The Lawrence Journal-World interviews actor/activist Russell Means about his career.

"Q: Has Hollywood gotten better at portraying American Indians since you first started acting?

A: In the '70s and '80s we thought they got it. They were finally treating us with respect. Then they do an about-face and become as bad, if not worse, than the treatment before. It's a horrible, racist, stereotypical image - racist to the point of genocidal. It engenders into the entire American psyche that we are primitive, dirty idiots.

Q: Can you give me an example of a movie you feel this way about?

A: "Dances with Wolves" - even though the liberals loved it. "Missing" by that bald-headed, redhead kid (Ron Howard). "Black Robe" from Canada, which was the most vile of them all. ... The TV series "Into the West" that won all those awards. Anytime you portray Indian people in a stereotypical way, you win awards. Russell Means, left, and Dennis Banks, speak to reporters during the 1973 American Indian Movement standoff at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Means hopes to make a film of this historic event called "Wounded Knee 1973."

Q: What film role do most people associate you with?

A: "The Last of the Mohicans." I'm proud of that because it's a classic. It endures. But even that was not perfect."

Get the Story:
Means spirited: American Indian actor and activist honored at Haskell film festival (The Lawrence Journal-World 3/26)