Being an Indian means living with the land. And the only way we'll be able to do that is to gain our freedom.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the intrinsic connection between Indigenous identity and the land, suggesting that true freedom is only attainable through a harmonious existence with it.
Russell Means highlights the importance of land in defining Indigenous identity and sovereignty. He states that being an Indian is not just a cultural identity, but a deep-rooted relationship with the land that must be preserved and liberated in order to thrive. The implication is that true freedom is inextricably linked to the ability to inhabit and honor the land, thus calling for a reclamation of both cultural and territorial autonomy.
In practice
Using this quote in a speech about Indigenous rights and environmental justice.
I had often wondered how to best decolonize my people... It must be done one human being at a time. Without that kind of help, Western society does not allow people to come to terms with their feelings. With honesty and therapy, my people can be made whole again.
You see the one thing I've always maintained is that I'm an American Indian. I'm not a Native American. I'm not politically correct. Everyone who's born in the Western Hemisphere is a Native American. We are all Native Americans. And if you notice, I put American before my ethnicity. I'm not a hyphenated African-American or Irish-American or Jewish-American or Mexican-American.
Being is a spiritual proposition. Gaining is a material act. Traditionally, American Indians have always attempted to be the best people they could. Part of that spiritual process was and is to give away wealth, to discard wealth in order not to gain.
In the darkest night to be certain of the dawn...to go through Hell and to continue to trust in the goodness of God-this is the challenge and the way.
One should see the world, and see himself as a scale with an equal balance of good and evil. When he does one good deed the scale is tipped to the good - he and the world is saved. When he does one evil deed the scale is tipped to the bad - he and the world is destroyed.
Ask him why there are hypocrites in the world.' 'Because it is hard to bear the happiness of others.' 'When are we happy?' 'When we desire nothing and realize that possession is only momentary, and so are forever playing.' 'What is regret?' 'To realize that one has spent one's life worrying about the future.' 'What is sorrow?' 'To long for the past.' 'What is the highest pleasure?' 'To hear a good story.
Never forget your real identity. You are a luminous conscious stardust being forged in the crucible of cosmic fire.
Harmony comes gradually to a pilot and his plane. The wing does not want so much to fly true as to tug at the hands that guide it; the ship would rather hunt the wind than lay her nose to the horizon far ahead. She has a derelict quality in her character; she toys with freedom and hints at liberation, but yields her own desires gently.
We don't have the time to completely be ourselves. We only have the room to be happy.
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