russell means wins against bout with cancer.

searched his name and a few things came up, but nothing about this.
back in august he admitted to being diagnosed with cancer.
he decided to pass on modern treatment like chemo and surgery.

PORCUPINE, S.D. (AP) — Russell Means, a former American Indian Movement activist who led the 1973 uprising at Wounded Knee, says he has inoperable throat cancer.
The 71-year-old said doctors told him the cancer was too advanced for surgery, the Rapid City Journal reported (http://(link tracking not allowed)/qrC7pM). Means, who is also an actor known for his role in "The Last of the Mohicans," said he would not have chosen surgery anyway because it would have meant the removal of his tongue and his ability to speak.

Means is forgoing mainstream medical treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy, saying that being fed through a tube and being confined to a wheelchair by extreme fatigue are "unacceptable options."

"I'm not going to hang on to life under those conditions," he said. "No way am I going to hang on for that."

Means said he'll turn to alternative treatments and traditional American Indian remedies. Herbal teas and other plants with cancer-fighting properties have come to him from tribes in Guadalajara, Mexico, and the Ojibwe tribe in Minnesota, he said. He is also receiving cancer treatments approved in Europe and Canada but not in the United States at an alternative cancer center in Arizona.

He knows his prognosis isn't good, but said he is at peace with the possibility that he might die.

"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."

Means said he feels his most important accomplishment is the founding of the Republic of Lakotah and the "re-establishment of our freedom to be responsible" as a sovereign nation inside the borders of the United States.

His efforts to have his proposed country recognized by the international community continue at the United Nations, he said, even as it is ignored by tribal governments closer to home, including his own Oglala Sioux Tribe.

In 1975, murder charges were filed in state court against Means and Dick Marshall, an AIM member, in the shooting death of Martin Montileaux of Kyle at the Longbranch Saloon in Scenic. Marshall served 24 years in prison. Means was acquitted.

Means ran unsuccessfully for the Libertarian nomination for president in 1988.
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Information from: Rapid City Journal, www.rapidcityjournal.com...

link

i'm very glad to be able to tell you that through his belief in alternative and traditional ways he has beaten the disease.

Russell Means says he 'beat cancer'
Native American activist Russell Means has announced in a video that his esophageal cancer is in remission.
"I beat it. I beat cancer," Means said in the video that was posted Sunday on his website. "I'm essentially cancer-free."

In the video, the 72-year-old Means said he underwent medical treatment, including TomoTherapy, an advanced targeted radiation treatment, as well as alternative and experimental health treatments this fall in Scottsdale, Ariz.

He was diagnosed with advanced esophageal cancer in July. At that time, doctors told Means that the cancer, which had spread to his tongue and lymph nodes, was too advanced for surgical options, which would have left him unable to speak.

At the time, Means dismissed mainstream medicine options of chemotherapy and standard radiation that he said would affect his ability to taste or swallow.

The tumor in his throat obstructed his speech and his ability to eat, but he is speaking clearly again. Means filmed the video on Scottsdale and will deliver a lecture today at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Lawrence, Kan.

"The fight goes on. I'm $35,000 in debt, but things are looking up thanks to my oncologist," Means, who lives near Porcupine, said on the video. He is soliciting donations for his medical treatment on his website, www.russellmeansfreedom.com.

When news of his health problems was reported, Means said he was inundated with calls, letters and well wishes from people from around the world.

Read more: rapidcityjournal.com...

Interview with Native America Calling

interview, august 30

his own words durring the fight.

Hello everyone:
I want to thank you for your heartfelt love and for your extreme concern about my health. I never expected within my lifetime, I would experience such a world-wide out pour of pure love. Believe me it goes a long way toward defeating this cancer.

Robby Romero and co-producer camera man, Dave Schweitzer, are doing a documentary retrospective of my life and this fight to defeat this cancer. Thanks to this documentary and their interviewing of my doctors, did I realize how super serious my condition WAS.

The doctor who is in charge of my tomo therapy is the only doctor in the United States of America that can directly program and apply this machine that can pin point and kill the cancer cells without damaging my good cells and other sensitive tissue in my body like the conventional radiation used by all other oncologists in the United States.

I found out that I was literally days away from the tumor in my throat closing my windpipe and forcing me to have a tracheotomy which would have begun my spiral down to death. The worst part would have been my deteriorating quality of life until I expired. Please understand, even the doctors with these alternative cancer treatments I am receiving at Sunridge Medical, as well as the Tomo treatment credit Indian Medicines I have received from Mexico, Canada, the Lakota and the Navajo that have brought me along and have given me the strength to defeat cancer.

I also found out the cancer in my body is much more wide spread than I originally thought. Please try to understand the spiritual direction I received in ceremonies brought me to Sunridge and Dr. Grado the Tomo specialist.

The Great Mystery works in wondrous ways.

Pete Catches, a strong spiritual Oglala Medicine Man told us in AIM back in the 1970s that there will be times when we have to use the white man to fight his diseases.

It is nothing short of miraculous that we found the only two cancer treatments that can actually defeat this filthy disease. I credit the Great Mystery for leading us.

I also want everyone to know the wonder and the love from my wife Pearl. Without her strength love and dedication and her research on cancer, I would not be anywhere near where I am today.

I just received good news, the tumor in my throat has diminished significantly. I have my voice back and my ability to swallow is back up to around 90 percent (coming from about zero, for a while only water could get through).

So please continue those prayers and keep that love coming my way because in the end you are all part of the Great Mystery.

Love, your Brother, Relative and Friend

Russell Means

posted September 23, 2011 6:00 am edt

link

for those who have never heard of russell, here is some info and links.

Russell Charles Means (born November 10, 1939) is an Oglala Sioux activist for the rights of Native American people. He became a prominent member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) after joining the organisation in 1968, and helped organize notable events that attracted national and international media coverage. The organization split in 1993, in part over the 1975 murder of Anna Mae Aquash, the leading woman activist in AIM.[1]

Involvement with AIMMeans participated -together with his father- in the 1964 Alcatraz occupation. In 1968 at age 29, Means joined the American Indian Movement, where he rose to become a prominent leader.[6] In 1970, Means was appointed AIM's first national director, and the organization began a period of increasing protests and activism. On Thanksgiving Day 1970, Means and other AIM activists staged their first protest in Boston: they seized the Mayflower II, a replica ship of the Mayflower, to protest the Puritans' and United States' mistreatment of Native Americans.[7] Later that year, Means was one of the leaders of AIM's takeover of Mount Rushmore, a federal monument. In 1972, he participated in AIM's occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) headquarters in Washington, D.C. Many confidential records were taken or destroyed, and more than $2 million in damages was done to the building.

source, wiki

The Wounded Knee incident began February 27, 1973 when about 200 Oglala Lakota and followers of the American Indian Movement (AIM) seized and occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The grassroots protest followed the failure of their effort to impeach the elected tribal president Richard Wilson, whom they accused of corruption and abuse of opponents; they also protested the United States government's failure to fulfill treaties with Indian peoples and demanded the reopening of treaty negotiations.
Oglala and AIM activists controlled the town for 71 days while the United States Marshals Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and other law enforcement agencies cordoned off the area. The activists chose the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre for its symbolic value. Both sides were armed and shooting was frequent. An FBI agent was paralyzed from a gunshot wound early during the occupation; a Cherokee and an Oglala Lakota were killed by shootings in April 1973. Ray Robinson, a civil rights activist who joined the protesters, disappeared during the events and is believed to have been murdered. Due to damage to the houses, the small community was never reoccupied.

The occupation attracted wide media coverage, especially after the press accompanied the two US Senators from South Dakota to Wounded Knee. The events electrified American Indians, who were inspired by the sight of their people standing in defiance of the government which had so often failed them. Many Indian supporters traveled to Wounded Knee to join the protest. At the time there was widespread public sympathy for the goals of the occupation, as Americans were becoming more aware of longstanding issues of injustice related to American Indians. Afterward AIM leaders Dennis Banks and Russell Means were indicted on charges related to the events, but their 1974 case was dismissed by the federal court for prosecutorial misconduct, a decision upheld on appeal.

Wilson stayed in office and in 1974 was re-elected amid charges of intimidation, voter fraud and other abuses. The rate of violence climbed on the reservation as conflict opened between political factions in the following three years; residents accused Wilson's private militia, Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOONs), for much of it. More than 60 opponents of the tribal government died violently during those years, including the executive director of the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO). In 1975 in the "Pine Ridge shootout", two FBI agents were killed, found to have been shot at close range. Three AIM members were indicted for their deaths, including Leonard Peltier, who escaped to Canada. In the first trial, the two AIM members were acquitted. Because of delays of the extradition process, Peltier was tried separately; he was convicted in a controversial case. Anna Mae Aquash, the highest-ranking woman in AIM, was murdered in late December 1975 at the reservation, but her body was not found until February 1976. Two Native American men were convicted in 2004 and 2010 in her murder, but many people believe that the execution was ordered by the highest leaders in AIM.

source, wiki

reply to post by rubbertramp


I feel your thread is just a TAD disingenuous. You make all this noise about how alternative therapies have cured him and that this is a triumph for alternative therapies, but in your own source it says:

n the video, the 72-year-old Means said he underwent medical treatment, including TomoTherapy, an advanced targeted radiation treatment, as well as alternative and experimental health treatments

Your source

Now, just curious...which do you think is more likely to have cured his cancer: an alternative therapy that has never been shown to cure cancer, or a new medical technology that is built off of a previous technology known to treat cancers?

reply to post by VneZonyDostupa


good point and i'm not familiar with it and assumed it was still a form of alternative medicine.
this was what i read right after what you quoted.

At the time, Means dismissed mainstream medicine options of chemotherapy and standard radiation that he said would affect his ability to taste or swallow.

you are right, the tomotherapy is a machine that looks like an mri, i think.at least the pic from wiki is a big round thing with a sliding bed, that puts you through it.

thank you for pointing it out and i concede, it was a tad bit disingenuous.

fantastic news, go Russ!!

Originally posted by LittleBlackEagle
fantastic news, go Russ!!

i thought so too, but really screwed up by not paying attention to what the news actually told me.
this thread would have gone further if i did.
but, sometimes someone else points out where i am wrong, and i am thankful for that.

Originally posted by rubbertramp

Originally posted by LittleBlackEagle
fantastic news, go Russ!!

i thought so too, but really screwed up by not paying attention to what the news actually told me.
this thread would have gone further if i did.
but, sometimes someone else points out where i am wrong, and i am thankful for that.

don't feel bad, no one has ever proved that radiation or chemotherapy, kills cancer, only that it shortens the life of those who don't survive the treatments.

i understand that, and listening to his interviews and reading what he writes he's thankful for everything from peoples prayers and donations to alternative cures.
either way, i hope he has many more years to go.

Originally posted by rubbertramp
i understand that, and listening to his interviews and reading what he writes he's thankful for everything from peoples prayers and donations to alternative cures.
either way, i hope he has many more years to go.

agreed, he's, among other things, a great actor and humanitarian.

Great post, but a moment of silence for his passing, if you please...