The Russell Means I Knew - ICTMN.com
indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comRussell Means was not only a visionary, he was also keeper of memories. Russell was both an orator and a man of action. Inspired by a legacy of strength, Russell was one who walked his talk and inspired others to follow his example.
Many words have been written and spoken about his highly publicized leadership roles during the Red Power era. This is important but just as significant were the little- known or unheralded actions Russell did to support Indigenous Peoples.
Russell was one of a very small group of leaders who responded to many calls from Indigenous Peoples and arrived to help out in whichever way he could. From personal experience, I’ve witnessed Russell travel at his own expense to support a cause even when it was not something that he had a personal stake in. The compelling reason was often that a small group of Natives were attempting to stand up to some injustice and decided to reach out to Russell.
Russell was often described as figure of publicity but I’ve seen him avoid the spotlight in many public gatherings and rallies. At other times, organizers would have to encourage him to take a turn on the microphone or suggest that he share words of inspiration with those on hand. When news cameras were on hand, Russell wouldn’t hesitate to do an interview and call out the local media if they had an anti-NDN bias in their reporting. His concern was not with being a media NDN darling but giving NDNs a voice in the media.
Another trait of Russell’s that I witnessed was that he led from the front and took the same risks as anyone else. Whether that meant going to jail, standing vigil in uncomfortable weather or carrying out tasks while exhausted, Russell Means wasn’t one to skip out on us. Many times we’d complete a rally and Russell would jump in his van to travel to a different state so he could fulfill another request for his support. A friend and I had discussion about this and we agreed that Russell was someone we could depend on while many young NDN men we knew who spoke loudly about supporting Native Peoples always seemed to have good excuses for never showing up for anything.
Russell was also someone who was willing to share a needed perspective for young people. He often spoke to small groups of Native youth about what motivated and inspired him. I’ve listened to Russell share lesson’s from his personal history about the early AIM days up to the present and what he’s learned from that. Often those lessons had to do with perseverance, sacrifice and compassion.
Several years ago I was struggling with how one overcomes anger and hatred when violence is inflicted on them for seeking justice for Indigenous Peoples. It was a period when many Native friends were the victims of police brutality and they were wondering if the pain was worth it.
Russell was visiting in town so I sought him out and had a discussion with him. I related that many of my friends were questioning their choices — choices that brought public attacks from other NDNs for some, physical violence for others and for all, an overall sense of personal setbacks bordering on humiliation.
After listening and thinking about it for a bit this is what he said: “The way I’ve seen it is that every injury I took, every sacrifice I made and every personal cost I paid has been done on behalf of our people and ancestors. So I take these things as a badge of honor and they are things that I am proud of.”
He continued on with giving advice about how I could help out those who were going through tough times. He drew on his first hand experience and shared stories of his younger years. As we sat there I realized how much of an honor it was to know this man: Russell Means, Oglala and Indigenous Patriot.
Robert Chanate is a member of the Kiowa Nation and can be reached at rckiowa@gmail.com and twitter.com/rckiowa. He is from Carnegie, OK and currently lives in Denver, CO. He is also co-authoring a forthcoming book with Gyasi Ross appropriately called “The Thing About Skins,” and the website and publishing company for that handy, dandy book is www.cutbankcreekpress.com.
Indian Country Today on Tumblr
It’s been really nice seeing Al Jazeera and Univision News get their own tumblrs and it’s been nice following them.
I’m not sure if anyone else is into it. But i recall that at other points (like the beginning of the Egyptian Revolution) that folks had to start a petition to get Al Jazeera to create a tumblr… now they use it all the time and it’s rad.
I don’t know if anyone else is into it, but i’m into the idea of asking/campaigning to get Indian Country Today to get a tumblr. I think it’d be super nice and helpful to have them on here. Plus maybe more folks would be able (knowing that they’re lazy) to learn about who the heck we are and the issues and what not going on in our communities.
Is anyone else down for starting that up with me?
Palestinians Endorse Idle No More
indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com
Gale Courey Toensing
December 29, 2012
American Indians and Palestinians have supported each other’s struggle since at least the 1970s when the American Indian Movement hosted a delegation of leaders from the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
“What the American Indian Movement says is that the American Indians are the Palestinians of the United States, and the Palestinians are the American Indians of the Middle East,” the late great Indian leader Russell Means said many times. So it is no surprise that Palestinian activists are coming out in support of Idle No More.
In little more than two weeks since the December 10 launching of the Idle No More movement by First Nations in Canada oppose a Senate omnibus budget bill that leaves them with no power over their lands and resources, dozens of organizations and hundreds of individuals supporting Palestinian liberation and human rights have endorsed the Palestinians in Solidarity with Idle No More and Indigenous Rights statement of support of the continuing Native protest that has spread across Canada, the U.S., some European countries and into the Middle East. Palestinians in Solidarity with Idle No More and Indigenous Rights calls for justice, dignity, decolonization and protection of the land, waters and resources.
“We recognize the deep connections and similarities between the experiences of our peoples – settler colonialism, destruction and exploitation of our land and resources, denial of our identity and rights, genocide and attempted genocide,” the statement says. “As Palestinians, we stood with the national liberation movement against settler colonialism in South Africa, as we stand with all liberation movements challenging colonialism and imperialism around the world. The struggle of Indigenous and Native peoples in Canada and the United States has long been known to the Palestinian people, reflecting our common history as peoples and nations subject to ethnic cleansing at the hands of the very same forces of European colonization.”
The statement goes on to recognize that the Indigenous resistance movement in Canada “includes struggles against the ongoing theft of indigenous lands, massive resource extraction and environmental devastation (including tar sands and pipelines), the continuing movement of survivors of the genocidal residential school system, and movements to demand an end to the colonial and gendered violence against Indigenous women.”
Palestinians In Solidarity with Idle No More and Indigenous Rights was launched by Vancouver resident Khaled Barakat, a Palestinian writer and community activist whose organization Samidoun focuses on the plight of political prisoners in Israeli jails and also works with Native activists and groups.
“As a Palestinian I try to study the history of the struggle here in Canada and I also see in the present conditions among Native communities that we have a common interest, a joint struggle in so many different ways,” Barakat told Indian Country Today Media Network. “I have a personal conviction that the Palestinian struggle and the struggle of all indigenous peoples around the world are connected.”
Barakat noted that both Palestinians and Native peoples have similar challenges in terms of a lack of unified representation and leadership and that one of the most effective colonialist strategies – divide and conquer – is still alive and well and working to the detriment of unity. “The Zionists, for example, are working so hard on trying to get some of the Native leaders to go and support Israel and some of these chiefs who don’t really represent the actual population and people go to Israel and try to portray that Natives and Israelis have bonds, not Natives and Palestinians, but in the final analysis those individuals’ numbers are not significant. Our numbers and support have to do with grassroots and people in the streets so eventually we will win,” Barakat said.
The core issue for both Native peoples and Palestinians is land, Barakat said, noting that Israel has violated dozens of United Nations resolutions and international laws in illegally occupying and expropriating Palestinian lands for Israeli settlers. “Land is definitely the main issue because of the resources, but it’s also the culture, it’s the history, it’s the ownership. And the economy is a major determining factor in the conflict – whether it’s among First Nations and other Indigenous Peoples here in Canada and the U.S. or Palestine – and the land is very much connected to that,” Barakat said.
An empathy with Native peoples goes back to Barakat’s childhood. As a young boy growing up in Palestine he saw that the Israeli media always portrayed Native peoples as savage, barbaric terrorists – the same terms used to portray Palestinians in the media, he said. “So even when we were children we would fight over who would play the cowboys and who would play the Natives, because everybody always wanted to play the Natives,” he said.
Barakat said it was no coincidence that he chose to begin the call for the Palestinians in Solidarity with Idle No More statement lines from the late Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish’s great epic poem The Speech of the Red Indian. In this poem written in 1992, Darwish captures the passion and sorrow of both Palestinians and Native Americans over what has befallen their peoples – invasion, colonization, ethnic cleansing, genocide, land theft, and imprisonment on tiny postage stamp-sized areas of what had once been their vast homeland.
You who come from beyond the sea, bent on war,
don’t cut down the tree of our names,
don’t gallop your flaming horses across
the open plains….
Don’t bury your God
in books that back up your claim of
your land over our land,
don’t appoint your God to be a mere
courtier in the palace of the King.
“It’s almost an instinctive feeling to see ourselves in the indigenous struggle,” Barakat said. “It’s because of this that Palestinians in general see that what happened and is still happening to Natives in Canada and the U.S. is actually happening now in Palestine.”
Original text at the source has links in it as well as a video, I didn’t know how to add it to the post, the title is linked to the article/page so check it out there.
Loss of Berenstain Bears Co-Creator Felt in Indian Country
indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comBy ICTMN Staff February 28, 2012
Jan Berenstain, who wrote and illustrated the beloved Berenstain Bears books with her husband Stan, has passed away. She suffered a stroke last Thursday and passed away Friday, February 24 at 88 years old.
The first of the Berenstain Bears books, “The Big Honey Hunt,” was published in 1962 with the help of Theodor Gisel, aka Dr. Seuss, who was then a children’s book editor with Random House.
According to The Associated Press, the tales of Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Brother Bear and Sister Bear have been translated into 23 languages, most recently Arabic and Icelandic.
“They say jokes don’t travel well, but family humor does,” Jan Berenstain told the AP in 2011. “Family values is what we’re all about.”
The family humor even made its way into the Lakota language. Last year, the Lakota Language Consortium (LLC) finished dubbing 20 episodes of Mathˇó Waúŋšila Thiwáhe, or The Compassionate Bear Family into the Native American language.
“The Berenstain family has been incredibly generous with their creations, and have helped the Lakota language tremendously by allowing their characters to speak Lakota,” said Wil Meya, LLC executive director. “Our heartfelt condolences go out to Mike [Jan and Stan’s son] and the rest of the Berenstain group. Jan’s heart was always in the right place–she and her late husband Stan were a model of what is possible to accomplish with humor and gentleness.”
Read more about Jan and Stan Berenstain, who passed away in 2005, from The Associated Press.
See the last of the 20 dubbed episodes here.
