Russell Means, who has been tried for major federal crimes he did not commit, committed a minor one the other day which will probably be ignored.
More Top Picks Opendyslexic Font Does It Actually Work
As it should be. Means was doing the government a favor by trying to edit its account of the events on this spot 103 years ago, when several hundred U.S. soldiers slaughtered at least 146 Sioux, including at least 62 women and children.
The editing job did involve defacing government property by trying to scratch out that part of a signboard that portrayed the incident as a more excusable massacre than it was. But considering that the offending words were at least debatable, and probably just plain wrong, the little legal offense was neutralized by the larger intellectual contribution.
If only Means were not guilty of so many of his own violations of the laws of clear thinking, serious enough to be considered felonies if foolishness were a crime.
Means no longer holds an official position in the American Indian Movement, which itself has largely faded away. But he remains one of the celebrities of Native Americana-he had a major role in “The Last of the Mohicans”-and because there are so few Indian leaders, he remains a spokesman for his people.
Too bad. Asked what Indians needed now, Means said, “it’s time to be free nations, free sovereign nations. We (would) send our ambassadors to Washington, D.C., to deal with the State Department. We (would) have seats in the UN.”
In considering the future, prudence dictates remembering always that nothing is impossible. But this comes about as close as you can get. Even if the people of the United States were willing to cede millions of square miles of their territory to separate nations-and they are not-there would be just a few practical problems, matters such as currencies, border guards and integrating the economies of two unequal societies.
Complete sovereignty for the Pine Ridge Reservation would instantly change one important statistic: Shannon County, which is most of the reservation, would no longer be the poorest in America. But only because it would no longer be in America. It would be no less poor. It would be far poorer.
According to Myron Collamer, the director of economic assistance at Pine Ridge, about 35 percent of the roughly 20,000 people on the reservation get some kind of cash or food assistance from the federal and state governments. This does not include free medical care at the hospital run by the Indian Health Service, and other services that presumably would end were neither the United States nor South Dakota recognized as sovereign.
Asked whether his plan were not a touch unrealistic, Means replied scornfully, “Lithuania did it. Why can’t we?”
Well, because Lithuania consisted of 3.72 million people concentrated inside 25,170 square miles at the edge of a crumbling, decadent empire. American Indians consist of fewer than 2 million people widely scattered within the borders of a vibrant, prosperous nation.
The facile comparison is a sure sign of sloppy thinking, which Means and his followers have often displayed. They were on the reservation last weekend to mark the 20th anniversary of the start of their occupation of the little settlement that used to stand here, an occupation they insist on calling a peaceful demonstration though it began with armed men taking over the dwellings and businesses of people who neither invited nor welcomed them.
In hindsight, the occupation did some good, by instilling pride among Indians who saw a handful of their own keep federal forces at bay for 71 days, and by dramatizing for everyone the unpleasant truths about broken promises and treaties.
But life on the reservations is no better than it was, and there is grave doubt that Means and his AIM colleagues ever spoke for most Indians. If they had, thousands would have been on hand for the anniversary. At most, 300 were, and half of them were from far away.
In fairness to Means, it must be frustrating to be devoted to a cause that defies fulfillment, and the plight of American Indians seems to be a problem that cannot be resolved.
To maintain cultural cohesion, Indians live on reservations. But on most reservations there is precious little economic opportunity and little potential for more. They are so far from markets and resources that even a heavily subsidized employer would find it hard to break even. So about half of all Indians live off the reservation, where they can find jobs, but at greater risk of cultural assimilation.
If there are solutions, fresh thinking will be required to find them, and fresh thinking is incompatible with the tired platitudes, stale rhetoric and mental sloppiness Indians are now getting from leaders such as Russell Means, even if he is a pretty good editor.