Russell Means: Why He Matters to You

Abstract

Wake up, there’s a war goin’ on.” This was Russell Means’s way of waking you up when he called at zerodarkthirty in the morning, starting his day. Russell always got up with the Morning Star. But on this Monday morning, October 22, Russell Means’s wife, Pearl, was on the phone. She was calling to tell us that Russell had joined the ancestors earlier that morning. He walked on with the Morning Star. A little over a year before, Russell and Pearl stopped by for dinner. His neck was swollen and puffy, swallowing and talking were painful. He’d just come from a doctor’s appointment. “On Monday,” he said as he sat down at the table, “they’re going to give me my ETA to the Spirit World.” When the doctor told Russell he had terminal cancer, Russell turned to look at Pearl to see how she was taking the news. They told him his best option was a radical tracheotomy. He would be confined to a wheelchair, unable to walk, talk, eat, or swallow. Life expectancy was two months to two years. “Sure, they’d like to cut out my tongue,” said Russell. “Forget it.”