Russell Means also named Waŋblí Ohítika was born on November 10th 1939 . He was an Oglala Lakota and an activist for American Indian rights, later all indigenous peoples' rights and in reality everybody's rights and overall freedom. He became a prominent member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) after joining the organization in December 1969 He was born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, to a Yankton Lakota mother and an Oglala Lakota father
Means participated in the 24 hour 1964 occupation of Alcatraz and the later, more substantial 1969 Alcatraz occupation. He participated in the 1970 protest seizure of the Mayflower II, a replica of the Mayflower, to protest the Puritans' and United States' mistreatment of Native Americans In 1971 he was among the leaders of AIM's Mount Rushmore takeover. He also took part in the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee., among other things.
A prominent leader in the American Indian movement he was also a proud American Indian and they had no use for the term Native American as will be explained later in his words. I am not remotely competent to discuss his history or his life I cursorily reviewed the Wikipedia entry on him and found it significantly lacking also. The only way to truly appreciate the man is to read what he has written and to hear what he has spoken and I am not fully competent in that area either not having read his book. I strongly suggest that people watch some of his YouTubes and then go to some quotation sites and read as many of the quotations of his actual words as you can
He once said I don't want to be remembered as an activist; I want to be remembered as an American Indian patriot. Note that he said "American Indian" and not "Indian-American" or something similar, that distinction was important to him. He did not call himself a "Native American" because that was just another term invented by outsiders to refer to his people and not anything they ever called themselves. His thoughts on the matter were often stated:
As to being an Ameican Indian he noted that:
[There is] a mistaken belief that [the word Indian] refers somehow to the country, India. When Columbus washed up on the beach in the Caribbean, he was not looking for a country called India. Europeans were calling that country Hindustan in 1492.... Columbus called the tribal people he met "Indio," from the Italian in dio, meaning "in God."
and also noted that:
Everyone who's born in the Western Hemisphere is a Native American. We are all Native Americans.
Some of his statements regarding personal liberty follow:
I do not want to be civilized. I want to be liberated.
Freedom is for everyone, whatever lifestyle they choose, as long as it's peaceful and honest
I find freedom to be the most important issue facing any human being today, because without freedom, then life is pointless. The more dependent you become on centralized power, the more easily you are lead around.
While remembering him as an American Indian patriot, we should also remember the Wounded Knee Massacre and the Wounded Knee Occupation, as well as the Sand Creek Massacre and the great number of other atrocities and injustices perpetrated upon the American Indian people by the colonists, their descendants, later immigrants, and the US Government
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On this day in history:
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1202 – Catholic crusaders began a siege of Zara (now Zadar, Croatia), a Catholic city they sacked and plundered
1674 – As per the Treaty of Westminster, the Netherlands ceded New Netherland to England.
1702 – English colonists besieged Spanish St. Augustine but lost and fled back to Charles Town
1775 – The US Marine Corps was founded at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia by Samuel Nicholas.
1821 – The cry of Independence by Rufina Alfaro at La Villa de Los Santos, Panama, started a revolt which led to Panama's independence from Spain
1847 – The passenger ship Stephen Whitney was wrecked in thick fog off the southern coast of Ireland, killing 92 of the 110 on board and leading to the construction of the Fastnet Rock lighthouse.
1871 – Henry Morton Stanley located missing explorer and missionary, David Livingstone in Ujiji. This, for unknown reasons, was a very big deal at the time and since
1898 – White supremacists seized power and massacred black Americans during the Wilmington massacre. The Insurrection Act of 1807 was not invoked
1942 – Germany invaded Vichy France following French Admiral François Darlan's agreement to an armistice with the Allies in North Africa.
1944 – The ammunition ship USS Mount Hood exploded at Seeadler Harbour, Manus, Admiralty Islands, killing at least 432 and wounding 371.
1951 – Direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service began in the United States.
1967 – The Nauru Independence Act 1967 passed the Parliament of Australia, giving independence to the UN Trust Territory of Nauru with effect from 31 January 1968.
1969 – National Educational Television (the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service) in the United States first aired Sesame Street.
1972 – Southern Airways Flight 49 from Birmingham, Alabama, was hijacked and eventually landed in Havana, Cuba, where the hijackers were jailed and the ransom money was confiscated and returned to Southern Airways by the Cuban Government
1975 – The 729-foot-long freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank during a storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew on board.
1975 – The UN General Assembly passed Resolution 3379, determining that Zionism is a form of racism.
1979 – A 106-car Canadian Pacific freight train carrying explosive and poisonous chemicals from Windsor, Ontario, Canada derailed in Mississauga, Ontario. About 218,000 people had to be evacuated as rail cars blew up, were launched into the air, leaked toxins, and burned.
1989 – Germans begin to tear down the Berlin Wall.
1995 – In Nigeria, playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop) were hanged by government forces. Royal Dutch Shell's exact role remains uncertain.
2002 – A tornado outbreak stretching from Northern Ohio to the Gulf Coast occurred, one of the largest outbreaks recorded in November.
2006 – The National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia was opened
2009 – Ships of the South and North Korean navies skirmished off Daecheong Island in the Yellow Sea.
2019 – President of Bolivia Evo Morales and several of his government resigned after 19 days of civil protests and a recommendation from the military. Does it have a color?
2020 – Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a ceasefire agreement ending the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War prompting protests in Armenia.
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Some people who were born on this day:
Don't let us make imaginary evils, when you know we have so many real ones to encounter.
~~ Oliver Goldsmith
1483 – Martin Luther, monk and priest
1577 – Jacob Cats, poet, jurist, and politician
1620 – Ninon de l'Enclos, courtier and author
1668 – François Couperin, organist and composer
1695 – John Bevis, physician, electrical researcher, and astronomer
1697 – William Hogarth, painter, illustrator, and critic
1728 – Oliver Goldsmith, author, poet, and playwright
1735 – Granville Sharp, activist and scholar, instrumental in winning Somerset v Stewart
1759 – Friedrich Schiller, poet and playwright
1764 – Andrés Manuel del Rio, scientist and discoverer of vanadium
1801 – Vladimir Dal, lexicographer and author
1801 – Samuel Gridley Howe, physician and activist
1810 – George Jennings, plumber and engineer who nvented the flush toilet
1834 – José Hernández, journalist, poet, and politician
1871 – Winston Churchill, author and painter
1879 – Vachel Lindsay, poet and educator
1879 – Patrick Pearse, lawyer, poet, teacher, and insurrectionist; executed for his role in the Easter Rising
1886 – Edward Joseph Collins, pianist, composer, and conductor
1888 – Andrei Tupolev, engineer and designer, founded the Tupolev Design Bureau
1893 – John P. Marquand, author
1895 – József Mátyás Baló, physician and academic
1899 – Kate Seredy, author and illustrator
1907 – John Moore, activist and author
1909 – Johnny Marks, composer and songwriter
1913 – Karl Shapiro, poet and academic
1916 – Louis le Brocquy, painter and illustrator
1916 – Billy May, trumpet player and composer
1918 – Ernst Otto Fischer, chemist and academic
1919 – Mikhail Kalashnikov, general and engineer, designed the AK-47
1924 – Bobby Limb, comedian, actor, and bandleader
1927 – Sabah, singer and actress 1929 – Marilyn Bergman, composer and songwriter
1932 – Paul Bley, pianist and composer
1939 – Tommy Facenda, rock & roll singer and guitarist
1939 – Russell Means, activist, actor, and musician
1940 – Screaming Lord Sutch, singer, songwriter, and politician
1942 – James Hood, activist
1944 – Tim Rice, lyricist and author
1945 – Donna Fargo, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1947 – Glen Buxton, guitarist and songwriter
1947 – Greg Lake, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1947 – Dave Loggins, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1948 – Aaron Brown, journalist and academic
1948 – Steven Utley, author and poet
1950 – Bram Tchaikovsky, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1958 – Deborah Cameron, linguist, anthropologist, and academic
1958 – Brooks Williams, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1960 – Neil Gaiman, author, illustrator, and screenwriter
1961 – Rudolf Grimm, physicist and academic
1975 – Jim Adkins, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1977 – Brittany Murphy, actress and singer
1978 – Diplo, "DJ", songwriter, and producer
1979 – Chris Joannou, bass player
1983 – Miranda Lambert, singer, songwriter and guitarist
1985 – Ricki-Lee Coulter, singer, songwriter, and dancer 1990 – Leo, singer
1998 – Claudine Co, singer and influencer
1999 – Michael J. Keplinger, musician and filmmaker
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Some people who died on this day:
I is another.
~~ Rimbaud
1556 – Richard Chancellor, explorer
1727 – Alphonse de Tonty, sailor and explorer
1777 – Cornstalk, tribal chief
1852 – Gideon Mantell, obstetrician, geologist and paleontologist
1873 – Maria Jane Williams, musician and folklorist
1887 – Louis Lingg, carpenter and activist, committed suicide by explosive in jail cell
1891 – Arthur Rimbaud, poet and educator
1938 – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk,
1941 – Carrie Derick, botanist, geneticist, and educator
1944 – Claude Rodier, physicist and resistance member
1956 – Gordon MacQuarrie, author and journalist
1963 – Klára Dán von Neumann, computer scientist
1971 – Walter Van Tilburg Clark, author and academic
1984 – Xavier Herbert, author
1994 – Kuvempu, author and poet
1994 – Carmen McRae, singer, pianist, and actress
1995 – Ken Saro-Wiwa, author and activist
2001 – Ken Kesey, novelist, essayist, and poet
2004 – Katy de la Cruz, singer and actress
2006 – Gerald Levert, singer, songwriter, and producer
2006 – Jack Williamson, author, critic, and academic
2007 – Norman Mailer, novelist and essayist
2008 – Wannes Van de Velde, singer and poet
2008 – Kiyosi Itô, mathematician and academic
2013 – John Grant, neurosurgeon
2015 – Gene Amdahl, computer scientist, physicist, and engineer
2015 – Allen Toussaint, singer, songwriter, pianist, and producer
2021 – Miroslav Žbirka, singer, songwriter and guitarist
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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
United States Marine Corps birthday (United States)
World Orphans Day
World Science Day for Peace and Development
Area Code Day
Sesame Street Day
International Accounting Day
National Civic Pride Day (Republican Party Controlled Cities Only)
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Today's Tunes
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The US Marines
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The Edmund Fitzgerald
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François Couperin
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Billy May
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Ennio Morricone
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Marilyn Bergman
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Paul Bley
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Glen Buxton
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Greg Lake
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Dave Loggins
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Brooks Williams
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Jim Adkins
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Key Kesey
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Carmen McRae
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Arthur Rimbaud
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Alan Toussaint
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Picture = Russell Means (1939-2012) -- National Portrait Gallery Washington (DC) 2024 by Bob Coronato CC by 2.0 Canonical URL https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Posted to Flickr by Ron Cogswell
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I won’t be around when this posts
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Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. What's on your mind?
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Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com
Open Thread, Russell Means, USMC, Edmund Fitzgerald, Oliver Goldsmith, Greg Lake. Arthur Rimbaud, Ken Kesey, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Carmen McRae, Alan Toussaint
