believing the programming of the glowing brainwash box or a handful of "books" that have been twisted and reinterpreted (to suit the agendas  of those in power) over the course of a few thousand years. Ever play phone line when you were in school? A simple message can get twisted up pretty bad passing from word of mouth by a dozen people in five minutes. Imagine hundreds and thousands of people (with different agendas) over the course of thousands of years.


....the opening riff from "Dueling Banjos" twangs in the back of my mind. Yeah, Means even touches on that ugly demon as well if anyone caught it.

[Mike in Virginia]

hunt-m-up - sounds like you have more experience than I have with Native Americans.  And I suppose they act differently according to their location and tribe and to what degree they had to change due to being overrun.  For example, the Eskimos in northern Alaska seem to live outside the law a bit more than the Cherokee in NC.  Ever watch Alaska State Troopers on tv?  Interesting to see the native Alaskan towns.  Awful looking places.  It may be they could not adapt to having their culture destroyed.  That might be so with the ones you have encountered. 
I think if we go take a look at those cultures from a 500 year old viewpoint, we'd see primitive but organized people who did not need gov't and police.  But today, they are stuck with whatever their destroyers will give them and the trash said destroyers leave behind. 
The gov't does a terrible job looking after them.  That would be the same gov't that seized the very property your house sits on.  No, you did not personally take their land and lives.  But your taxes (which you have to pay anyway) should go toward some kind of restoration, even though they can't ever have what the had before it was smashed and stolen.   The politicians in that awful time are long dead, but the gov't they built is not dead and is not an entity that is alive in the sense that it died when they invaded.  It's an ongoing establishment that thrives, in part, on gathering taxes.  Your taxes.  That's how it builds the road you take to work.  That's how it sends police to trouble spots.  That's how it ships men and machines across the world to protect the very rights that the same gov't took from the Indians.  It's the same gov't that still screws up most everything it touches, and t's the same gov't that owes the Indians every chance to get some of their pride back.       

[hunt-m-up]

Throwing money at them won't solve the problem and I don't owe them anything. Those who want to better themselves have plenty of opportunities and many have done quite well. 

[finisher]

Wow, pretty good--pretty good Mr. Finisher!....
.
I'm convinced there are some people that think republicans vs democrats, left vs right, religion vs religion, race and color, and so on....exist in Heaven, or would if they're going there.
.
.
...TM7

************
...guess no one "caught" it eh? ...or anything else in the mans message.


No TM7... they think that only those who think and do exactly like they do will end up in "heaven".  Sounds like a lonely, boring and frightening place.    As for me, I'm fairly certain that if all that hoo-eee is actually literally accurate, I've already earned myself a one way ticket down to the "hot place" [size=78%] [/size]But I'm ok with having wrote my own ticket instead of having someone write it for me.


As to not getting it, ....like Means said, maybe it's the manufactured food or the immunizations (and not the inbreeding [size=78%]).[/size]

[Mike in Virginia]

I made it clear, hunt-m-up, did I not?  You do not personally owe them anything.  The gov't does, which means what they do get is coming from you.  I don't like to pay taxes either, and I don't like getting no say-so in where it goes, but then I (and you) are not the gov't.  They will do with your money as they please.  Personally, I think more of my tax money and more of yours should go to help the Native Americans.  You actually ought to give them so extra from your wallet.  Next time you see one, do that, and you will have helped a person no white man can ever measure up to. 
(That crap about ending a sentence with a preposition is outdated.  ". . . measure up to" is a perfectly proper way to write.  That rule changed about 50 years ago, so don't start on me about that.)
Even though we disagree, you must admit I'm funny.     

[ironglow]

  Much "psychobabble' here..which further confirms that believers and unbelievers have very different world views.  The opposing sides can spot one-another fairly quickly.  Now and then some lib-athiest will try to pretend he is a believer..but their lack of familiarity gives them away.  There is no need for a believer to lie..

[sidewinder319]

The First Nations were brutal to each other. They enslaved and cannabalized each other. The Cherokee Nations were dedicated owners of Black slaves. Standing Waite was the last Confederate Gen to surrender. He did not want to give up his African slaves.
You need to study the history of Means a dedicated Socialist. Means was supplied weapons by Castro during the murders at Wounded Knee. The facts are simple, any Indian can leave the Rez at anytime and get a job, many do. The theft and waste of taxpayer funds by the BIA is criminal. Just try shutting down these Indian Rezs and you will see how concerned they are about freedom.

[BBF]

Since the doors on the Reservations swing out, there is no reason for Govt. to spend money on them.
 
I'm curious to know if anyone has an idea just how much the Govt. spends on each individual that hangs out in those small native villages in the arctic were just about everything has to be flown in or water transported including Ice Road trucking.

[ironglow]

  There are 3 reservations in my home county.  The Indians are entitled to ALL that any of us  are as U.S. citizens..and more besides.  Many choose not to play the reservation game...and that's their perogative.  Frankly, except for early treaties, carelessly signed..I think it is time the whole system was dropped and the people melded into the general population.  Many of them have already done so..

[Mike in Virginia]

It looks like this thread has hit a wall, at least from my perspective.  I'll back out and bow to those who are more aware of what's going on in the real world.  But I'll hang onto my opinons for now.  They aren't worth much, except to me, and I fully realize they might be wrong.   

[finisher]

  There are 3 reservations in my home county.  The Indians are entitled to ALL that any of us  are as U.S. citizens..and more besides.  Many choose not to play the reservation game...and that's their perogative.  Frankly, except for early treaties, carelessly signed..I think it is time the whole system was dropped and the people melded into the general population.  Many of them have already done so..

************
Funny choice of words. Same term they use in the correctional system . But of course, as I've tried to point out, this was part of the ACTUAL focus of the message Means was trying to convey that we as a nation just don't seem to see.

[finisher]

You know TM7, you really ought maybe have posted this in the "Pot Bellied Stove" instead. Odds are though that the general message of the video would still be missed by many. Can't shoot what ya can't see, can't grasp what ya don't comprehend.


Tragic.

[ironglow]

  Let's get one thing straight here..  TM posts a video 1 hour and 35 minutes long; how many do you suppose went through the entire 1:35 program.  For many of us, all we needed to know about Russell Means we learned from events at Wounded knee in 1973!  Means did a goo job of acting in "The Last of the Mohicans"...but a poor job of acting at Wounded Knee.
       I sure didn't sit through entire 1 hour & 35 minutes of propagandization..I didn't need to.  I already knew that Means would be pushing his own brand of socialism.  We already have Obama's brand of socialism, which is also worthless..as is socialism wherever it's grimy plague sets in.
   What's the problem?  Why do you guys find fault with capitalistic freedom?
   
   There is no perfect economic system; but capitalism tempered by Christian influence has built the highest standard of living the world has ever seen.  In recent decades, malevolent forces have fought both Christianity and capitalism.. a rerun of what happened in Russia, between 1848 and 1917.
  Do you guys and Russell Means want to join Obama and become "fellow travellers" down that red road.. repeating the same mistake made by the Russians in 1917?

[Mikey]

Means always hated the white man and blamed him for all the ills of the 'Indian Nations'.  He seems to have forgotten, or to have 'overlooked' the fact that the history of mankind not just includes but is rife with one systematic genocidal massacre after another during which one 'nation' of people intentionally murdered off all of those who occupied lands, hunting areas, food sources or any other aspect of what supported the lives of those who killed off the others. 
I'm certain he has forgotten that (or chooses to overlook) the approach of one 'Nation' of Native Americans was to eliminate competetive tribes (kill all the men and boys who could fight, kill any woman who had given birth and take they young girls for their slaves).  Geez, sounds sorta like Islam, eh.  Almost everybody that people like Means has managed to convince believe that many if not all of the now defunct Native tribes were eliminated by the white movement west, when indeed many of those tribes were simply eliminated by their 'neighbors'.  Means can blame the white for all the diseases he wants to but sort of shies away from pointing out any guilt of other native tribes for simply continuing the practices of their ancestors, which literally amounted to genocide.  And let's not forget disease - the white man brought many with him when he came here but the native man had many of his own.
The National Geographic has, once or twice, run articles about the history of Native Americans and noted probably thousands of tribes of yesteryear while only possibly one hundred larger 'Nations' are found now.  I believe the NG also pointed out that many of these tribes had disappeared long before the advent of the white man as well as during his westward migration, and some had disappeared within only a few hundred years before the white man moved west.  I wonder if Means has any awareness of how civilizations are born, whether native or non-native,  that one way or another, one particular group overwhelms other smaller groups and if the smaller groups are not murdered off by the larger group they are 'melded' into the larger population.
I met Means on two occasions - neither very noteworthy.  Both times I was picking melons for 'Cesar Chavez' so I could learn what discrimination meant.  Right!  Me of Armenian extraction needed to learn what discrimination, racial and religious hatred and genocide was from a bunch of social studies teachers and wannabe advocates.  Means felt we should all be taken to the back ditch and beaten to death because we were white and needed to feel the pain of the Native Man.  He told us we all looked alike and were a blight to the Nations.  I figured a 30-06 through his chest would be the best medicine and this was in '66.  He hasn't changed a bit and I think he is still delusional. 
Personally I think it is a good thing that the white man came along and finally developed his television cameras and televison stations and audiences of millions because for guys like Means he wouldn't be able to get his word out otherwise.  I think someone like Geronimo, a Apache, would simply have killed him......

[finisher]

I struggle to comprehend the logic, mentality, or thought process of anyone  who would offer an opinion on a SPECIFIC SUBJECT (I.E. this video) without hearing it IN IT'S ENTIRETY.


Makes as much sense to me as politicians who vote SYSTEMATICALLY on laws without ever having read the proposal (simply because it is what their particular party generically endorses). This seems to be a standardized practice in DC.


My brother is very active in the practices of our Indian heritage and even he feels that Russel means at one point was little more than thug. I very much see and understand this view point. But this thug took it upon himself to educate himself and continue that path (as I see it , this should be a never ending journey).


I can just hear some on this site saying  "any damn LIBERAL education is a commie brainwash    " or something like "formal education is over rated" Yes, I've heard it in person by some of the yocals where I live. Imagine that...education and the pursuit of knowledge and fact being "over rated". Frightening .


Thug or not, I can say that I have met some of the most interesting and highly educated people in places you would least expect like the LA County Jail and swabbing decks on a Navy ship. Some of these guys could pull out their credentials like a deck of cards and say " pick a degree or discipline, how about a doctorate (or two), or perhaps just a masters or an emphasis.


Don't ask me what I was doing in the LA county lock up...long story/younger days...an education in itself. But I had to ask myself in amazement "what is this guy doing here?" The simplest and most common explanations I received (which I guess are always best with average "sheeple" [size=78%]) [/size]were to the effect of "Too much knowledge can be dangerous and get one into trouble if not wielded responsibly" and "ignorance (or more poignantly, the feigning of) is bliss"

Just because one has a, how does one put it... unconventional past, does not mean that there is nothing to learn from this individual. As a psychology "flunky" (still a work in progress), I am fascinated with human behavior and I often derive more knowledge from just hearing (or in this case reading- every one of you teach me something with your words), and observing the individual. And the knowledge doesn't come so much from the content of the words themselves but from the mental attitudes that cause me to theorize on the back grounds and experiences (or lack of), traumas, and events that helped to construct such psyches.

I try to compare, contrast and profile each UNIQUE experience in order to understand the why subject A thinks this way and subject B thinks that way. Apples and oranges, left and right. My views may conflict with another's but I am still learning all the while about behavior rather than closing my mind just because of the content(or lack of) of their words..in essence, attempting to turn a "dead end" into an avenue of further enlightenment.

Our words and our thinking patterns give away all of our "poker hands" when being observed or analyzed by a trained perspective. See through you these people can .  The really smart ones (guess that excludes me) just don't let you know it.


As far as the childish name calling; "commies", "socialist", "libby" "lefty" etc; I understand that it is psychologically easier to put everyone into a categorized box and label them (a very common socialist tactic as well by the way). I think 'ol Senator McCarthy would approve.


 May he (depending upon what one believes) be reincarnated as some sort of hive insect, or just rot in his own hateful state of hell.


I hope that never in my lifetime will I ever "know all I need to know " about any person or subject as I feel that such a mind set would close to me many doors and avenues of  personal and spiritual growth, and enlightenment.


Just an opinion but I feel that only a dark side: a twisted evil, and those under it's influence... would perpetuate, foster, and advocate the thinking and dealing in the  ABSOLUTES of any ideology.