As announced in a personal video posed on his Russell Means: Freedom website, the political activist, actor, writer, producer, and sometimes musician was recently diagnosed with terminal esophageal, or throat, cancer and has decided against aggressive and standardized medical procedures that could optimally prolong his life – choosing instead to face this “white man’s disease” through the spiritual connectedness held with his Lakota people, both past and present.
The man the Los Angeles Times once described as the “most famous American Indian since Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse,” is steeling himself for the fight of his life. And Means intends to put up a good fight in the remaining few months his doctors have prognosticated [or predicted] he has left.
In a candid interview via telephone from his ranch near Porcupine, Means–with his voice now affected and made husky by his affliction–spoke proudly of his people and of his most cherished accomplishments in life including the founding of a Lakota immersion school; the co-founding of both a community health clinic and a radio station; his instrumental and continued involvement in the Republic of Lakotah; and his most recent filmmaking endeavors.
For more on the subject, see:
ReplyDeletehttp://rapidcityjournal.com/news/activist-russell-means-fighting-esophageal-cancer/article_30efc88c-c94d-11e0-9447-001cc4c03286.html
Activist Russell Means fighting esophageal cancer
Means said he will battle the disease with traditional Native remedies. Herbal teas and other plants with cancer-fighting properties have come to him from tribes as far away as Guadalajara, Mexico, and as close as the Ojibwe tribe in Minnesota. He is also receiving cancer treatments that are approved in Europe and Canada but not in the United States at an alternative cancer center in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The charismatic and controversial Means never shrank from a political fight, but he is taking a philosophical approach to the grim news about his health. He knows his prognosis isn’t good, and he has made his peace with that.
“I’m not going to argue with the Great Mystery,” he said. “Lakota belief is that death is a change of worlds. And I believe like my dad believed. When it’s my time to go, it’s my time to go.”