Hau mitakuyepi, miye malakota. Maje tahan ki ne zi tiyospaye ki le hesa woke lila wakan. Mitakuye ate tasunka witko tiyospaye. Mitakuye ina wanbli zuya tiyospaye.
This is the traditional greeting of my people that I am bound to give. This greeting is, to this day, the way all Indians throughout the nation still greet one another, those that still know their culture.
This is the only way we present ourselves to one another that is acceptable. We tell you who we are, where we are from, who we are from, our clans, and we do this without ever saying our name.
Anything less would be an insult to you and to my people.
Russell Means spent a lifetime as a modern American Indian warrior […], railed against broken treaties, fought for the return of stolen land.
He even took up arms against the federal government […], called national attention to the plight of impoverished tribes and often lamented the waning of Indian culture.
Russell Means became as well-known a Native American as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.
Russell Means was married five times; the first four marriages ended in divorce.
He was married to his fifth wife, Pearl Means until his death. He had a total of 7 children and 3 adopted children, adopted in the Lakota way.
In August 2011, Means was diagnosed with inoperable cancer.
He decided to reject mainstream medical treatments in favor of traditional American Indian remedies and alternative treatments away from his home on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
His health continued to decline and he died on October 22nd, 2012 and now walks among his ancestors.
The sachem rules that Heyward be returned to the British, Alice given to Magua, and Cora burned alive. Hawkeye, for his great bravery, may leave unharmed.
Hawkeye tells Heyward, who is serving as translator, to beg the sachem to let Hawkeye take Cora’s place. Instead, Heyward trades his own life for Cora’s.
Once Cora and Hawkeye are far enough away, Hawkeye shoots Heyward to end his suffering. Chingachgook, Uncas, and Hawkeye then set out after Magua’s party to free Alice.
Uncas races ahead and engages Magua in personal combat, but is killed. Alice chooses to step off the cliff to her death rather than go to the beckoning Magua.
While Hawkeye holds Magua’s remaining men at bay, Chingachgook duels Magua and avenges his son.
Chingachgook prays to the Great Spirit to receive Uncas, calling himself “The last of the Mohicans“