Final Years and Death
In August 2011, Means was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. His doctors told him his condition was inoperable. He told the Associated Press that he was rejecting "mainstream medical treatments in favor of traditional American Indian remedies and alternative treatments away from his home on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation". In late September, Means reported that through tomotherapy, the tumor had diminished greatly. Later he said that his tumor was "95% gone." On December 5 of that year, Means stated that he "beat cancer," that he had beat "the death penalty."
The following year, however, his health continued to decline and he died on October 22, 2012, less than a month before his 73rd birthday. A family statement said, "Our dad and husband now walks among our ancestors."
ABC News said Means "spent a lifetime as a modern American Indian warrior railed against broken treaties, fought for the return of stolen land and even took up arms against the federal government called national attention to the plight of impoverished tribes and often lamented the waning of Indian culture." Among the tributes were calls for "his face have been on Mt. Rushmore." The Times said Means "became as well-known a Native American as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse."
Read more about this topic: Russell Means
Famous quotes containing the words final, years and/or death:
“Fine art, that exists for itself alone, is art in a final state of impotence. If nobody, including the artist, acknowledges art as a means of knowing the world, then art is relegated to a kind of rumpus room of the mind and the irresponsibility of the artist and the irrelevance of art to actual living becomes part and parcel of the practice of art.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“[Women’s] apparent endorsement of male supremacy is ... a pathetic striving for self- respect, self-justification, and self-pardon. After fifteen hundred years of subjection to men, Western woman finds it almost unbearable to face the fact that she has been hoodwinked and enslaved by her inferiors—that the master is lesser than the slave.”
—Elizabeth Gould Davis (b. 1910)
“I just look at death as not a threat. It’s inevitable, and I have an assurance of eternal life.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)