Biography
Russell Means was an Oglala Lakota leader of the American Indian Movement and one of the most visible Indigenous activists of his generation. He led major AIM actions including the 1969–71 occupation of Alcatraz, the 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties march and occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, the 1972 occupation of Mount Rushmore, and — most prominently — the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Federal prosecutors brought Means and Dennis Banks to trial in St. Paul on conspiracy, assault, and other charges; after a nine-month trial Judge Fred Nichol dismissed all charges on grounds of governmental misconduct.
Means was arrested more than a dozen times across his life on politically related charges. After a chaotic protest at the Sioux Falls courthouse in April 1974, he was prosecuted under South Dakota state law for assault and riot; he was convicted and, after his appeals were exhausted, served roughly a year at the South Dakota State Penitentiary at Sioux Falls beginning in 1979.
The 1973 Wounded Knee occupation began on February 27, 1973, when approximately 200 members of the Oglala Lakota and the American Indian Movement seized the town of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation, demanding hearings on broken treaties and the removal of corrupt tribal president Dick Wilson. The occupation lasted 71 days, during which two AIM members were killed by federal gunfire, twelve were wounded, and approximately 1,200 people were arrested. The federal prosecution of Means and Banks ran for nine months; on September 16, 1974, Chief Judge Fred Nichol of the District of South Dakota dismissed all charges, ruling that the FBI had altered evidence, conducted illegal electronic surveillance, and that an FBI special agent had committed perjury on the stand.
