1989 - American Indian Activist Russell Means testifies at Senate Hearing

Hammet aqua pay me OMA Lakota a magenta ha Makino's eto spy kill a case a Lillee walk on maitake a art a Tonka with coke to spy mitakuye inna wombly zoo you too your spy this is traditional greeting of my people that I am bound to give I'll be it it's a short version what I said in my own language translated into English thusly hello my relatives I have an Oglala Lakota and I come from our very sacred holy land the Black Hills where yellow thunder village is my mother is from the War Eagle clan and my father's family is from the Crazy Horse clan this greeting is to this day the way all Indians throughout the nation still greet one another those that still know their culture this is the only way we present ourselves to one another that is acceptable we tell you who we are where we are from who we are from our clans and we do this without ever saying our name anything less would be an insult to you and to my people senators my morning prayers to the great mystery always include you and your colleagues in Congress as well as leaders in all governments it is an honor to come before you as a spokesman for my people the American Indians of the United States of America in these United States of America this great country of ours we American Indians we can be anything we want to be except American Indians and that is created by the laws of this nation and condoned by its subsidiaries the so called tribal government and designed for the Indian to fail to be expendable to be eliminated I take you back in your history after the American Indian hostiles had been subdued and forcibly confined to Indian reservations it took approximately thirty years one generation for us to adjust and become economically viable contrary to what the anthropologists say and what we even ourselves are taught as Indian people however allotments were made smaller our romantic remaining lands were open to homesteading and we were forced into reducing our livestock nevertheless we made the adjustment again in less than half the aforementioned time fifteen years have become economically self-sufficient again but once again the American Indian was forced into reducing our livestock the boss farmer concept was instituted we were told what when where how much and how little we could grow thus applied to agriculture and our livestock again we recovered in a time span of approximately fifteen years we were so successful in our third recovery that the American Indians enjoyed the finest of economic times while the rest of the industrialized world was wallowing in the Great Depression it was then that President Roosevelt introduced the Howard wheeler Act better known as the Indian Reorganization Act the IRA which institutionalized the so called tribal governments which are not one of our institutions and it is still foreign to us this very day we have yet to recover forty five years later the IRA Indian tribal governments on their own initiative began renewed efforts at re-establishing their sovereignty focused on the oldest profession of American Indians that's gambling bingo and other gaming operations has been without exception a proven initial success failure through mismanagement politics or litigation has been less than 15% showing a better than 85 percent success rate the new Indian sponsored gaming industry on reservations dwarfed success ratios of any and all other non non-indian industries in America gaming operations have proven to benefit the revenue gathering of all governments with a County State or Indian Reservation with regulation of bingo and Gaming by the Congress we are experiencing repetition of history one shouldn't remedy success the results the United States government through Congress once again intervenes to regulate a proven success in violation of all basic and fundamental rules of economics and totally contrary to all laws of capitalism American Indians are human beings we are supposed to be citizens of the United States of America we fought in your Wars and other countries our Navajo Nation code talker served and saved this nation in World War two we have the in area below joint venture with whom we choose as long as we do not harm nor commit fraud upon anyone there is no piece of evidence anywhere that proves Indians ever conspired with criminal elements to establish Bingle the Bureau of Indian Affairs the infamous Colonial Office of the Department of Interior and the initiator of sleaze in government has been regulating contracting on Indian reservations since nineteen since 1824 this fact alone should convince and teach every student of government that regulation of Commerce and enterprise does not work in fact it only produces the opposite result graft and corruption is rampant to the contracting auspices of the BI and a sergei tribal government Indian front contractors bid for and receive government contracts only to proceed to build shoddy dangerous bridges buildings schools roads and dams the Indian is the scapegoat when there is a failure and is always the one indicted contracting on reservations has proven historically to breed in feed corruption within the BIA and now the tribal governments within the past two years I personally have attempted to assist seven Indian reservations located in the southwest the Northwest and the northern plains to no avail the investors I represented were from various groups interested in establishing banks resorts Indian owned Public Relation firms factories fishing ports and international trade I now know that tribal governments do not want economic development unless graft is a major ingredient the BIA is a major player in land leases being sold by petty bureaucrats for as meager an amount as $40 there is a scandal of monstrous proportions occurring in at least two Indian agencies the BIS branch of land operations and the branch of realty I challenge this investigation is committing to intricately go into the branches of realty and land operations the BIA does not enforce its trust with trust responsibilities quite to the contrary in September of nineteen nineteen eighty-seven I moved from the poorest County in America the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to the richest area in the country the Navajo Indian Reservation there is no difference I paraphrase the former Secretary of the Department of the Interior James what if you want to see an example of fail socialism go to an Indian Reservation the poorest and richest reservations in our nation suffer from identical problems mismanagement a bloated patronage system no checks and balances and tribal governments waiver of sovereignty in order to initiate debt this is not anything new this is an everyday occurrence in all tribal governments problem is leadership in this case it is the lack of leadership ironically everyone including you senators refer to the allegedly elected tribal officials as leaders leaders are supposed to work for a better quality of life for their constituents it is an insult to my heritage my ancestors and my dignity as an Oglala Lakota to have the term used loosely many of the tribal officials are honest and insincere men and women who have good hearts nevertheless a vast majority of the tribal officials parasite on the incestuous world of tribal politics not as our forefathers who are the best providers protectors defenders advocators and Friends the game of who is the most important rules it's embarrassing at the turn of the century American Indians numbered about two hundred and thirty thousand all traditional with each succeeding generation we lose a population base and our spirit as once proud peoples the American Indian statistics of deprivation have remained constant since the end of World War two all other groups of citizens fortunes rise and fall with the gross national product the GMP the American Indian statistical lines of deprivation remains constant a straight line with the blatant genocide of our traditional people we have less than 50,000 in America today we are averaging a loss of 1000 a year since 1900 we are losing a value system as distinct people that sets us apart from the industrialized world these facts surface in our tribal statistics and no one attempts to do anything about it except for a few social workers and reservation police this new statistical horror is women and child abuse child sexual abuse is epidemic on Indian reservations and all you hear are whispers this abuse can be directly a turtle attributable to the schools on the reservations education in the BIA public the contract and missionary schools do not teach positive values from non-indian culture and in collusion with the BIA certainly do not allow Indian culture and values to be taught the fact is educators continually denigrate American Indian traditional lifestyle as primitive dirty and without any redeemable virtues and the tribal councils condone it needless to say every time the US government has interfered with American Indian lifestyles it has been proven to be disastrous in the 1960s legal services were implemented on Indian reservations it was a boon for the people tribal of officials all of a sudden were held accountable legal services stepped in and lo and behold tribal courts had power to the power of attorney for the people the result an edict from Washington DC is handed down and legal services can no longer represent people against the tribal government and they can no longer represent class-action lawsuits against any government presently legal sir are not much more than a MILF or divorce lawyer trainees Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act in 1978 to date six cases concerning our freedom of religion has reached the Supreme Court we lost every one of them we do not win lawsuits state governments lose the only time we allegedly win a lawsuit it is in reality the federal government winning out over the sovereign rights of a state once again the American Indians are the pawn now the major factor is presenting American Indian people with his existing rights to self-determination American Indians suffer under a system of dual citizenship that is US citizenship and tribal citizenship maintained by the BIA only Hitler did that the dual citizenship is a major obstacle in the free exercise of individual and tribal sovereignty the continuing loss and nutrition of existing lands through various federal state and local laws and or regulations is a hindrance the abridgement of sovereign rights to remaining lands and the arbitrary monetary policies of settlement of these rights whenever they are recognized another major factor preventing Indian people from self-determination subjugation of the American Indian individual to the laws of government-sponsored tribal governments and the continuing arbitration of the BI rules and regulations which have the force of law yet are not repeatable solutions the American Indian people's right to self-determination is recognized and will be implemented through the following policies the American Indian individual shall have the right to choose his or her citizenship and American Indian nations have the right to choose their level of citizenship and autonomy up to absolute independence the American Indian will have their just property rights restored which include rights of easement access hunting fishing prayer and water the BIA will be abolished with the American Indian tribal members deciding the extent and nature of their governments if any negotiations will be undertaken to exchange otherwise unclaimed and unknown federal property for any and all government obligations to the American Indian nations and to fully and to hold fully liable those responsible for any and all damages which have resulted from the resource development on or near reservation lands included including damages done by careless and inexcusable disposal of uranium mill tailings and other mineral and toxic wastes I want to thank you gentlemen for inviting me here it's been a high honor especially since I'm the only one invited here today to testify that doesn't receive money from the federal government also I want to make I was introduced as a former founder and leader in American any movement to the tribal chairwoman that you have here are former associates of the American Indian Movement back in the days when we were gross militants and so I just wanted to let you in on that at the American Indian Movement is a very proud continuing part of American Indian society Thank You mr. means thank you you certainly have left us with many provoking thoughts about the problems facing Indian American Indians today and you were kind enough and wise enough to also make some suggestions I think that is what this committee is looking for we may agree we may not agree with them but it is important to have some thought-provoking ideas of where we should go from the standpoint of the relationship between the federal government and the American natives

Channel: C-SPAN

Views: 941,641

Rating: 4.9090652 out of 5

Keywords: senate hearing, aim, wounded knee

Id: xVANRroxuOo

Length: 17min 48sec (1068 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 24 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/kol13190]

Pretty concerning about all the politicians sitting there looking like he's wasting their time. Their body language and their facial expressions all look like they're stuck in a room with a fresh turd on the ground.

Russell deserves better than that, but just like then and just like now, they don't care and deem Natives insignificant.

[u/DharmaBumz1]

As a non-Native, watching this speech as a high schooler single handedly catalyzed my continued learning about Native history, culture and oppression in the US. I am still moved by it and infuriated by the patronizing non-verbal cues he receives. Rest in power Russ.

[u/nastafarti]

If you can find it, you should also watch Andy Rickard's declaration of the independence of the Nishinawbe Aski Nation. I've seen it online somewhere but I can't find it right now. A bit earlier, but the same feeling. Very strong words.

[u/YOUREABOT]

I have strong ties to the Apache. I am very proud of my heritage. Russell did beautifully during that Hearing... both as a gentleman and warrior. Rest In Peace. <3