Russell Means honored

Means spirited:
American Indian actor and activist honored at Haskell film festival

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2010/mar/26/means-spirited-american-indian-actor-and-activist-/

By Jon Niccum
March 26, 2010

Russell Means' Lakota Sioux name (Oyate Wacinyapin) translates to
"Works for the People."

It's fair to say the American Indian activist and actor has earned
that designation.

"I've made a difference in everything I've participated in," Means says.

The 70-year-old first came to the public's attention in the 1970s as
a leader of the American Indian Movement, taking part in many of the
decade's most prominent national protests: at Alacatraz, Mount
Rushmore, the Mayflower and the 71-day armed occupation at Wounded Knee.

To modern audiences he's more familiar for his acting career. Roles
include playing Chief Chingachgook in "The Last of the Mohicans," the
Medicine Man in "Natural Born Killers" and the voice of Chief
Powhatan in Disney's "Pocahontas." Most recently, he appeared in the
adventure "Pathfinder" and as Wandering Bear in an acclaimed episode
of TV's "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

Whether serving as the 1984 vice presidential candidate of the
Libertarian party or being immortalized on canvas by artist Andy
Warhol, it's clear to see why the L.A. Times once called Means "the
most famous American Indian since Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse."

Means is heading to Lawrence this weekend as the special guest of the
sixth-annual American Indian Stories N' Motion Film Festival held at
Haskell Indian Nations University. He'll present and discuss his
movie "Rez Bomb," an indie feature set on the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation in South Dakota, where he was born.

Q: What's the most common question you're asked by students?

A: What is the Indian experience in American film. I have to give
them a historic answer as well as a modern one. That's what I'll be
talking about at the film festival.

Q: Has Hollywood gotten better at portraying American Indians since
you first started acting?

A: In the '70s and '80s we thought they got it. They were finally
treating us with respect. Then they do an about-face and become as
bad, if not worse, than the treatment before. It's a horrible,
racist, stereotypical image - racist to the point of genocidal. It
engenders into the entire American psyche that we are primitive, dirty idiots.

Q: Can you give me an example of a movie you feel this way about?

A: "Dances with Wolves" - even though the liberals loved it.
"Missing" by that bald-headed, redhead kid (Ron Howard). "Black Robe"
from Canada, which was the most vile of them all. ... The TV series
"Into the West" that won all those awards. Anytime you portray Indian
people in a stereotypical way, you win awards.

Q: What film role do most people associate you with?

A: "The Last of the Mohicans." I'm proud of that because it's a
classic. It endures. But even that was not perfect.

Q: What can you tell me about "Rez Bomb"?

A: It's a simple love story set on a reservation about poor people
who are down and out. It reflects the reality and the economic
position, especially of the leading lady (Wichita native Tamara Feldman).

Q: What do you remember about working on "Curb Your Enthusiasm"?

A: Man, that was perfect. And when they had the audition, you should
have seen the lineup. Normally, I only audition for white modern
roles. I don't usually audition for Indian roles because I've been
there, done that. But I agreed to audition for that. They told me I
had to ad lib. They had their set lines. But the scene that's so
famous (involving Wandering Bear's cure for Cheryl David's "female
problems"), I ad-libbed that. They all laughed so hard that they
hired me on the spot.

Q: Looking back on the AIM era of the 1970s, what was the greatest
accomplishment to come out of those struggles?

A: Self-dignity and self-pride - something you can't measure. But
it's manifested today in every aspect you can think of.

Q: Why do you prefer the term American Indian over Native American?

A: The word "Indian" is an English bastardization of a Spanish
bastardization. Columbus wrote "una gente en dio" - "a people in with
God." He went on to write that they are so peaceful and generous as
it to be a fault. Therefore they'd make excellent slaves. The
Spaniards started calling them "indio." That stuck. This is 100 years
before the English conquered the sub-continent they called India. We
were the first with that name. Then the English bastardized the
Spanish to "Indian."

Q: Do you have a dream project?

A: Yes I do. I co-wrote a script called 'Wounded Knee 1973.' Every
time we've made the rounds in Hollywood we'd pitch the project. We'd
go in with all the data. Understand, I'm well-respected in Hollywood
because of my activism. It opens doors. Plus I did "Last of the
Mohicans," "Natural Born Killers" and "Pocahontas" - three movies
that have made over $100 million. That's the success benchmark.
Consequently, a lot of doors are open to me beyond just being an
actor. We'd go in and bring our statistics about the history of
movies from the '50s to now that treated us with dignity. And every
one of them made beaucoup bucks. There's no reason not to make a
movie that treats us with dignity. But there were no takers. Now I've
got a new management company that has influence, and we're making the
rounds again. It might actually be made 40 years after it happened.

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