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.
Heaven doesn't make this life less important; it makes it more important.
Religions are all alike- founded upon fables and mythologies.
You must not lose confidence in God because you lost confidence in your pastor. If our confidence in God had to depend upon our confidence in any human person, we would be on shifting sand.
War is murder. And the military preparations now being made for a potential major confrontation are aimed at collective murder. In a nuclear age the victims would be numbered by the millions. This naked truth must be faced.
We did everything adults would do. What went wrong?
The more mechanical becomes the weapons with which we fight, the less mechanical must be the spirit which controls them.
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