Russell Means was born on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. In the 1960s, Means moved frequently, working as a cowboy, a day laborer, and in advertising. In 1969 Means became the director of the American Indian Center in Cleveland, Ohio. There he met Dennis Banks, a cofounder of the American Indian Movement (AIM). Means founded a second chapter of AIM in Cleveland and brought attention to the organization in 1970 when he confronted people dressed as Pilgrims on Thanksgiving Day. During the next two years, Means organized a prayer vigil at Mount Rushmore and sued the Cleveland Indians baseball team over their mascot. In the fall of 1972, Means organized the Trail of Broken Treaties. Several Indian groups traveled to Washington, D.C., to protest the federal government’s policies toward American Indians. The groups took over the Bureau of Indian Affairs building until forcibly removed. In 1973 Means and about 200 armed Indians staged a protest in Wounded Knee, the site of an Indian massacre in the late 1800s. Means left AIM in 1988 to found the American Indian Anti-Defamation League. He has also become an actor, performing in the 1992 film Last of the Mohicans.
