Russell Means Quotes

Everyone who's born in the Western Hemisphere is a Native American. We are all Native Americans.

God made me an Indian.

I don't call myself Latin, I call myself Puerto Rican.

Yes, I'm proud to be indigenous. I'm half-Quechua-Huachipaeri from Peru.

This land was our land; it was taken from us illegally …. John Smith did not bring a civilization here. There was already civilization here…. We should have burned the boat and killed them. all.

I'm Native American, so the racial thing kind of hits home with me.

Being Native American, we were different than everybody else, but I never felt like I was different.

When I first came to Harvard, I thought to myself, 'What kind of an Indian am I?' because I did not grow up on a reservation. But being an Indian is a combination of things. It's your blood. It's your spirituality. And it's fighting for the Indian people.

I mean, a Mexican boy couldn't be anything else but an Indian. And why did you take the name of Quinn, they used to say to me. Hey, you're an Indian, so I played Indians.

I'm Cherokee, and there were times when social expansion was something that is needed by a cultural group or a national group.

Most of all, I dislike this idea nowadays that if you're a black person in America, then you must be called African-American. Listen, I've visited Africa, and I've got news for everyone: I'm not an African.

I think people should look at learning about Native American history the same as visiting Washington, D.C., and seeing the monuments there. It's all part of the package.

I'm a member of the American Indian Movement, and I'm from the indigenous nations of the Western Hemisphere.

In the end, there is no absence of irony: the integrity of what is sacred to Native Americans will be determined by the government that has been responsible for doing everything in its power to destroy Native American cultures.

It takes a strong effort on the part of each American Indian not to become Europeanized. The strength for this effort can only come from the traditional ways, the traditional values that our elders retain.

I always see America as really belonging to the Native Americans. Even though I'm American, I still feel like a visitor in my own country.

Now, if I had an Indian name, it would be 'Stands in Confusion'.

I'm proud of being part Cherokee, and I think it's time all us Indians felt the same way.

I should not have to prove my ethnicity to anyone. I know who I am.

I think that at heart I am an old-fashioned Chinese, really I am.

Is it wrong for me to love my own? Is it wicked for me because my skin is red? Because I am Sioux? Because I was born where my father lived? Because I would die for my people and my country?

I am not a Hollywood Jew and I won't ever be one.

Am I Latin? Am I American? What the hell am I? I love my culture and I'm very proud of my culture.

It had never occurred to me that my colour - or lack of it - was an issue for some people, but then I moved to Sydney, and apparently it was. People look at me and don't see what they think is a typical Aboriginal. Thankfully, my mother raised me well in knowing where I come from and who I am, and I'm proud of that.

A lot of my identity as an Aboriginal person is about family.