Indian Activist Means Leaves AIM, Says Movement Achieved Impossible

BAKERSFIELD — American Indian activist Russell Means, who led the Wounded Knee uprising in South Dakota in 1973, Thursday declared that the American Indian Movement “has accomplished the impossible” in the last 20 years and announced his retirement from AIM.

Means, 48, said great strides had been made in the movement since Dennis Banks and other Indian activists founded AIM in Minneapolis in July, 1968.

“Now there is activism in virtually every American Indian community,” Means said at a press conference. “AIM people are now integrated into every productive and responsible segment of Indian and non-Indian society. AIM has worked itself out of a job.”

However, he added: “AIM will always be alive. It’s a movement of ideas.”

During the Wounded Knee uprising, two Indians died and a federal marshal was paralyzed. Means and Banks were charged with 10 felony counts each after the 71-day uprising. However, a federal judge, citing misconduct by the prosecution, dismissed the case after an eight-month trial.