Russell Means is an Oglala Sioux who was born in 1943 on the Pine Ridge
Reservation.  He is a significant leader of the American Indian Movement
(AIM).  AIM became a national force when the Indians of the city slums
joined with reservation Indians, combining elements of the protest
movements of the 1960s and early 1970s with traditional Native American
religion and culture.  Means was a leader at the Washington, D.C., Bureau
of Indian Affairs takeover in 1972 and at Wounded Knee in 1973.  He helped
train AIM members in nonviolent tactics.  In 1973, Means participated in
an AIM protest outside the courthouse in Custer, South Dakota.  A white
man was being tried for the fatal stabbing in Rapid City earlier that year
of Wesley Bad Heart, a Sioux.  The protesters responded angrily when they
learned that the charges had been dropped to second-degree manslaughter,
and a riot broke out between the Indians and the police.  Means himself
was beaten by police, and he is noted for telling them, "We are fighting
for our lives.  You are only fighting for your paychecks."  Now Means and
his Navajo wife live in Arizona where he heads a multiracial political
party.