Parole Hearing for Leonard Peltier

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Update: As we await the results of Leonard Peltier’s parole hearing, it is still possible to take action on his behalf. The online action has a mailing address, fax number, and sample letter. You can print out the letter from the online action page, and then mail or fax it in. Help demand parole for Leonard Peltier!
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Anishinabe-Lakota Native American Leonard Peltier, a federal prisoner serving two consecutive life sentences for the murders of two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents in 1975, is scheduled for a parole hearing before the US Parole Commission on 28 July 2009 (Federal prisoners serving life sentences in the USA can apply for parole). There are serious questions about the evidence on which Peltier was convicted and concerns remain over the fairness of the legal proceedings which led to Leonard Peltier’s extradition from Canada and subsequent trial. Amnesty International, having campaigned on Leonard Peltier’s behalf for many years, believes that he should be granted parole. The deadline for public comment on his case is July 14th.

Leonard Peltier, a leading member of the American Indian Movement (AIM), an organization which seeks to promote and uphold Native American Indian rights, was convicted in 1977 of shooting dead FBI agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler during a confrontation involving AIM members on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Peltier does not deny that he was present during the incident. However, he does deny killing the agents by firing on them at close range, as alleged by the prosecution at his trial.

The only alleged eyewitness to the shootings was Myrtle Poor Bear, a Lakota Native woman who lived at Pine Ridge. On the basis of her statements that she had seen Leonard Peltier kill Williams and Coler, Peltier was extradited from Canada, where he fled following the shootings. However, Myrtle Poor Bear retracted her testimony in 1977. In a public statement issued by Myrtle Poor Bear in 2000, she said that her original testimony was a result of months of threats and harassment from FBI agents.

The US Parole Commission has held a number of parole hearings on Peltier’s case. However, it has always denied parole on the grounds that Peltier did not accept criminal responsibility for the murders of the two FBI agents. This is despite the fact that, after one such hearing, the Commission acknowledged that, “the prosecution has conceded the lack of any direct evidence that you personally participated in the executions of two FBI agents.”

Don’t forget: deadline for public comment on his case is July 14th (tomorrow). Take action now to demand parole for Leonard Peltier!

AIUSA welcomes a lively and courteous discussion that follow our Community Guidelines. Comments are not pre-screened before they post but AIUSA reserves the right to remove any comments violating our guidelines.

223 thoughts on “Parole Hearing for Leonard Peltier

  1. Please allow Leonard Peltier parole, even though he won't accept responsibility for the murders. Everyone knows the truth, including the parole board – that he is innocent. He deserves a life outside of prison! Give him parole before he is too old to enjoy anything left of his rights to freedom and to the pursuit of happiness.

    Thank you.

    Sincerely,
    Sarah Mills

  2. Please grant Leonard Peltier parole. The evidence that he committed the murders is sketchy at best. Please let the American people put this awful period of our history to rest with closure on this case by letting Leonard Peltier take a place as a citizen contributing what he can to his society.

    Thank you,
    Julie Farr

  3. Thank you Bryna Subherwal for bringing Leonard to attention. At the end of the day.

    For months i've been asking Amnesty to raise his case, with no response at all. You have activated ONLY at this final hour. Oh, you were so busy with Iran, that place without any justice which is more important to you, a more burning question, more sensational, more blog – worthy, than this old, halfblind Indian man in your prisons.

    Peltier was actually told SMILINGLY by a previous board overseeing his case for parole, "You're NATIVE … " Meaning, there's no way you're going to get out.

    It wasn't implied — it was plain & public : "HOW DOES A PERSON LIKE YOU even DARE TO DREAM OF GETTING OUT FROM WHEREVER WE'VE DECIDED TO PUT YOU ??!!"

    The prosection's been a bunch of liars & evidence manipulators from the first — THEY HAVE NO CASE. As Lynn Crooks, the chief prosecutor, told the judge, "Your Honor, WE DON'T KNOW WHO KILLED THOSE AGENTS."

    And AT THE SAME TIME they claim he shot both agents POINT BLANK !!!

    As Black Elk said, "We are islands now. Around us rages the rising flood of the wasichus [ the fat stealers, the whites ]. And it is dirty with lies & greed."

    Leonard Gwartheelass [ Leads the People ] Peltier, you once told us, "My People will see a new day." Seems so long ago, another time .

    For you a day must come, too.

    For that i am praying to the Ancestors.

  4. Your letter to the parole board says, "As a member of Amnesrty I take no position on Peltier's guilt."

    i'm glad i'm no member of Amnesty.

    i have no recollection of any such guilt on Leonard's part.

    The guilty at the Oglala battle on the Pine Ridge Reservation were the FBI agents armed like Marines who invaded Lakota land on the basis of a warrant concocted on a faked felony.

    The guilty were the FBI who armed the Goon death squds rom 1973 – 75, death squads which killed 68 ( SIXTY EIGHT ) Lakota men, women & children who were traditional People resisting the FBI invasion of their earth.

    No FBI agent or anybody else was ever brought to trial for these murders.

    Leonard went to Pine Ridge to stop this genocide, on an urgent call for help from the Lakota elders, which is why he was in Oglala on the day the FBI invaded.

    And the reason the FBI invaded the reservation was to protect the operations of the energy companies whose uranium mining here was inflicting a THIRTY – EIGHT PER CENT MISCARRIAGE RATE on Lakota women & polluting their land, wind & waters.

    i know who are the guilty, & who avoid these questions because they live on the previleged side of these ongoing Indian Wars, & never have to pay their costs.

    That's why you well intentioned white people always talk of closing the appalling chapter of history regarding the Indian, as if it's a chapter that can be closed, & not the ONGOING U.S. invasion of america.

    And to those who don't know such a war of invasion goes on daily in Indian country today, i' ve nothing to say.

  5. I am writing in behalf of support for Parole for Leonard Peltier. While I am aware of the seriousness of the conviction, I am also aware that people have the ability to go forward out of the past and give to the larger society. I believe that is the case with Leonard Peltier.

    I ask you to consider the humanitarian work he has done during his 33 years of incarceration. More than most people can ever do who are not locked up.

    I ask you to consider his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize for the 6th straight year. There are those who make light of this, but who else among us have had that honor.

    He consistently donates his art work for charities such as battered women's shelters, halfway houses, alcohol and drug treatment programs, and Native American scholarship funds.

    Mr. Peltier has won several awards including the North Star Frederick Douglas Award; Federation of Labor (Ontario, Canada) Humanist of the Year Award; Human Rights Commission of Spain International Human Rights Prize; and 2004 Silver Arrow Award for Lifetime Achievement.

    He has expressed sadness for the tragedy that occurred that day at Oglala and pain for the families of the two agents and the Indian man that died that day.

    Thirty-three years is a long time. I ask you to look with empathy upon a 64 year-old man who, over the 33 years, has done so much good while in prison, and I think has the ability to do even more good for the community if he were to be allowed parole.

    While I know of the misconduct by government officials in his case, I will not bring details up because I am certain that you are aware of the misconduct, and will consider that as you have the discretion to rule above or below the guidelines. I would hope that you will exercise that discretion in favor of Leonard Peltier. It seems to me it would be a gross miscarriage of justice if he were left to die in prison.

    Please grant parole.

    Respectfully,

    B. Goren.

  6. Leonard Peltier is a innocent man and was there only to help on the day of the raids, He was set up and its a know fact. Its time to set him free, Keeping a innocent man behind prison walls has been way to long. His health has deterated and has brough amany good things and to people and a man of peace. I ask of you to set him free. Thank you

  7. To a. savage –

    Thank you for bringing to the public's attention the fact that Amnesty chose not to post this until now, far too late to get enough public response by the deadline. That is unconscionable. We should have heard this months ago so that the public outcry could be as strong as possible for this brave, innocent man, who is also a symbol for the spirit of Native peoples. Also, I agree with you – as a "well-intentioned white person" myself, I believe we should never forget what European people did to the Native Americans, just as we should never forget the Holocaust. In not forgetting, we are hopefully that much closer to never repeating it. It's very painful to look at, but it's necessary to do so. Looking at it is also the only way we as humans can try to understand our own motivations and how we lose our own way out of greed and fear and hatred.

  8. Thank you so much, Sarah Mills, for your generous words.

    For a moment there, i did wonder if i'd be misunderstood, but you've taken my words in the spirit they were meant.

    Let me just point out one thing here — you speak again of what WAS DONE to the Indians.

    i've been trying to say, dear friend, that many good hearted white people who are the Indians' friends in struggle — & WHOSE CONTRIBUTIONS ARE WELCOME & NECESSARY — MAKE THIS CRITICAL ERROR of thinking this genocide of the Indians is a PAST chapter in U.S. history. It's CRUCIAL to know this isn't a closed chapter, it is THE BOOK, VERSE & CHAPTER OF AMERICAN HISTORY & SOCIAL PROCESS, from their first day to this.

    That's what Leonard's story PRECISELY MEANS.That's why he's still here today, & not going away from before our eyes.

    And that's why the "Ballad of Peltier" has this chorus about the unnumbered Indian dead & maimed & shackled —:

    "How many have gone before
    & TELL ME HOW MANY MORE
    WILL BE LOST TO THE INDIAN WARS."

    Indeed, Amnesty's blindness toward Leonard & what this blindness means TO THE INDIANS OF THE AMERICAS is AI's inability to grasp the dynamics of Indian reality which determine Indian resistance spirit EVERYWHERE— & the reality of many other peoples struggling to be free.

  9. To a. savage –

    You are right again and I stand corrected. The injustices continue to this day, and will continue into the future – and exactly like you said, played out where we would least expect, in an organization such as AI. It is really, really sad, and the injustices come in many forms, such as disenfranchisement and poverty and lack of opportunity for Native peoples – it runs the gamut from subtle to gross, but sometimes the subtle scares me the most, like this oversight on the part of AI. How could they have let Leonard fall through the cracks like that? It is a reminder that we can never get justice spoon-fed to us – someone is always out there dying for it, even if we're sitting at home watching the news from a safe distance. And we're all culpable, not in the sense of blaming ourselves for things we couldn't and can't control, but in the sense of sharing responsibility.

  10. will peltier have to "his guilt" in order to be paroled? does parole work like that on the federal level?

    please don't think this means i think he is guilty, should have to do this sort of thing, or that anyone else should. i'm just curious about this.

  11. This is a travesty and should never have happened. This man should be free with a big fat check from our government.

  12. Please allow Leonard Peltier parole, even though he won’t accept responsibility for the murders. Everyone knows the truth, including the parole board – that he is innocent. He deserves a life outside of prison! Give him parole before he is too old to enjoy anything left of his rights to freedom and to the pursuit of happiness.

    Thank you.

    Sincerely,
    Sarah Mills

  13. Yes, dear Sarah, the "subtler" injustices are the hardest to pin down as you say, for their perpetrators aren't often even aware of the depth & pervasiveness of such phenomena in their society's overall body & psyche , & rather often claim them as badges of enlightenment !! You only need see what white people take for "acceptable" in daily life, language & gestures without EVER ONCE realising how "The Other", the caricaturised, feel about such depictions of themselves. And white people are reinforced in their demeaning satirisations by their very cultural "icons" themselves.

    In Amnesty's case vis – vis Leonard, it's not exactly "oversight"by them of his case that's been at work. You ask, "How could Amnesty have let Leonard fall through the cracks like that ?" Excellent question, & this is my answer — Because Amnesty NEVER wanted to touch Peltier in the first place !!

    And why not ??

    For Leonard just doesn't fit Amnesty's idea of a "good Indian" — he reminds them more of Crazy Horse than of Martin Luther King, Jr. , who wasn't Indian anyway & whose movement doesn't go with traditional Indian approaches to white society. Crazy Horse doesn't fit into Amnesty's set of ethics. Amnesty can NEVER share "Indian Way" with Indians — Indians MUST CHANGE THEMSELVES before they can be acceptable to such white dogooders.

    It's the same trouble the secular Left has with religious resistance movements in Islamic, Asian & Native cultures, for example — the Left insists religion & politics must be kept separate for a resistance movement to be "acceptable" TO the Left. But Palestinians, Afghans, etc., etc. aren't able to make this separation culturally & socially, & will either have to tear apart their very own fabric of existence or FOREVER REMAIN beyond the pale for the Left ! And thus the Left can never be able to grasp or share the dynamics of resistance & survival in these cultures, Sarah.

    But Indians, Afghans, Arabs won't change to suit Westerners. Amnesty's going to be marginalised in such cultures, & become of partial or even NOEXISTENT value where SOVEREGN INDIAN / NATIVE MOVEMENTS are concerned, as opposed to popular umbrella movements involving Natives & nonNatives. This should NEVER have been the case, Sarah — human rights groups are here to serve the CULTURES of the world on the LATTER'S TERMS, the latter CANNOT & will not adapt themselves to serve the human rights groups which have COME FROM OUTSIDE & WHICH STAY AT THE MARGINS OF THEIR STRUGGLES.

    You say we're ALL CULPABLE in sharing responsibility for ongoing injustice . You are a rare person who has gone beyond self – limiting white identities. Indeed the Indians would embrace your realisation of universal culpability , dear Sarah. The Iroquois teacher John Mohawk said, " In a sexist society everyone is sexist — in a racist sociey everyone is racist — in a colonial society everyone is colonised."

    lcc's question about whether Leonard will have to admit " guilt" in order to be paroled is very relevant, i feel. What Inquisition lets go its prey without such a confession ? And if he does, is there any guarantee he'll then see the light of day ? The answer isn't reassuring judging by Guantanamo, whose record is brevity itself in comparison to Leonard Peltier's.

  14. Please grant Leonard Peltier parole. The evidence that he committed the murders is sketchy at best. Please let the American people put this awful period of our history to rest with closure on this case by letting Leonard Peltier take a place as a citizen contributing what he can to his society.

    Thank you,
    Julie Farr

  15. Thank you Bryna Subherwal for bringing Leonard to attention. At the end of the day.

    For months i’ve been asking Amnesty to raise his case, with no response at all. You have activated ONLY at this final hour. Oh, you were so busy with Iran, that place without any justice which is more important to you, a more burning question, more sensational, more blog – worthy, than this old, halfblind Indian man in your prisons.

    Peltier was actually told SMILINGLY by a previous board overseeing his case for parole, “You’re NATIVE … ” Meaning, there’s no way you’re going to get out.

    It wasn’t implied — it was plain & public : “HOW DOES A PERSON LIKE YOU even DARE TO DREAM OF GETTING OUT FROM WHEREVER WE’VE DECIDED TO PUT YOU ??!!”

    The prosection’s been a bunch of liars & evidence manipulators from the first — THEY HAVE NO CASE. As Lynn Crooks, the chief prosecutor, told the judge, “Your Honor, WE DON’T KNOW WHO KILLED THOSE AGENTS.”

    And AT THE SAME TIME they claim he shot both agents POINT BLANK !!!

    As Black Elk said, “We are islands now. Around us rages the rising flood of the wasichus [ the fat stealers, the whites ]. And it is dirty with lies & greed.”

    Leonard Gwartheelass [ Leads the People ] Peltier, you once told us, “My People will see a new day.” Seems so long ago, another time .

    For you a day must come, too.

    For that i am praying to the Ancestors.

  16. a. savage,

    thank you for all those thoughts – they definitely ring true to me and make sense, although I suppose I am just now having my blinders removed as far as AI and Peltier. The part that doesn't make sense is why AI is not more supportive of Peltier (because it seems so clear-cut a case of injustice), and I suppose it must be for the reasons you say, at least partly, but I wonder if there is more to it. I think I will need to educate myself on this last point, and finally read IN The Spirit of Crazy Horse which has been on my list for ages. Maybe you have some other reading suggestions for me?

    Anyway, I recently saw PBS's production We Shall Remain, and thought it was amazingly good, and it opened my eyes to a lot of history that we don't learn in school. Native culture and history and values have been erased from education! We have to attempt to go out and find the information even though it is often painful to discover. It is also liberating though, because it gives us a sense of connection to all the struggles that are happening everywhere on many levels – race, gender, homophobia, xenophobia, religious intolerance etc. It gives me a better sense of what humans are capable of – on the one hand, the horrible fact of humans perpetrating genocide; but on the other hand, those with incredible courage who fought and are fighting back daily, in danger of their lives or worse, their families lives, give me strength and hope and faith that the human spirit is unconquerable.

    I love the John Mohawk quote, and feel that that is absolutely true.

    I will ponder your thoughts on (what I think of as) the "traditional Left." I think you are hitting the nail on the head, and now it seems so obvious. (The 'aha' moment is happening right now, the pieces are fitting together!) Yes, the different human rights groups are uncomfortable with the merging of activism and spirituality or religion. What I want to know is – where else does "conviction" come from other than a "higher" source? To me it doesn't matter which god or goddess inspires you to take care of others and the planet – I'm just glad you are inspired to take care of your community! So, that is a whole area that is rich with discovery for me.

    Well, no one else really jumped into our discussion (hellooo out there!), but I for one have had a thoughtful time of it.

    Oh, and about Peltier admitting guilt – it appears that he is in a catch-22 because if he goes against his own convictions and LIES that he killed those FBI agents, okay then he can (maybe) go free! If he stays true to himself and tells the truth, then he won't be showing proper remorse and he'll have to stay in jail!

  17. Your letter to the parole board says, “As a member of Amnesrty I take no position on Peltier’s guilt.”

    i’m glad i’m no member of Amnesty.

    i have no recollection of any such guilt on Leonard’s part.

    The guilty at the Oglala battle on the Pine Ridge Reservation were the FBI agents armed like Marines who invaded Lakota land on the basis of a warrant concocted on a faked felony.

    The guilty were the FBI who armed the Goon death squds rom 1973 – 75, death squads which killed 68 ( SIXTY EIGHT ) Lakota men, women & children who were traditional People resisting the FBI invasion of their earth.

    No FBI agent or anybody else was ever brought to trial for these murders.

    Leonard went to Pine Ridge to stop this genocide, on an urgent call for help from the Lakota elders, which is why he was in Oglala on the day the FBI invaded.

    And the reason the FBI invaded the reservation was to protect the operations of the energy companies whose uranium mining here was inflicting a THIRTY – EIGHT PER CENT MISCARRIAGE RATE on Lakota women & polluting their land, wind & waters.

    i know who are the guilty, & who avoid these questions because they live on the previleged side of these ongoing Indian Wars, & never have to pay their costs.

    That’s why you well intentioned white people always talk of closing the appalling chapter of history regarding the Indian, as if it’s a chapter that can be closed, & not the ONGOING U.S. invasion of america.

    And to those who don’t know such a war of invasion goes on daily in Indian country today, i’ ve nothing to say.

  18. I am writing in behalf of support for Parole for Leonard Peltier. While I am aware of the seriousness of the conviction, I am also aware that people have the ability to go forward out of the past and give to the larger society. I believe that is the case with Leonard Peltier.

    I ask you to consider the humanitarian work he has done during his 33 years of incarceration. More than most people can ever do who are not locked up.

    I ask you to consider his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize for the 6th straight year. There are those who make light of this, but who else among us have had that honor.

    He consistently donates his art work for charities such as battered women’s shelters, halfway houses, alcohol and drug treatment programs, and Native American scholarship funds.

    Mr. Peltier has won several awards including the North Star Frederick Douglas Award; Federation of Labor (Ontario, Canada) Humanist of the Year Award; Human Rights Commission of Spain International Human Rights Prize; and 2004 Silver Arrow Award for Lifetime Achievement.

    He has expressed sadness for the tragedy that occurred that day at Oglala and pain for the families of the two agents and the Indian man that died that day.

    Thirty-three years is a long time. I ask you to look with empathy upon a 64 year-old man who, over the 33 years, has done so much good while in prison, and I think has the ability to do even more good for the community if he were to be allowed parole.

    While I know of the misconduct by government officials in his case, I will not bring details up because I am certain that you are aware of the misconduct, and will consider that as you have the discretion to rule above or below the guidelines. I would hope that you will exercise that discretion in favor of Leonard Peltier. It seems to me it would be a gross miscarriage of justice if he were left to die in prison.

    Please grant parole.

    Respectfully,

    B. Goren.

  19. Leonard Peltier is a innocent man and was there only to help on the day of the raids, He was set up and its a know fact. Its time to set him free, Keeping a innocent man behind prison walls has been way to long. His health has deterated and has brough amany good things and to people and a man of peace. I ask of you to set him free. Thank you

  20. To a. savage –

    Thank you for bringing to the public’s attention the fact that Amnesty chose not to post this until now, far too late to get enough public response by the deadline. That is unconscionable. We should have heard this months ago so that the public outcry could be as strong as possible for this brave, innocent man, who is also a symbol for the spirit of Native peoples. Also, I agree with you – as a “well-intentioned white person” myself, I believe we should never forget what European people did to the Native Americans, just as we should never forget the Holocaust. In not forgetting, we are hopefully that much closer to never repeating it. It’s very painful to look at, but it’s necessary to do so. Looking at it is also the only way we as humans can try to understand our own motivations and how we lose our own way out of greed and fear and hatred.

  21. Thank you so much, Sarah Mills, for your generous words.

    For a moment there, i did wonder if i’d be misunderstood, but you’ve taken my words in the spirit they were meant.

    Let me just point out one thing here — you speak again of what WAS DONE to the Indians.

    i’ve been trying to say, dear friend, that many good hearted white people who are the Indians’ friends in struggle — & WHOSE CONTRIBUTIONS ARE WELCOME & NECESSARY — MAKE THIS CRITICAL ERROR of thinking this genocide of the Indians is a PAST chapter in U.S. history. It’s CRUCIAL to know this isn’t a closed chapter, it is THE BOOK, VERSE & CHAPTER OF AMERICAN HISTORY & SOCIAL PROCESS, from their first day to this.

    That’s what Leonard’s story PRECISELY MEANS.That’s why he’s still here today, & not going away from before our eyes.

    And that’s why the “Ballad of Peltier” has this chorus about the unnumbered Indian dead & maimed & shackled —:

    “How many have gone before
    & TELL ME HOW MANY MORE
    WILL BE LOST TO THE INDIAN WARS.”

    Indeed, Amnesty’s blindness toward Leonard & what this blindness means TO THE INDIANS OF THE AMERICAS is AI’s inability to grasp the dynamics of Indian reality which determine Indian resistance spirit EVERYWHERE— & the reality of many other peoples struggling to be free.

  22. To a. savage –

    You are right again and I stand corrected. The injustices continue to this day, and will continue into the future – and exactly like you said, played out where we would least expect, in an organization such as AI. It is really, really sad, and the injustices come in many forms, such as disenfranchisement and poverty and lack of opportunity for Native peoples – it runs the gamut from subtle to gross, but sometimes the subtle scares me the most, like this oversight on the part of AI. How could they have let Leonard fall through the cracks like that? It is a reminder that we can never get justice spoon-fed to us – someone is always out there dying for it, even if we’re sitting at home watching the news from a safe distance. And we’re all culpable, not in the sense of blaming ourselves for things we couldn’t and can’t control, but in the sense of sharing responsibility.

  23. will peltier have to “his guilt” in order to be paroled? does parole work like that on the federal level?

    please don’t think this means i think he is guilty, should have to do this sort of thing, or that anyone else should. i’m just curious about this.

  24. This is a travesty and should never have happened. This man should be free with a big fat check from our government.

  25. Yes, dear Sarah, the “subtler” injustices are the hardest to pin down as you say, for their perpetrators aren’t often even aware of the depth & pervasiveness of such phenomena in their society’s overall body & psyche , & rather often claim them as badges of enlightenment !! You only need see what white people take for “acceptable” in daily life, language & gestures without EVER ONCE realising how “The Other”, the caricaturised, feel about such depictions of themselves. And white people are reinforced in their demeaning satirisations by their very cultural “icons” themselves.

    In Amnesty’s case vis – vis Leonard, it’s not exactly “oversight”by them of his case that’s been at work. You ask, “How could Amnesty have let Leonard fall through the cracks like that ?” Excellent question, & this is my answer — Because Amnesty NEVER wanted to touch Peltier in the first place !!

    And why not ??

    For Leonard just doesn’t fit Amnesty’s idea of a “good Indian” — he reminds them more of Crazy Horse than of Martin Luther King, Jr. , who wasn’t Indian anyway & whose movement doesn’t go with traditional Indian approaches to white society. Crazy Horse doesn’t fit into Amnesty’s set of ethics. Amnesty can NEVER share “Indian Way” with Indians — Indians MUST CHANGE THEMSELVES before they can be acceptable to such white dogooders.

    It’s the same trouble the secular Left has with religious resistance movements in Islamic, Asian & Native cultures, for example — the Left insists religion & politics must be kept separate for a resistance movement to be “acceptable” TO the Left. But Palestinians, Afghans, etc., etc. aren’t able to make this separation culturally & socially, & will either have to tear apart their very own fabric of existence or FOREVER REMAIN beyond the pale for the Left ! And thus the Left can never be able to grasp or share the dynamics of resistance & survival in these cultures, Sarah.

    But Indians, Afghans, Arabs won’t change to suit Westerners. Amnesty’s going to be marginalised in such cultures, & become of partial or even NOEXISTENT value where SOVEREGN INDIAN / NATIVE MOVEMENTS are concerned, as opposed to popular umbrella movements involving Natives & nonNatives. This should NEVER have been the case, Sarah — human rights groups are here to serve the CULTURES of the world on the LATTER’S TERMS, the latter CANNOT & will not adapt themselves to serve the human rights groups which have COME FROM OUTSIDE & WHICH STAY AT THE MARGINS OF THEIR STRUGGLES.

    You say we’re ALL CULPABLE in sharing responsibility for ongoing injustice . You are a rare person who has gone beyond self – limiting white identities. Indeed the Indians would embrace your realisation of universal culpability , dear Sarah. The Iroquois teacher John Mohawk said, ” In a sexist society everyone is sexist — in a racist sociey everyone is racist — in a colonial society everyone is colonised.”

    lcc’s question about whether Leonard will have to admit ” guilt” in order to be paroled is very relevant, i feel. What Inquisition lets go its prey without such a confession ? And if he does, is there any guarantee he’ll then see the light of day ? The answer isn’t reassuring judging by Guantanamo, whose record is brevity itself in comparison to Leonard Peltier’s.

  26. a. savage,

    thank you for all those thoughts – they definitely ring true to me and make sense, although I suppose I am just now having my blinders removed as far as AI and Peltier. The part that doesn’t make sense is why AI is not more supportive of Peltier (because it seems so clear-cut a case of injustice), and I suppose it must be for the reasons you say, at least partly, but I wonder if there is more to it. I think I will need to educate myself on this last point, and finally read IN The Spirit of Crazy Horse which has been on my list for ages. Maybe you have some other reading suggestions for me?

    Anyway, I recently saw PBS’s production We Shall Remain, and thought it was amazingly good, and it opened my eyes to a lot of history that we don’t learn in school. Native culture and history and values have been erased from education! We have to attempt to go out and find the information even though it is often painful to discover. It is also liberating though, because it gives us a sense of connection to all the struggles that are happening everywhere on many levels – race, gender, homophobia, xenophobia, religious intolerance etc. It gives me a better sense of what humans are capable of – on the one hand, the horrible fact of humans perpetrating genocide; but on the other hand, those with incredible courage who fought and are fighting back daily, in danger of their lives or worse, their families lives, give me strength and hope and faith that the human spirit is unconquerable.

    I love the John Mohawk quote, and feel that that is absolutely true.

    I will ponder your thoughts on (what I think of as) the “traditional Left.” I think you are hitting the nail on the head, and now it seems so obvious. (The ‘aha’ moment is happening right now, the pieces are fitting together!) Yes, the different human rights groups are uncomfortable with the merging of activism and spirituality or religion. What I want to know is – where else does “conviction” come from other than a “higher” source? To me it doesn’t matter which god or goddess inspires you to take care of others and the planet – I’m just glad you are inspired to take care of your community! So, that is a whole area that is rich with discovery for me.

    Well, no one else really jumped into our discussion (hellooo out there!), but I for one have had a thoughtful time of it.

    Oh, and about Peltier admitting guilt – it appears that he is in a catch-22 because if he goes against his own convictions and LIES that he killed those FBI agents, okay then he can (maybe) go free! If he stays true to himself and tells the truth, then he won’t be showing proper remorse and he’ll have to stay in jail!

  27. You know, this reminds me of the music video for Rage Against The Machine's "Freedom", in which it describes the life and imprisonment of Leonard. At the end, the video makes a petition of his release and the words: "Justice has not been done." Indeed, justice has not been done for him, and only if a parole hearing is granted and innocence proven will we know that justice for Peltier is done.

    Here's Wikipedia's link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_(Rage_Agains

  28. Thanks so much to everyone for their comments. I, too, wish we could have gotten this information out to everyone much sooner, and I'm very sorry that it wasn't possible. I hope everyone will still do whatever they can in the short time there is left. Leonard Peltier deserves justice, and we must all help that happen, even those of us who very admittedly have more to learn about the subtle ways in which our culture can affect the way we understand his struggle, as mentioned by a. savage and Sarah Mills.

    I did want to share a couple links with everyone, just to get more information out. First, here's a link to an action document Amnesty issued on Peltier back in 1999: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/160/

    Second, getting at some of the other issues affecting indigenous people in the United States, there is the summary of the Maze of Injustice report issued by Amnesty in 2007, about violence against Native American and Alaska Native women: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/057/
    There is more information on AIUSA's Maze of Injustice work here: http://www.amnestyusa.org/violence-against-women/

    Finally, this briefing covers the broader context of discrimination in the United States, both against native people and others: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/178/

  29. You know, this reminds me of the music video for Rage Against The Machine's "Freedom", in which it describes the life and imprisonment of Leonard. At the end, the video makes a petition of his release and the words: "Justice has not been done." Indeed, justice has not been done for him, and only if a parole hearing is granted and innocence proven will we know that justice for Peltier is done.

    Here's Wikipedia's link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_(Rage_Agains

  30. You know, this reminds me of the music video for Rage Against The Machine's "Freedom", in which it describes the life and imprisonment of Leonard. At the end, the video makes a petition of his release and the words: "Justice has not been done." Indeed, justice has not been done for him, and only if a parole hearing is granted and innocence proven will we know that justice for Peltier is done.

    Here's Wikipedia's link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_(Rage_Agains

  31. Somehow the Wikipedia link is broken, but copy and paste it into the toolbar, and you should have access.

  32. Thanks so much to everyone for their comments. I, too, wish we could have gotten this information out to everyone much sooner, and I'm very sorry that it wasn't possible. I hope everyone will still do whatever they can in the short time there is left. Leonard Peltier deserves justice, and we must all help that happen, even those of us who very admittedly have more to learn about the subtle ways in which our culture can affect the way we understand his struggle, as mentioned by a. savage and Sarah Mills.

    I did want to share a couple links with everyone, just to get more information out. First, here's a link to an action document Amnesty issued on Peltier back in 1999: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/160/

    Second, getting at some of the other issues affecting indigenous people in the United States, there is the summary of the Maze of Injustice report issued by Amnesty in 2007, about violence against Native American and Alaska Native women: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/057/
    There is more information on AIUSA's Maze of Injustice work here: http://www.amnestyusa.org/violence-against-women/

    Finally, this briefing covers the broader context of discrimination in the United States, both against native people and others: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/178/

  33. I would also like to encourage everyone who left a comment in the form of a letter to the authorities: Please make sure to fax your letter to the Parole Board Chairman if you haven't already done so. You can send the fax to his attention at:
    ATTN: Isaac Fulwood, Jr
    United States Parole Commission
    Fax: 1 301 492 5525

    Thanks!!

  34. You know, this reminds me of the music video for Rage Against The Machine’s “Freedom”, in which it describes the life and imprisonment of Leonard. At the end, the video makes a petition of his release and the words: “Justice has not been done.” Indeed, justice has not been done for him, and only if a parole hearing is granted and innocence proven will we know that justice for Peltier is done.

    Here’s Wikipedia’s link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_(Rage_Against_the_Machine_song)

  35. Somehow the Wikipedia link is broken, but copy and paste it into the toolbar, and you should have access.

  36. Thanks so much to everyone for their comments. I, too, wish we could have gotten this information out to everyone much sooner, and I’m very sorry that it wasn’t possible. I hope everyone will still do whatever they can in the short time there is left. Leonard Peltier deserves justice, and we must all help that happen, even those of us who very admittedly have more to learn about the subtle ways in which our culture can affect the way we understand his struggle, as mentioned by a. savage and Sarah Mills.

    I did want to share a couple links with everyone, just to get more information out. First, here’s a link to an action document Amnesty issued on Peltier back in 1999: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/160/1999/en

    Second, getting at some of the other issues affecting indigenous people in the United States, there is the summary of the Maze of Injustice report issued by Amnesty in 2007, about violence against Native American and Alaska Native women: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/057/2007/en
    There is more information on AIUSA’s Maze of Injustice work here: http://www.amnestyusa.org/violence-against-women/maze-of-injustice/page.do?id=1021163

    Finally, this briefing covers the broader context of discrimination in the United States, both against native people and others: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/178/2007/en

  37. I would also like to encourage everyone who left a comment in the form of a letter to the authorities: Please make sure to fax your letter to the Parole Board Chairman if you haven’t already done so. You can send the fax to his attention at:
    ATTN: Isaac Fulwood, Jr
    United States Parole Commission
    Fax: 1 301 492 5525

    Thanks!!

  38. I wanted to share with everyone a little more information from our headquarters in London regarding Amnesty's involvement in Peltier's case over the years:

    AI has been monitoring Leonard Peltier's case for many years. We are in regular contact with his attorneys and they advise us when action from AI would be helpful (as on this occasion). We have submitted AI's concerns to the various admininistrations over the years – that is usually when there are parole hearings (usually every couple of years). We wrote to President Bush in December 2008 urging him to make an executive gesture of clemency as an out-going president, as we did with President Clinton when he left office. We wrote to the Bureau of Prisons in January 2009 when we received allegations that Peltier had been ill-treated in prison .

    AI was only advised of the Parole Commission's deadline a couple of days before we were able to release the action alert which we had been preparing to coincide with the hearing on 28th July. As well as AI's campaign, a letter from AI's headquarters in London has also been sent to the Parole Commission.

    AI we will continue to monitor Peltier's situation and remain in contact with his attorneys, and will act if there is ever a need (for example, as in the allegations of ill-treament above).

  39. I wanted to share with everyone a little more information from our headquarters in London regarding Amnesty’s involvement in Peltier’s case over the years:

    AI has been monitoring Leonard Peltier’s case for many years. We are in regular contact with his attorneys and they advise us when action from AI would be helpful (as on this occasion). We have submitted AI’s concerns to the various admininistrations over the years – that is usually when there are parole hearings (usually every couple of years). We wrote to President Bush in December 2008 urging him to make an executive gesture of clemency as an out-going president, as we did with President Clinton when he left office. We wrote to the Bureau of Prisons in January 2009 when we received allegations that Peltier had been ill-treated in prison .

    AI was only advised of the Parole Commission’s deadline a couple of days before we were able to release the action alert which we had been preparing to coincide with the hearing on 28th July. As well as AI’s campaign, a letter from AI’s headquarters in London has also been sent to the Parole Commission.

    AI we will continue to monitor Peltier’s situation and remain in contact with his attorneys, and will act if there is ever a need (for example, as in the allegations of ill-treament above).

  40. Dear Sarah & Ms. Subherwal, in the later half of the 1980s we the people all over the world sent masses of letters to Amnesty urging it to recognise Leonard as a "prisoner of conscience", which is Amnestry's badge apparently for prisoners of a special moral & ethical stature.

    i never heard a word from Amnesty in response.

    It's my belief Amnesty gives this recognition only to those who qualify as TRUE VICTIMS — peaceful & peaceloving souls who live within the rules laid down by the dominant powers who control their destinies. Amnesty apparently needs such scrificial victims which it can then succor & reprieve in turn.

    But those who don't wait for the powers' perfunctory permission to defend their own sovereignties thermselves, with any means necessary ( as every society actually does ), Amnesty finds unsafe company, indeed.

    For Amnesty's ethics are confined to the dominant Western society's own, by choice — but more than that, it's Amnesty's way of getting accepted within the world of the dominating powers, & for its own voice to become powerful within this world. It identifies with victimhood, wih victimry, to be respectable within the dominant society.

    For i ask you — why did Amnesty hastily distance itself from Peltier even in this week's letter to the parole board, by specifically affirming in the letter that Amnesty members take no position on the question of Peltier's "guilt" ?

    i will indeed ever & always remember this single sentence of yours, Amnesty. This is who you really are, White man.YOU brought up this issue without even being asked to, when the ONLY issue here is, JUSTICE INDEFINITELY DENIED.You reopened the issue of Peltier's "guilt", a completely rhetorical issue in relation to the lethal & explosive conditions of life in the Lakota reservations.

    And since this is your attitude towards Leonard's case, Amnesty, we were ripe fools all those summers back to have requested you, at the urging of the Peltier Defence Committee, to accept him as a "prisoner of conscience" !!

    Leonard's crime — in your eyes too, Amnesty — is he was there on Oglala land that day even many more summers ago, to protect his People.

    And Joe Kills Right, the Native youth who died that day & for whose death no one was ever brought to trial, he was with him & reminding the trapped Indians , Brave up ! " There are women & children back there in the camp ! "

    Leonard was there for them.

    This is what one of the Sioux repesentatives tried to explain some time later to white people, — "I hope you will respect the means we adopt in our resistance just as we respect your own." The means, he said, differed with the totally different conditions white people & Indian people face. "Some people," he said, "have people coming at them with guns. Others never get into that kind of situation."

    You wear your own Rights like safe conduct passes among your own, would you Know what the Lakota & other traditionals mean & live by "Sovereignty" ?

    One of the Native men from that place wrote long afterward : "We have lost many things — but we have given up nothing ! "

  41. Dear Sarah, rare Spirit, don't expect to hear receptive voices — not always, not yet.

    But you are heard.

    How deft & accurate you are about distinguishing between guilt & culpability !!
    This is one of the very places white people get shipwrecked , but you steered clear between Scylla & Charybdis !! Once some radical white feminists from Aboriginaland ( australia ) sung me one of their songs which says in part, "[ I'm ] Sick of bearing the guilt & shame / Of a history of suffering I'm not to blame !" Guilt is inescapable when you try to duck it ! ! See, Sarah, these sisters, conscous as they were, thought they bore no responsibility, NO PART IN, the genocide of the Aboriginal Nations on the continent they've colonised –even with a history such as theirs.They blamed it all on patriarchy. They don't know, for instance, that, whenever in the history of settler imperialism white women came with the white men to form the settlements, the coming of the WOMEN was worser than the men's, for the women's presence signalled & started the actual process of entrenching & multiplying colonisation of the LAND, whereas the earlier white men would often pass through & not STAY ON !! The role of the women in the ensuing genocide was vicious, brutal & bloody as well, when you'll look into it.

    But never until you spoke did i ever hear any white person distinguish so clearly between ( garbage ) guilt & unshakable responsibility, such as i, too, deeply & perenially shoulder , & all traditional Indian People do as well. Indeed Indians Know themselves as cannibals, eaters of the flesh of their Relations, the animals & other creatures. As for the Enemy, when we fight the Destroyers, the Greeds, we are — except for some remote Peoples in the Amazon —- inextricably yet a part of them & their systems .

    Of course please read "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse" !! Also Matthiessen's "Indian Country" ( Penguin ) & Rex Weyler's "Blood of the Land" ( Vintage ). Both are superb coverage of transamerindian traditional resistance."Custer Died For Your Sins" by Vine Deloria, Jr is a biting work of depth &. sweep on the modern Indian condition. Dee Brown's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee " for the background.Let me think more, & i'll get back to you with some more titles for reading.

    You should get into novels, too — do you enjoy them ?? MUST read "Ceremony" by Leslie Marmon Silko ( Laguna Pueblo ) on the white man's war & traditionalist healing ; & "Rabbit Boss" by Thomas Sanchez, my favorite novel & supreme literary experience on the Indian condition since the coming of the whites til this day.

    And Indian poetry. Wendy Rose. Simon Ortiz….

    "This America has been a burden
    of steel & mad death
    but look, there's a spring wind blowing
    and new grass growing
    in Sand Creek."

  42. Dear Sarah & Ms. Subherwal, in the later half of the 1980s we the people all over the world sent masses of letters to Amnesty urging it to recognise Leonard as a “prisoner of conscience”, which is Amnestry’s badge apparently for prisoners of a special moral & ethical stature.

    i never heard a word from Amnesty in response.

    It’s my belief Amnesty gives this recognition only to those who qualify as TRUE VICTIMS — peaceful & peaceloving souls who live within the rules laid down by the dominant powers who control their destinies. Amnesty apparently needs such scrificial victims which it can then succor & reprieve in turn.

    But those who don’t wait for the powers’ perfunctory permission to defend their own sovereignties thermselves, with any means necessary ( as every society actually does ), Amnesty finds unsafe company, indeed.

    For Amnesty’s ethics are confined to the dominant Western society’s own, by choice — but more than that, it’s Amnesty’s way of getting accepted within the world of the dominating powers, & for its own voice to become powerful within this world. It identifies with victimhood, wih victimry, to be respectable within the dominant society.

    For i ask you — why did Amnesty hastily distance itself from Peltier even in this week’s letter to the parole board, by specifically affirming in the letter that Amnesty members take no position on the question of Peltier’s “guilt” ?

    i will indeed ever & always remember this single sentence of yours, Amnesty. This is who you really are, White man.YOU brought up this issue without even being asked to, when the ONLY issue here is, JUSTICE INDEFINITELY DENIED.You reopened the issue of Peltier’s “guilt”, a completely rhetorical issue in relation to the lethal & explosive conditions of life in the Lakota reservations.

    And since this is your attitude towards Leonard’s case, Amnesty, we were ripe fools all those summers back to have requested you, at the urging of the Peltier Defence Committee, to accept him as a “prisoner of conscience” !!

    Leonard’s crime — in your eyes too, Amnesty — is he was there on Oglala land that day even many more summers ago, to protect his People.

    And Joe Kills Right, the Native youth who died that day & for whose death no one was ever brought to trial, he was with him & reminding the trapped Indians , Brave up ! ” There are women & children back there in the camp ! ”

    Leonard was there for them.

    This is what one of the Sioux repesentatives tried to explain some time later to white people, — “I hope you will respect the means we adopt in our resistance just as we respect your own.” The means, he said, differed with the totally different conditions white people & Indian people face. “Some people,” he said, “have people coming at them with guns. Others never get into that kind of situation.”

    You wear your own Rights like safe conduct passes among your own, would you Know what the Lakota & other traditionals mean & live by “Sovereignty” ?

    One of the Native men from that place wrote long afterward : “We have lost many things — but we have given up nothing ! “

  43. Dear Sarah, rare Spirit, don’t expect to hear receptive voices — not always, not yet.

    But you are heard.

    How deft & accurate you are about distinguishing between guilt & culpability !!
    This is one of the very places white people get shipwrecked , but you steered clear between Scylla & Charybdis !! Once some radical white feminists from Aboriginaland ( australia ) sung me one of their songs which says in part, “[ I’m ] Sick of bearing the guilt & shame / Of a history of suffering I’m not to blame !” Guilt is inescapable when you try to duck it ! ! See, Sarah, these sisters, conscous as they were, thought they bore no responsibility, NO PART IN, the genocide of the Aboriginal Nations on the continent they’ve colonised –even with a history such as theirs.They blamed it all on patriarchy. They don’t know, for instance, that, whenever in the history of settler imperialism white women came with the white men to form the settlements, the coming of the WOMEN was worser than the men’s, for the women’s presence signalled & started the actual process of entrenching & multiplying colonisation of the LAND, whereas the earlier white men would often pass through & not STAY ON !! The role of the women in the ensuing genocide was vicious, brutal & bloody as well, when you’ll look into it.

    But never until you spoke did i ever hear any white person distinguish so clearly between ( garbage ) guilt & unshakable responsibility, such as i, too, deeply & perenially shoulder , & all traditional Indian People do as well. Indeed Indians Know themselves as cannibals, eaters of the flesh of their Relations, the animals & other creatures. As for the Enemy, when we fight the Destroyers, the Greeds, we are — except for some remote Peoples in the Amazon —- inextricably yet a part of them & their systems .

    Of course please read “In the Spirit of Crazy Horse” !! Also Matthiessen’s “Indian Country” ( Penguin ) & Rex Weyler’s “Blood of the Land” ( Vintage ). Both are superb coverage of transamerindian traditional resistance.”Custer Died For Your Sins” by Vine Deloria, Jr is a biting work of depth &. sweep on the modern Indian condition. Dee Brown’s “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee ” for the background.Let me think more, & i’ll get back to you with some more titles for reading.

    You should get into novels, too — do you enjoy them ?? MUST read “Ceremony” by Leslie Marmon Silko ( Laguna Pueblo ) on the white man’s war & traditionalist healing ; & “Rabbit Boss” by Thomas Sanchez, my favorite novel & supreme literary experience on the Indian condition since the coming of the whites til this day.

    And Indian poetry. Wendy Rose. Simon Ortiz….

    “This America has been a burden
    of steel & mad death
    but look, there’s a spring wind blowing
    and new grass growing
    in Sand Creek.”

  44. Dear Sarah, the 1878 – 79 heart – soaring Cheyenne exodus — when the Northern Shahiyela led by Little Wolf broke through the totality of the multiple U.S. military systems of the West as if they were matchboxes to Return to their homeland on the Yellowstone — this you must read about, in Mari Sandoz's "Cheyenne Autumn" ( nonfiction ) & Howard Fast's marvellous novel "The Last Frontier".

    As for Leonard, you'll find him in a wondrous novel as well — see if you can recognise him in a really shape shifted characterization in Louise Erdrich's "Love Medicine" ( read the complete edition, for there's a shortened version around, which is fine but a lesser marvel ). At the end of the novel, see what happens to the Peltier figure, & what he does in an alterNatively envisioned destiny… . If i remember right, Leonard also surfaces in Erdrich's flowingly powerful "Tales of Burning Love" a subsequent novel. Erdrich's other novels are marvels of craft, especially "Tracks"…..

    Couple more works recommended by no less a writer than Vine Deloria, Jr, the outstanding Lakota author of "On the Trail of Broken Treaties" ( on your list for understanding the processual trail to Wounded Knee that formed Peltier). The novels are Thomas Berger's "Lttle Big Man", a magnificent Lakota / Cheyenne Wars perspective from the Northern Plains …….. & Hal Borland's "When the Legends Die", in which a post – Indian Wars lost generation in the guise of a lone & twisted Indian man enters the mad whiteman world — & exits when he happens upon what he's lost …..

    And that reminds me of Frank Herbert's novel "Soul Catcher", an even more dramatic, heart – twisting journey to the end of the Indian night…….

    Just yesterday, after talking to you, in a used bookstore i came upon a work by Sherman Alexei, the Indian writer, which i scooped up without pawing. Get his beautiful novel "Indian Killer" ( Granta ).

    And Indian art. Find a big album of sculptures by Allan Houser, the Chiricahua Apache master from Geronimo's band of exiles. See also "Indian Not Indian" or any other album of the paintings of Fritz Scholder ( Luiseno Indian )….

    And for orientation & occasional pondering, find T. C. McLuhan's "Touch the Earth"…… for the voices from the Old Ones.

  45. Dear Sarah, the 1878 – 79 heart – soaring Cheyenne exodus — when the Northern Shahiyela led by Little Wolf broke through the totality of the multiple U.S. military systems of the West as if they were matchboxes to Return to their homeland on the Yellowstone — this you must read about, in Mari Sandoz’s “Cheyenne Autumn” ( nonfiction ) & Howard Fast’s marvellous novel “The Last Frontier”.

    As for Leonard, you’ll find him in a wondrous novel as well — see if you can recognise him in a really shape shifted characterization in Louise Erdrich’s “Love Medicine” ( read the complete edition, for there’s a shortened version around, which is fine but a lesser marvel ). At the end of the novel, see what happens to the Peltier figure, & what he does in an alterNatively envisioned destiny… . If i remember right, Leonard also surfaces in Erdrich’s flowingly powerful “Tales of Burning Love” a subsequent novel. Erdrich’s other novels are marvels of craft, especially “Tracks”…..

    Couple more works recommended by no less a writer than Vine Deloria, Jr, the outstanding Lakota author of “On the Trail of Broken Treaties” ( on your list for understanding the processual trail to Wounded Knee that formed Peltier). The novels are Thomas Berger’s “Lttle Big Man”, a magnificent Lakota / Cheyenne Wars perspective from the Northern Plains …….. & Hal Borland’s “When the Legends Die”, in which a post – Indian Wars lost generation in the guise of a lone & twisted Indian man enters the mad whiteman world — & exits when he happens upon what he’s lost …..

    And that reminds me of Frank Herbert’s novel “Soul Catcher”, an even more dramatic, heart – twisting journey to the end of the Indian night…….

    Just yesterday, after talking to you, in a used bookstore i came upon a work by Sherman Alexei, the Indian writer, which i scooped up without pawing. Get his beautiful novel “Indian Killer” ( Granta ).

    And Indian art. Find a big album of sculptures by Allan Houser, the Chiricahua Apache master from Geronimo’s band of exiles. See also “Indian Not Indian” or any other album of the paintings of Fritz Scholder ( Luiseno Indian )….

    And for orientation & occasional pondering, find T. C. McLuhan’s “Touch the Earth”…… for the voices from the Old Ones.

  46. Enough already! I've watched "Incident at Oglala" and can only think: what a travesty of so-called Justice. Shame, you who prosecuted this case! Shame, you who keep Peltier in prison! You needed a scape-goat and you found one. Now it is many years past the time when he should have been released. Give the man a few years of liberty to at least enjoy his old age, for you have no proof beyond a reasonable doubt that he is responsible for the deaths of those agents.

  47. Enough already! I’ve watched “Incident at Oglala” and can only think: what a travesty of so-called Justice. Shame, you who prosecuted this case! Shame, you who keep Peltier in prison! You needed a scape-goat and you found one. Now it is many years past the time when he should have been released. Give the man a few years of liberty to at least enjoy his old age, for you have no proof beyond a reasonable doubt that he is responsible for the deaths of those agents.

  48. Before we demand that the empire rectify its wrongs — & whyever should it, & since WHEN ?? — we'd better see what's wrong with those we send to speak to it for "us" !!!

    The antiwar movement doesn't speak AGAINST WAR, it doesn't dare to call for immediate withdrawal, it only quibbles over technical trivia & timetables.

    The "Democrats" don't bailout the poor & the homeless they're supposed to represent, but rather the bankers who crashed the whole constituency.

    The unions don't dare fight for card check, they allow the managements to railroad the workers' electoral rights.

    The Black Caucus in Congress doesn't dare squeak for its very own, but lets Cynthia McKinney be kidnapped with impunity by the pirates of the Mediterranean.

    The health panels don't dare call for single payer or even allow a single single payer advocate to speak, but call instead for fairness for the INSURANCE companies.

    And "rights" groups like you know who do not dare REPRESENT THEIR CONSTITUENCIES, the people whose rights are daily & historically trashed in america's giant dustbin for broken treaties, but, instead OF CALLING FOR THE FREEDOM OF THEIR JUSTICE – DENIED CONSTITUENTS, Pilate – like they wash their hands of what they refer to as the "guilt" of the innocent in the face of their very violators & jailors.

    Where is the PROCESS OF ACCOUNTABILITY for such "representatives" who don't represent those they were supposed to ??

    In the Peltier's traditional Indian way, the representatives could say ONLY what the People told them to .

    Every time our struggles fail despite the people's mobilisation, for we never correct the STRUCTURAL & SYSTEMIC problems & flaws in the process, depending on our "good" intentions alone even when we see the existing instruments we've been working through are highly imperfect & UNSUITABLE TO OUR BURNING NEEDS !!!!

    To free Leonard, we got to free ourselves as well !!!

    The Struggle is Together !!!

  49. Before we demand that the empire rectify its wrongs — & whyever should it, & since WHEN ?? — we’d better see what’s wrong with those we send to speak to it for “us” !!!

    The antiwar movement doesn’t speak AGAINST WAR, it doesn’t dare to call for immediate withdrawal, it only quibbles over technical trivia & timetables.

    The “Democrats” don’t bailout the poor & the homeless they’re supposed to represent, but rather the bankers who crashed the whole constituency.

    The unions don’t dare fight for card check, they allow the managements to railroad the workers’ electoral rights.

    The Black Caucus in Congress doesn’t dare squeak for its very own, but lets Cynthia McKinney be kidnapped with impunity by the pirates of the Mediterranean.

    The health panels don’t dare call for single payer or even allow a single single payer advocate to speak, but call instead for fairness for the INSURANCE companies.

    And “rights” groups like you know who do not dare REPRESENT THEIR CONSTITUENCIES, the people whose rights are daily & historically trashed in america’s giant dustbin for broken treaties, but, instead OF CALLING FOR THE FREEDOM OF THEIR JUSTICE – DENIED CONSTITUENTS, Pilate – like they wash their hands of what they refer to as the “guilt” of the innocent in the face of their very violators & jailors.

    Where is the PROCESS OF ACCOUNTABILITY for such “representatives” who don’t represent those they were supposed to ??

    In the Peltier’s traditional Indian way, the representatives could say ONLY what the People told them to .

    Every time our struggles fail despite the people’s mobilisation, for we never correct the STRUCTURAL & SYSTEMIC problems & flaws in the process, depending on our “good” intentions alone even when we see the existing instruments we’ve been working through are highly imperfect & UNSUITABLE TO OUR BURNING NEEDS !!!!

    To free Leonard, we got to free ourselves as well !!!

    The Struggle is Together !!!

  50. I joined Amnesty International several years ago for the sole purpose of fighting for Leonard Peltier. For political reasons, Amnesty International in the US fights for political prisoners in other countries. Another country's Amnesty group fought for Leonard Peltier. Weird. Doesn't sound like a very effective way of fighting a corrupt system.

  51. hmmmmm,

    very interesting. armed agents!!!! NO, their weapons were in their trunk which is why they didn't have a chance!!!! fled to canada after crime, behavior of an innocent man. wanted for charges in milwakee, very upstanding citizen and not violent. found w/ murdered agents gun in a paper bag, again a victim!!! escaped prison, again that is very peaceful behavior. what a leader, what a great example. those are all things, as productive members of society, we should strive for!! failing health is a result of age, not a reason to grant parole. good luck leonard. i think you are stuck. keep painting and perhaps you might get that noble piece prize.

  52. I joined Amnesty International several years ago for the sole purpose of fighting for Leonard Peltier. For political reasons, Amnesty International in the US fights for political prisoners in other countries. Another country’s Amnesty group fought for Leonard Peltier. Weird. Doesn’t sound like a very effective way of fighting a corrupt system.

  53. It never ceases to amaze me how many people spew all this stuff about "poor Leaonard Peltier" and how innocent he is. Do they ever think of two little children who grew up without a daddy? Why don't they ever ask themselves why an innocent man had to run away to Canada? If he was making pancakes and only came out after he heard the shooting why did he say to authorities in Canada, "I thought they had come to arrest me. And Please get over all this "the FBI attacked crap." The two agents fired 5 rounds between them. There were 120 bullet holes in the cars alone and evidence of another 100 rounds being fired at them. The men were barely alive when Peltier and his gang members approached them. A witness heard Peltier say about Ron Williams, "He was beggin for his life but I shot him anyway." Innocent men don't change their story dozens of time. I was asleep, I was making pancakes, I didn't see the bodies, I did see the bodies, I know who did it, I don't know who did it. Leonard Peltier killed Ron Williams and Jack Coler. If he could have he would have named the "real" killer years ago. Now that Robert Robideau has passed, some expect Peltier to say at his parole hearing that Bob fired those shots. Then of course if he does that he will admit to being guilty of exactly what he was convicted of.

  54. hmmmmm,

    very interesting. armed agents!!!! NO, their weapons were in their trunk which is why they didn’t have a chance!!!! fled to canada after crime, behavior of an innocent man. wanted for charges in milwakee, very upstanding citizen and not violent. found w/ murdered agents gun in a paper bag, again a victim!!! escaped prison, again that is very peaceful behavior. what a leader, what a great example. those are all things, as productive members of society, we should strive for!! failing health is a result of age, not a reason to grant parole. good luck leonard. i think you are stuck. keep painting and perhaps you might get that noble piece prize.

  55. It never ceases to amaze me how many people spew all this stuff about “poor Leaonard Peltier” and how innocent he is. Do they ever think of two little children who grew up without a daddy? Why don’t they ever ask themselves why an innocent man had to run away to Canada? If he was making pancakes and only came out after he heard the shooting why did he say to authorities in Canada, “I thought they had come to arrest me. And Please get over all this “the FBI attacked crap.” The two agents fired 5 rounds between them. There were 120 bullet holes in the cars alone and evidence of another 100 rounds being fired at them. The men were barely alive when Peltier and his gang members approached them. A witness heard Peltier say about Ron Williams, “He was beggin for his life but I shot him anyway.” Innocent men don’t change their story dozens of time. I was asleep, I was making pancakes, I didn’t see the bodies, I did see the bodies, I know who did it, I don’t know who did it. Leonard Peltier killed Ron Williams and Jack Coler. If he could have he would have named the “real” killer years ago. Now that Robert Robideau has passed, some expect Peltier to say at his parole hearing that Bob fired those shots. Then of course if he does that he will admit to being guilty of exactly what he was convicted of.

  56. Fax a request for his parole ASAP! The hearing is today.

    US Parole Commission
    Attn Rob Hayworth
    Fax # 301-492-7005

  57. Actually, the parole board officially stopped receiving comments on the 14th, but if anyone still wanted to contact them, the info we've been able to verify is as follows:

    Isaac Fulwood, Jr
    United States Parole Commission
    Park Place Building
    5550 Friendship Boulevard, Suite 420
    Chevy Chase, MD 20815-7286
    USA
    Fax: 1 301 492 5525

  58. Fax a request for his parole ASAP! The hearing is today.

    US Parole Commission
    Attn Rob Hayworth
    Fax # 301-492-7005

  59. Actually, the parole board officially stopped receiving comments on the 14th, but if anyone still wanted to contact them, the info we’ve been able to verify is as follows:

    Isaac Fulwood, Jr
    United States Parole Commission
    Park Place Building
    5550 Friendship Boulevard, Suite 420
    Chevy Chase, MD 20815-7286
    USA
    Fax: 1 301 492 5525

  60. Even most Natives now believe that Peltier is guilty… I believe that the war like atmosphere @ Pine Ridge in the 70s was the major cause but one can't deny that Peltier executed Agents Coler and Williams from point blank range with his AR-15 rifle… the ballistics in fact do match and if not for messy paperwork first submitted none of this would or could be disputed.

    The fact remains… LP murdered two defenseless men from close range…men who had discharged their weapons only 5 times vs 125 bullet holes in their vehicle… I will not say that the "motive" was not strong or even wrong and the feeling that war was at hand…but LP still pulled the trigger and that is just a fact…

    Read more Paul DeMaine and you will come to know the truth. Peltier is a false icon… I will not fully condemn him because there was indeed a reign of terror @ Pine Ridge and it was a "war" but Leonard needs to be honest about what he did and that was end two mens life when they were defenseless. That is a "war crime"…

  61. On behalf of the Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee, I would like to thank Amnesty Internationnal for posting this action alert and for its past work on indigenous human rights issues, especially the 2007 report Maze of Injustice which called for, among other things, ,the legislative repeal of the racist Supreme Court decision in Oliphant. It should be remembered that Leonard has sacrificed 33 years of his life for indigenous freedom and human rights around the world, so his supporters shouldn't lose sight of the larger issues of colonialism and racism, of which his case is such a stark reminder.

    Since Leonard has asked that people continue to write the parole board while it considers his parole,I was wondering if AI would restore the form for letters to the parole commission. It has been difficult to get the word out on such short notice, and the commission should know that the world is watching them, regardless of whether they officially consider the letters.

    Thank you to all who wrote letters and helped spread the word to others.

    Sincerely,
    Jeff Armstrong
    Communications Coordinator, LPDOC
    [email protected]

  62. Even most Natives now believe that Peltier is guilty… I believe that the war like atmosphere @ Pine Ridge in the 70s was the major cause but one can’t deny that Peltier executed Agents Coler and Williams from point blank range with his AR-15 rifle… the ballistics in fact do match and if not for messy paperwork first submitted none of this would or could be disputed.

    The fact remains… LP murdered two defenseless men from close range…men who had discharged their weapons only 5 times vs 125 bullet holes in their vehicle… I will not say that the “motive” was not strong or even wrong and the feeling that war was at hand…but LP still pulled the trigger and that is just a fact…

    Read more Paul DeMaine and you will come to know the truth. Peltier is a false icon… I will not fully condemn him because there was indeed a reign of terror @ Pine Ridge and it was a “war” but Leonard needs to be honest about what he did and that was end two mens life when they were defenseless. That is a “war crime”…

  63. On behalf of the Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee, I would like to thank Amnesty Internationnal for posting this action alert and for its past work on indigenous human rights issues, especially the 2007 report Maze of Injustice which called for, among other things, ,the legislative repeal of the racist Supreme Court decision in Oliphant. It should be remembered that Leonard has sacrificed 33 years of his life for indigenous freedom and human rights around the world, so his supporters shouldn’t lose sight of the larger issues of colonialism and racism, of which his case is such a stark reminder.

    Since Leonard has asked that people continue to write the parole board while it considers his parole,I was wondering if AI would restore the form for letters to the parole commission. It has been difficult to get the word out on such short notice, and the commission should know that the world is watching them, regardless of whether they officially consider the letters.

    Thank you to all who wrote letters and helped spread the word to others.

    Sincerely,
    Jeff Armstrong
    Communications Coordinator, LPDOC
    [email protected]

  64. Having heard a response on hay house radio it may be useful for The lawer and Leonard to look at http://www.theboothbyinstitute.org for assistance in re ajustment to a free life, I amabout to travel to my old british community police area in the UK to commence alone re generation work without the beurocracy control of the authorities, although un funded it will work better without the controllers we all know so well !!
    so take a look at My and Bill Cummins work to see if you would like either me or bill to arrange somthing
    for me interest is more important than proffit as is for Bill. http://www.theboothbyinstitute.org gives you more info or contact me direct via my website
    love ligth and blessings to you on your free journey
    Peter

  65. Having heard a response on hay house radio it may be useful for The lawer and Leonard to look at http://www.theboothbyinstitute.org for assistance in re ajustment to a free life, I amabout to travel to my old british community police area in the UK to commence alone re generation work without the beurocracy control of the authorities, although un funded it will work better without the controllers we all know so well !!
    so take a look at My and Bill Cummins work to see if you would like either me or bill to arrange somthing
    for me interest is more important than proffit as is for Bill. http://www.theboothbyinstitute.org gives you more info or contact me direct via my website
    love ligth and blessings to you on your free journey
    Peter

  66. Having heard a response on hay house radio it may be useful for The lawer and Leonard to look at http://www.theboothbyinstitute.org for assistance in re ajustment to a free life, I amabout to travel to my old british community police area in the UK to commence alone re generation work without the beurocracy control of the authorities, although un funded it will work better without the controllers we all know so well !!
    so take a look at My and Bill Cummins work to see if you would like either me or bill to arrange somthing
    for me interest is more important than proffit as is for Bill. http://www.theboothbyinstitute.org gives you more info or contact me direct via my website
    love ligth and blessings to you on your free journey
    Peter

  67. Having heard a response on hay house radio it may be useful for The lawer and Leonard to look at http://www.theboothbyinstitute.org for assistance in re ajustment to a free life, I amabout to travel to my old british community police area in the UK to commence alone re generation work without the beurocracy control of the authorities, although un funded it will work better without the controllers we all know so well !!
    so take a look at My and Bill Cummins work to see if you would like either me or bill to arrange somthing
    for me interest is more important than proffit as is for Bill.
    http://www.theboothbyinstitute.org gives you more info or contact me direct via my website
    love ligth and blessings to you on your free journey
    Peter

  68. Attention Amnesty & Ms. Subherwal !

    Please, follow up on Mr. Armstrong's urgent appeal for restoring the letter campaign to the parole board !!

    We want to follow up & enable many more people to write the letters.

    Leonard is ours, he belongs to all the Peoples of the world struggling to be free !!

    The lies can no longer enough to keep him inside.

  69. Attention Amnesty & Ms. Subherwal !

    Please, follow up on Mr. Armstrong’s urgent appeal for restoring the letter campaign to the parole board !!

    We want to follow up & enable many more people to write the letters.

    Leonard is ours, he belongs to all the Peoples of the world struggling to be free !!

    The lies can no longer enough to keep him inside.

  70. As you'll see in my earlier comment, we have, in fact, reactivated the online action for Leonard–it has a mailing address, fax number, and sample letter (which is editable, so people can add their own words). People can print out the letter from the online action page, and then mail or fax it in. We tried very hard to obtain an email address for Mr. Fulwood at the parole board, but were unable to do so. Hopefully many more people will write letters, and the parole board will decide in Leonard's favor!

    Here is the link to the online action one more time, just in case: http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocac

  71. As you'll see in my earlier comment, we have, in fact, reactivated the online action for Leonard–it has a mailing address, fax number, and sample letter (which is editable, so people can add their own words). People can print out the letter from the online action page, and then mail or fax it in. We tried very hard to obtain an email address for Mr. Fulwood at the parole board, but were unable to do so. Hopefully many more people will write letters, and the parole board will decide in Leonard's favor!

    Here is the link to the online action one more time, just in case: http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocac

  72. As you'll see in my earlier comment, we have, in fact, reactivated the online action for Leonard–it has a mailing address, fax number, and sample letter (which is editable, so people can add their own words). People can print out the letter from the online action page, and then mail or fax it in. We tried very hard to obtain an email address for Mr. Fulwood at the parole board, but were unable to do so. Hopefully many more people will write letters, and the parole board will decide in Leonard's favor!

    Here is the link to the online action one more time, just in case: http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocac

  73. As you’ll see in my earlier comment, we have, in fact, reactivated the online action for Leonard–it has a mailing address, fax number, and sample letter (which is editable, so people can add their own words). People can print out the letter from the online action page, and then mail or fax it in. We tried very hard to obtain an email address for Mr. Fulwood at the parole board, but were unable to do so. Hopefully many more people will write letters, and the parole board will decide in Leonard’s favor!

    Here is the link to the online action one more time, just in case:
    http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=12550

  74. Thank you all for the above discussion. The thing that stands out for me most in all these words is a fact a. savage pointed out: that the stuggle of the American Indian (as well as African American and Latino peoples in America) is not just historical, but ongoing. The other important point is to recognize the fact that this struggle was perpetuated from the beginning by white men of European decent. This does not mean all white men of European decent are evil. I would not describe myself as evil. I do, however, recognize and acknowledge this source of the plight of the oppressed and recognize that it is our responsibility to see these facts clearly and to spread this truth. Doing so involves more than simply writing a check and feeling smuggly relieved of responsibility or guilt.

    Going a step futher, once we understand, recognize, and acknowledge the truth, then hopfully we can work together to build a free and equitable society. I am not strongly optomistic on this point, but I have hope and hope, it has been said, is not expecting things will turn out well- hope is doing what makes sense no matter how things turn out. So let's keep working for justice.

  75. Very well put, axisboldaslove. I, too, am deeply grateful for everyone's contributions to the conversation, and I hope we'll all learn from each other, and keep fighting for justice.

  76. Thank you all for the above discussion. The thing that stands out for me most in all these words is a fact a. savage pointed out: that the stuggle of the American Indian (as well as African American and Latino peoples in America) is not just historical, but ongoing. The other important point is to recognize the fact that this struggle was perpetuated from the beginning by white men of European decent. This does not mean all white men of European decent are evil. I would not describe myself as evil. I do, however, recognize and acknowledge this source of the plight of the oppressed and recognize that it is our responsibility to see these facts clearly and to spread this truth. Doing so involves more than simply writing a check and feeling smuggly relieved of responsibility or guilt.

    Going a step futher, once we understand, recognize, and acknowledge the truth, then hopfully we can work together to build a free and equitable society. I am not strongly optomistic on this point, but I have hope and hope, it has been said, is not expecting things will turn out well- hope is doing what makes sense no matter how things turn out. So let’s keep working for justice.

  77. Very well put, axisboldaslove. I, too, am deeply grateful for everyone’s contributions to the conversation, and I hope we’ll all learn from each other, and keep fighting for justice.

  78. My thanks, Ms Subherwal, for the link to the online action for Leonard.

    And for axisboldaslove, the Indian teaching by Vine Deloria, Jr., the Lakota thinker —

    "Nothing is relative, but everything is related."

    Yes, let's work together.

  79. My thanks, Ms Subherwal, for the link to the online action for Leonard.

    And for axisboldaslove, the Indian teaching by Vine Deloria, Jr., the Lakota thinker —

    “Nothing is relative, but everything is related.”

    Yes, let’s work together.

  80. Leonard Peltier is guilty, by his own words. Watch the video at americanindianmafia.com and ask yourself one question: would an innocent man need to change his story as often as Peltier has changed his?

  81. Leonard Peltier is guilty, by his own words. Watch the video at americanindianmafia.com and ask yourself one question: would an innocent man need to change his story as often as Peltier has changed his?

  82. TRUTH CAN MAKE NO COMPROMISE WITH ERROR… In the present state of society it appears that wealth is to often diverted from the fields and objects of general good,to particular directions for individual gratification,and very often to the personal injury of outhers.The industrious and toiling millions have long enough poured their offerings at the feet of the favored classes,while they should be engaged in educating and developing themselves.The grand object of the new social order must and will be to obtain a higher development of humanity. The truth concerning all questions of vital interest,must be made known to all the inhabitants of the earth;no compromises will be permitted,and the mighty proclamations that are being made on every hand must be repeated until the human mind turns from all external sources for inspiration,and looks within its own spiritual temple.An enlightened people can not be enslaved,neither can an ignorant race enjoy freedom.Surveying the situation at their seat of ruling power,we witness the flickering sparks that are emitted when her fading ruler speaks.It is dry and soulless attempt at show,and carries with it no sincere love to the races of mankind,and man is coming to understand this more and more.This wisdom is the "light of the world"and is dispelling the gloom,sorrow,and darkness from the earth.and this agency is the volition of the creator;the ultimate and combined energy of infinite wisdom and love. "MY KINGDOM IS WITHIN YOU"
    "He whose thought is full of vile passion,paints the tent in which he lives with the shadows of his own deformity,and creates within and around him a hell of distortion,loathsomeness,and pain.But the world is beautiful to him whose nature is beautiful;who,looking out through what is within him,beholds everywhere the mirage of his own nobility."

  83. Wow, well I hope that makes you feel better… and hope that Leonard is listening. If he really wants to promote healing, he should start with his own dark heart and his own vile passion.

  84. TRUTH CAN MAKE NO COMPROMISE WITH ERROR… In the present state of society it appears that wealth is to often diverted from the fields and objects of general good,to particular directions for individual gratification,and very often to the personal injury of outhers.The industrious and toiling millions have long enough poured their offerings at the feet of the favored classes,while they should be engaged in educating and developing themselves.The grand object of the new social order must and will be to obtain a higher development of humanity. The truth concerning all questions of vital interest,must be made known to all the inhabitants of the earth;no compromises will be permitted,and the mighty proclamations that are being made on every hand must be repeated until the human mind turns from all external sources for inspiration,and looks within its own spiritual temple.An enlightened people can not be enslaved,neither can an ignorant race enjoy freedom.Surveying the situation at their seat of ruling power,we witness the flickering sparks that are emitted when her fading ruler speaks.It is dry and soulless attempt at show,and carries with it no sincere love to the races of mankind,and man is coming to understand this more and more.This wisdom is the “light of the world”and is dispelling the gloom,sorrow,and darkness from the earth.and this agency is the volition of the creator;the ultimate and combined energy of infinite wisdom and love. “MY KINGDOM IS WITHIN YOU”
    “He whose thought is full of vile passion,paints the tent in which he lives with the shadows of his own deformity,and creates within and around him a hell of distortion,loathsomeness,and pain.But the world is beautiful to him whose nature is beautiful;who,looking out through what is within him,beholds everywhere the mirage of his own nobility.”

  85. Wow, well I hope that makes you feel better… and hope that Leonard is listening. If he really wants to promote healing, he should start with his own dark heart and his own vile passion.

  86. The Indian defends his land & people. Know this simple truth.

    Not the destinies of others. Not the "freedom" of others. He defends his own.

    Pine Ridge is where Leonard comes from. His people's land.

    Ignore this simple truth, & the U.S. will never get out of Afghanistan.

    Keep on distorting the truth abvout your invasion of Pine Ridge, & you will never see the light at the end of the tunnel in Iraq, in Afghanistan,& all the other lands you violate.

    Wherever you go, your distortions will follow you to the end of your violations.

    Keep Leonard in prison, & you will never emerge from your own.

  87. The Indian defends his land & people. Know this simple truth.

    Not the destinies of others. Not the “freedom” of others. He defends his own.

    Pine Ridge is where Leonard comes from. His people’s land.

    Ignore this simple truth, & the U.S. will never get out of Afghanistan.

    Keep on distorting the truth abvout your invasion of Pine Ridge, & you will never see the light at the end of the tunnel in Iraq, in Afghanistan,& all the other lands you violate.

    Wherever you go, your distortions will follow you to the end of your violations.

    Keep Leonard in prison, & you will never emerge from your own.

  88. In fact, Leonard Peltier was a stranger to Pine Ridge. He hailed from the Turtle Mountain res in North Dakota and was a recent arrival at the Jumping Bull Compound a few weeks before the murders. He was never at Wounded Knee either, but thanks for the history lesson. The simple truth is that Leonard Peltier is an unrpentant, cold-blooded killer who deserves to spend the rest of his days in prison until such time as he admits his guilt and asks for forgiveness. He is guilty according to every judge who reviewed the case and every legal scholar who has honestly examined the court records. The truth will set you free, my friend. Wherever you go, may you rediscover it.

  89. In fact, Leonard Peltier was a stranger to Pine Ridge. He hailed from the Turtle Mountain res in North Dakota and was a recent arrival at the Jumping Bull Compound a few weeks before the murders. He was never at Wounded Knee either, but thanks for the history lesson. The simple truth is that Leonard Peltier is an unrpentant, cold-blooded killer who deserves to spend the rest of his days in prison until such time as he admits his guilt and asks for forgiveness. He is guilty according to every judge who reviewed the case and every legal scholar who has honestly examined the court records. The truth will set you free, my friend. Wherever you go, may you rediscover it.

  90. See the film by Robert Redford, "Incident at Oglala; The Leonard Peltier Story".

  91. See the film by Robert Redford, “Incident at Oglala; The Leonard Peltier Story”.

  92. Redford, who could not find the time to appear at Peltier's parole hearing, has understandably distanced himself from his former cause and his falsified production. Not only was the film's Mr. X story exposed as a complete hoax, but the lawyer in the film, Bruce Ellison, is a named co-conspirator in the Anna Mae Aquash murder. Ellison spins for the camera but his words are that of a traitor to the truth. Almost every utterance is a lawyer's lie, such as his claim about unproven ballistics, all to the detriment of his erstwhile client. Those who defend Peltier must by necessity ignore the findings of the courts who unanimously found him guilty, largely by virtue of the unrefuted ballistics evidence. This makes no sense. If people were genuinely concerned about Petlier's fate, they would counsel him to abandon his false persona, admit the truth, ask for forgiveness, and save his soul.

  93. Redford, who could not find the time to appear at Peltier’s parole hearing, has understandably distanced himself from his former cause and his falsified production. Not only was the film’s Mr. X story exposed as a complete hoax, but the lawyer in the film, Bruce Ellison, is a named co-conspirator in the Anna Mae Aquash murder. Ellison spins for the camera but his words are that of a traitor to the truth. Almost every utterance is a lawyer’s lie, such as his claim about unproven ballistics, all to the detriment of his erstwhile client. Those who defend Peltier must by necessity ignore the findings of the courts who unanimously found him guilty, largely by virtue of the unrefuted ballistics evidence. This makes no sense. If people were genuinely concerned about Petlier’s fate, they would counsel him to abandon his false persona, admit the truth, ask for forgiveness, and save his soul.

  94. Leonard is related to the Independent Oglala Nation of Pine Ridge by family & by blood. He belongs to every inch of Indian country.

    He's "guilty" according to "every judge" ? Was that why this VERY SAME case with the exact same evidence submitted was thrown out of court by the judge in the Cedar Rapids trial of the other defendants, & the FBI had to fish around for a corrupt & compliant judge till they found the Nixon-appointee Judge Benson who allowed the prosecution unlimited time but confined the defense to 5 DAYSONLY, & wouldn't allow even the slightest mention of the context of the case — the FBI's reign of terror in Pine Ridge.

    The "Unrefuted" ballistics report ?? That doctored & discredited rag of a report has been the weakest link found by every study on the subject !! Would you care to press this ballistics report issue further ?

    Peltier was found guilty according to every "legal scholar" ? Pray whom would those gentlemen be ? Any names, anyone ? Rex Weyler's book "Blood of the Land", Jim Messerschmidt in his in-depth volume, "The Trial of Leonard Peltier", & the huge Matthiessen book, detail voluminously the court proceedings for everyone to see & judge for themselves .

    And don't talk to the world with words like "unrepentant, coldblooded killer" ! The initiating & continuous murderers & ethnic cleansers in PineRidge were the FBI & the FBI – trained GOONs who, systematically & in full daylight, assassinated 69 ( sixty – nine counting Joseph Kills Right's executionstyle murder ) traditional men and women , one by one, in cold blood from 1973 to 1975 ! Yes, the traditional women as well, while Pedro Bissonette, the head of the Oglala Civil Rights Organization, was shot down in full daylight on a reservation road.For these assassinations, who was EVER prosecuted, let alone convicted ? Has the FBI even begun to show "remorse" for this incredible murder rate ? Do you know of any white community where 69 people were assassinated with full impunity & without any outcry ? Don't talk to the world from your own twisted double standards about "asking for forgiveness" & showing "remorse" !!

    And the Oglala firefight & the FBI/ GOON murders don't constitute the sole context in the Peltier case.The energy wars by the U.S. uranium corporations poisoned the land, waters & winds of Pine Ridge. Uranium mining & tailings led to a 36 % miscarriage rate among the Pine Ridge women. The trraditionals' resistance to this genocidal environment brought in the FBI to crush the Indian People's struggle in the first place. No one, no corporation was ever put on trial for this, while the FBI's strategy was to criminalize the Native resistance & tie it up in endless court cases & jail sentences.

    We want neither YOUR remorse nor your atonement. But what Pontiac said to his Indian Nations is still true — "Only this I will say, & mark me well. The war is here, & we must fight it to win. If we do not, we will perish."

    It is this all – dominating war for existence & survival that informs all the motives & all the actions of the Indian Peoples in mortal peril & in final resistance.

  95. Leonard is related to the Independent Oglala Nation of Pine Ridge by family & by blood. He belongs to every inch of Indian country.

    He’s “guilty” according to “every judge” ? Was that why this VERY SAME case with the exact same evidence submitted was thrown out of court by the judge in the Cedar Rapids trial of the other defendants, & the FBI had to fish around for a corrupt & compliant judge till they found the Nixon-appointee Judge Benson who allowed the prosecution unlimited time but confined the defense to 5 DAYSONLY, & wouldn’t allow even the slightest mention of the context of the case — the FBI’s reign of terror in Pine Ridge.

    The “Unrefuted” ballistics report ?? That doctored & discredited rag of a report has been the weakest link found by every study on the subject !! Would you care to press this ballistics report issue further ?

    Peltier was found guilty according to every “legal scholar” ? Pray whom would those gentlemen be ? Any names, anyone ? Rex Weyler’s book “Blood of the Land”, Jim Messerschmidt in his in-depth volume, “The Trial of Leonard Peltier”, & the huge Matthiessen book, detail voluminously the court proceedings for everyone to see & judge for themselves .

    And don’t talk to the world with words like “unrepentant, coldblooded killer” ! The initiating & continuous murderers & ethnic cleansers in PineRidge were the FBI & the FBI – trained GOONs who, systematically & in full daylight, assassinated 69 ( sixty – nine counting Joseph Kills Right’s executionstyle murder ) traditional men and women , one by one, in cold blood from 1973 to 1975 ! Yes, the traditional women as well, while Pedro Bissonette, the head of the Oglala Civil Rights Organization, was shot down in full daylight on a reservation road.For these assassinations, who was EVER prosecuted, let alone convicted ? Has the FBI even begun to show “remorse” for this incredible murder rate ? Do you know of any white community where 69 people were assassinated with full impunity & without any outcry ? Don’t talk to the world from your own twisted double standards about “asking for forgiveness” & showing “remorse” !!

    And the Oglala firefight & the FBI/ GOON murders don’t constitute the sole context in the Peltier case.The energy wars by the U.S. uranium corporations poisoned the land, waters & winds of Pine Ridge. Uranium mining & tailings led to a 36 % miscarriage rate among the Pine Ridge women. The trraditionals’ resistance to this genocidal environment brought in the FBI to crush the Indian People’s struggle in the first place. No one, no corporation was ever put on trial for this, while the FBI’s strategy was to criminalize the Native resistance & tie it up in endless court cases & jail sentences.

    We want neither YOUR remorse nor your atonement. But what Pontiac said to his Indian Nations is still true — “Only this I will say, & mark me well. The war is here, & we must fight it to win. If we do not, we will perish.”

    It is this all – dominating war for existence & survival that informs all the motives & all the actions of the Indian Peoples in mortal peril & in final resistance.

  96. Thank you for setting the record straight a, savage.

    The point is, James Simon, the Oglala Nation never should have been messed with in the first place- or the second, third, fourth, etc. Justice has not prevailed there. Why should we believe "the findings of the courts"? The courts are never wrong? Leonard Peltier and AIM came to the defense of his people who have been under attack for hundreds of years. In America, defending your people is not a crime. It is not Peltier's soul that is in peril. It is time to free Leonard Peltier, admit our atrocities toward the American Indian people and begin to restore justice.

  97. What utter nonsense, but understandable given Peter Matthiessen's ability to condition the beliefs of so many. If you want to see how falsified his book is, read American Indian Mafia with an open mind and an open heart. The fact is, two critical witnesses were missing from the Cedar Rapids Trial. One was Angie Long Visiter. As explained in the book, her Fargo testimony was uttterly devastating to the Peltier defense because she independently corroborated the testimony of the young men who also placed Peltier at the scene, emerging from the only operable rez vehicle at the time, from which he emerged with the murder weapon in hand. This is what every judge who's heard the case has concluded. Are they all corrupt liars, along with the investigators, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the mining companies, the witnesses, etc? They're all liars but Leonard is the only one telling the truth? Sorry, can't buy that, especially since he's already been caught in several lies, e.g,. the Mr. X ruse, his denial for 30-some years that he never went down to where the Agents where (until he finally admitted this in the 1999 CNN interview) and where he was when the shooting started. His claim from Prison Writings that he was waking up to the smell of pancakes in Tent City is a lie that is not even supported by his laywers. Even Matthiessen concluded that "the Indians" started the shooting. The question has always been, which Indian? Watch Leonard change his story in the video at americanindianmafia.com and ask yourself why he does this. Those who support his lies and encourage his intransigence only condemn him to spending the rest of his life behind bars. Shame on you.

  98. Thank you for setting the record straight a, savage.

    The point is, James Simon, the Oglala Nation never should have been messed with in the first place- or the second, third, fourth, etc. Justice has not prevailed there. Why should we believe “the findings of the courts”? The courts are never wrong? Leonard Peltier and AIM came to the defense of his people who have been under attack for hundreds of years. In America, defending your people is not a crime. It is not Peltier’s soul that is in peril. It is time to free Leonard Peltier, admit our atrocities toward the American Indian people and begin to restore justice.

  99. What utter nonsense, but understandable given Peter Matthiessen’s ability to condition the beliefs of so many. If you want to see how falsified his book is, read American Indian Mafia with an open mind and an open heart. The fact is, two critical witnesses were missing from the Cedar Rapids Trial. One was Angie Long Visiter. As explained in the book, her Fargo testimony was uttterly devastating to the Peltier defense because she independently corroborated the testimony of the young men who also placed Peltier at the scene, emerging from the only operable rez vehicle at the time, from which he emerged with the murder weapon in hand. This is what every judge who’s heard the case has concluded. Are they all corrupt liars, along with the investigators, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the mining companies, the witnesses, etc? They’re all liars but Leonard is the only one telling the truth? Sorry, can’t buy that, especially since he’s already been caught in several lies, e.g,. the Mr. X ruse, his denial for 30-some years that he never went down to where the Agents where (until he finally admitted this in the 1999 CNN interview) and where he was when the shooting started. His claim from Prison Writings that he was waking up to the smell of pancakes in Tent City is a lie that is not even supported by his laywers. Even Matthiessen concluded that “the Indians” started the shooting. The question has always been, which Indian? Watch Leonard change his story in the video at americanindianmafia.com and ask yourself why he does this. Those who support his lies and encourage his intransigence only condemn him to spending the rest of his life behind bars. Shame on you.

  100. Mr. Simon, I have not personally attacked you and I will not respond to further personal insults such as "shame on you".

  101. Mr. Simon, I have not personally attacked you and I will not respond to further personal insults such as “shame on you”.

  102. No personal attack, just pointed a finger at anyone who knowingly supports a lie. Are you admitting complicity? Most people who believe Leonard's story are decent and well-intentioned, but have been horribly conned into spending their time and money in support of a guilty killer. That effort could have gone into alleviating much of the poverty of the reservations. What a waste. Promoting a false hero to Indian Country has only hindered closure and healing, and real progress. I challenge anyone to read American Indian Mafia with an open mind and an open heart and see if your beliefs hold up under the weight of provable fact. If you really care about Leonard, become familiar with the facts of the case and the folly of propagating popularized legend. Help Leonard see that his only real chance for salvation and freedom is to accept responsibility for his actions and ask for forgiveness.

  103. No personal attack, just pointed a finger at anyone who knowingly supports a lie. Are you admitting complicity? Most people who believe Leonard’s story are decent and well-intentioned, but have been horribly conned into spending their time and money in support of a guilty killer. That effort could have gone into alleviating much of the poverty of the reservations. What a waste. Promoting a false hero to Indian Country has only hindered closure and healing, and real progress. I challenge anyone to read American Indian Mafia with an open mind and an open heart and see if your beliefs hold up under the weight of provable fact. If you really care about Leonard, become familiar with the facts of the case and the folly of propagating popularized legend. Help Leonard see that his only real chance for salvation and freedom is to accept responsibility for his actions and ask for forgiveness.

  104. PAROLE DENIED!!!!!!!!!!!! JUSTICE IS SERVED!!!!! perhaps we can all banter about this again in 2024 when the next hearing is scheduled, that is if leonard can make it that long. no mercy for someone who does not accept responsibility. what a great day for the good guys!

  105. A thorough study of the Lakota culture reveals that humility is one of the great virtues. Too many of my fellow white men do not understand this. Gloating, boastful language at a time like this reveals a hate-filled heart.

    "Love and only love will endure,
    Hate is everything you think it is."

    -Neil Young

  106. i would say one who commits murder has a very hateful heart. you fail to recognize all the reasons parole has been denied. prison escape, drug charges in prison are on the list. not very loving to escape from prison and cause harm to others while doing so, quite hateful……………….white men, pink men, purple men, brown men, black men……..commit the crime do the time. you all should find a cause worth fighting for. your goal is unattainable. surely your efforts would be useful elsewhere.

  107. whatever!!!!, I wish all my goals WERE attainable but this, as I see it, is how that breaks down:

    Personal life goals (spiritual, creative, work etc.) Attainable.

    Environmental issues: Unlikely to be obtainable as the world communities continue to move in unsustainable directions and continue to consume the earth endlessly.

    Peace issues: The world is obviously not moving toward peace.

    Justice issues: People are suffering all over the world including here in America. Poverty is still extreem in parts of the U.S. particularily among people of color and particularly American Indians, African Americans and Hispanics.

    Sorry to be so glum, but I'm not feeling very optomistic about most of my goals. I don't have any answers anymore.

    Feel free to respond, but then I will be moving on from here.

  108. PAROLE DENIED!!!!!!!!!!!! JUSTICE IS SERVED!!!!! perhaps we can all banter about this again in 2024 when the next hearing is scheduled, that is if leonard can make it that long. no mercy for someone who does not accept responsibility. what a great day for the good guys!

  109. One of your goals should be to get Leonard to confess. Only then will Pine Ridge Natives be able to move on with their lives. Only then can real healing take place for them, based on the truth. There are many other fables that need to be exposed, who was really behind the Aquash and DeSersa murders, for instance. Much work needs to be done on the reservations but real progress must begin with the truth. Be a part of the solution. Understand how Matthiessen's book is a series of lies, designed to shield the guilty. Read American Indian Mafia for the other side to the story. Honor the truth. Honor the dead. Justice for Anna Mae, Ray Robinson, and all the AIM victims!

  110. A thorough study of the Lakota culture reveals that humility is one of the great virtues. Too many of my fellow white men do not understand this. Gloating, boastful language at a time like this reveals a hate-filled heart.

    “Love and only love will endure,
    Hate is everything you think it is.”

    -Neil Young

  111. i would say one who commits murder has a very hateful heart. you fail to recognize all the reasons parole has been denied. prison escape, drug charges in prison are on the list. not very loving to escape from prison and cause harm to others while doing so, quite hateful……………….white men, pink men, purple men, brown men, black men……..commit the crime do the time. you all should find a cause worth fighting for. your goal is unattainable. surely your efforts would be useful elsewhere.

  112. whatever!!!!, I wish all my goals WERE attainable but this, as I see it, is how that breaks down:

    Personal life goals (spiritual, creative, work etc.) Attainable.

    Environmental issues: Unlikely to be obtainable as the world communities continue to move in unsustainable directions and continue to consume the earth endlessly.

    Peace issues: The world is obviously not moving toward peace.

    Justice issues: People are suffering all over the world including here in America. Poverty is still extreem in parts of the U.S. particularily among people of color and particularly American Indians, African Americans and Hispanics.

    Sorry to be so glum, but I’m not feeling very optomistic about most of my goals. I don’t have any answers anymore.

    Feel free to respond, but then I will be moving on from here.

  113. One of your goals should be to get Leonard to confess. Only then will Pine Ridge Natives be able to move on with their lives. Only then can real healing take place for them, based on the truth. There are many other fables that need to be exposed, who was really behind the Aquash and DeSersa murders, for instance. Much work needs to be done on the reservations but real progress must begin with the truth. Be a part of the solution. Understand how Matthiessen’s book is a series of lies, designed to shield the guilty. Read American Indian Mafia for the other side to the story. Honor the truth. Honor the dead. Justice for Anna Mae, Ray Robinson, and all the AIM victims!

  114. Dear axisboldaslove, Pilamaye ( Thank you ) from my heart ! Chief Joseph prayed that some day there would be people like you from the white race who would come to the People with understanding & love & knowing. You verify his prophecy, dear Relative.

    So Angie Long Visitor witnessed Leonard — doing what ??

    She came out of her house on June 26, 1975 when she heard the gunfire, & found one of the agents shooting bullets HER way with a handgun. She quickly gathered up her 3 children & fled from the place as the AIM people were running up at the sound of the firing.The fight was not yet joined at thast stage.

    By the time Dino Butler of AIM arrived at the scene, at least 20 shots had been fired . This doesn't show that AIM began the battle — it shows the agent firing the handgun in Angie's direction was the only identified person who opened up the firefight.

    The FBI source says his goal is to make Leonard "confess", "and save his soul" ( as said earler by the same person )!! Confess, & save your soul ?? Good Lord, are we back in the days of the Inquisition & of the court that burned Joan of Arc ?? Hoover's FBI, after all, does come from the same legal & prosecutorial tradition !!

    "Honor the dead", says the FBI source — wonderful !! Does that mean we can now look forward to the FBI prosecuting those who killed Joe Kills Right at Oglala, & the murderers of the 68 traditional Lakota men, women & children ?

    "Justice for Anna Mae Aquash", we are exhorted — the same Anna Mae whom the FBI hunted & harrassed & threatened & pressured as long as she lived, the same Anna whose murdered corpse's photos were shown by Special Agent David Price to Myrtle Poor Bear with the words that the same thing would happen to her if she didn't cooperate to testify about seeing Leonard shoot the agents, the same Anna whose hands were cut off at the wrists BY THE FBI & put in a jar, & when Bruce Ellison demanded her hands be returned FBI Agent Wood grins & says, "Oh, you want her hands back ?" and goes to his car & comes back with an openmouthed jar with the hands in it, & he's still grinning ? You mean THAT Anna Mae ?

    Really,the gentlemen of the FBI demand, is only Leonard telling the truth here, & not the investigators, the Mounties, the mining companies, et al ? Now they have really lined up all the usual suspects for our identification ! The Mounties –infamous for their redcoat racism & their role in destroying Almighty Voice of the Cree & the free Native Nations from Sitting Bull's time long before the FBI was born, & still continuing in this role, most recently caught fabricating evidence about the murder of Brad Will, the american reporter, which they pinned on APPO, the indigenous people's organisation in Oaxaca, & not on the brutal Mexican police who actually gunned Will down !! We got the energy companies in the lineup here too, against whose uranium tailing dumps even the white ranchers in the Northern Plains joined up with the Lakota in the Black Hills Alliance ! Really, the company the FBI keeps is so in keeping with its own nature !!

    But what about "the investigators" in this FBI roll of honor ?Surely that sounds impartial, if not downright magisterial, not like some lying lawyer bunch, now does it !! Let's see — is the FBI source referring here to Agent C. Cunningham, head of the the FBI's Firearms Division, who systematically inspected the dead agent Coler's car on the day of the firefight WITHOUT finding any .223 shell casing, & so didn't mention any such casing in his July 1, 1975 302 report, but for Leonard's extradition hearing in canada he said under oath he'd found the cartridge casing in Coler's car, but then again at Leonard's Fargo trial he admitted he hadn't found any such casing but that Agent Lodge had found it & given it to him most conveniently later on.

    Or by "investigators" are we talking of Agent Lodge himself, who at the Fargo trial at one moment says he gave everything he found in Coler's car to Cunningham, & the next moment says he didn't give everything he found in the car to Cunningham ?

    Oh what a tangled web we weave,
    When first we practice to deceive !

    Or is the FBI source here referring to the inimitable Agent Evan Hodge, the FBI's ballistics expert, who in an October 31, 1975 FBI lab report signd by himself said that the weapons found in an exploded vehicle outside Wichita couldn't be linked to the ammunition components found at Oglala after the firefight ? Those weapons included a busted, damaged AR -15 rifle.

    But all of a sudden, months later, on January 19, 1976, Agent Hodge determines the .223 shell casing CAN be linked to the AR-15 rifle after all — but only THEORETICALLY, for the gun is so badly damaged it cannot be test – fired !!!

    Nevertheless, the prosecution said this was the murder weapon , & Hodge signed the affidavit to that effect for Peltier's extradition.

    But why the great delay in this second dianosis ? Hodge said he'd been too busy with the Oglala investigation — a stunning statement considering that this casing, & another fired by a .308, were the only ones found near the bodies which could have come from the high – velocity weapon(s) that caused the agents' deaths.

    But at Fargo Judge Benson ruled that the defense couldn't mention the strange timings of all these ballistics reports in court, apparently in case the jury refused to buy it !!

    But what connects the AR-15 rifle itself to Peltier ?

    ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.There's no material evidence whatsoever

    That's why prosecutor Lynn Crooks, aware of his weak evidentiary underpinning, whipped up the courtroom with typical lynchmob language calling Peltier a coldblooded killer & suchlike just like the FBI sources are doing on this site. THEY KNOW THEIR EVIDENTIARY GROUNDING IS SEISMIC.

    But, they say, it's Matthiessen's book which is a pack of lies. Unluckily for them, Peter Matthiesen happens to be an indefatigable researcher & scrupulous penman in the very front ranks of american literature, & two – time winner of the National Book Award,— plus the victor in the court case FBI Agent David Price brought against him, to put his book under gags !!

    Unfortunately for the FBI this time, Matthiessen wasn't an Indian they could railroad, but an internationally renowned & respected writer — & A WHITE MAN.

    His vindication in court for his book on Peltier is acclaimed as a landmark legal precedent as a victory for the freedom of speech.

  115. Dear axisboldaslove, Pilamaye ( Thank you ) from my heart ! Chief Joseph prayed that some day there would be people like you from the white race who would come to the People with understanding & love & knowing. You verify his prophecy, dear Relative.

    So Angie Long Visitor witnessed Leonard — doing what ??

    She came out of her house on June 26, 1975 when she heard the gunfire, & found one of the agents shooting bullets HER way with a handgun. She quickly gathered up her 3 children & fled from the place as the AIM people were running up at the sound of the firing.The fight was not yet joined at thast stage.

    By the time Dino Butler of AIM arrived at the scene, at least 20 shots had been fired . This doesn’t show that AIM began the battle — it shows the agent firing the handgun in Angie’s direction was the only identified person who opened up the firefight.

    The FBI source says his goal is to make Leonard “confess”, “and save his soul” ( as said earler by the same person )!! Confess, & save your soul ?? Good Lord, are we back in the days of the Inquisition & of the court that burned Joan of Arc ?? Hoover’s FBI, after all, does come from the same legal & prosecutorial tradition !!

    “Honor the dead”, says the FBI source — wonderful !! Does that mean we can now look forward to the FBI prosecuting those who killed Joe Kills Right at Oglala, & the murderers of the 68 traditional Lakota men, women & children ?

    “Justice for Anna Mae Aquash”, we are exhorted — the same Anna Mae whom the FBI hunted & harrassed & threatened & pressured as long as she lived, the same Anna whose murdered corpse’s photos were shown by Special Agent David Price to Myrtle Poor Bear with the words that the same thing would happen to her if she didn’t cooperate to testify about seeing Leonard shoot the agents, the same Anna whose hands were cut off at the wrists BY THE FBI & put in a jar, & when Bruce Ellison demanded her hands be returned FBI Agent Wood grins & says, “Oh, you want her hands back ?” and goes to his car & comes back with an openmouthed jar with the hands in it, & he’s still grinning ? You mean THAT Anna Mae ?

    Really,the gentlemen of the FBI demand, is only Leonard telling the truth here, & not the investigators, the Mounties, the mining companies, et al ? Now they have really lined up all the usual suspects for our identification ! The Mounties –infamous for their redcoat racism & their role in destroying Almighty Voice of the Cree & the free Native Nations from Sitting Bull’s time long before the FBI was born, & still continuing in this role, most recently caught fabricating evidence about the murder of Brad Will, the american reporter, which they pinned on APPO, the indigenous people’s organisation in Oaxaca, & not on the brutal Mexican police who actually gunned Will down !! We got the energy companies in the lineup here too, against whose uranium tailing dumps even the white ranchers in the Northern Plains joined up with the Lakota in the Black Hills Alliance ! Really, the company the FBI keeps is so in keeping with its own nature !!

    But what about “the investigators” in this FBI roll of honor ?Surely that sounds impartial, if not downright magisterial, not like some lying lawyer bunch, now does it !! Let’s see — is the FBI source referring here to Agent C. Cunningham, head of the the FBI’s Firearms Division, who systematically inspected the dead agent Coler’s car on the day of the firefight WITHOUT finding any .223 shell casing, & so didn’t mention any such casing in his July 1, 1975 302 report, but for Leonard’s extradition hearing in canada he said under oath he’d found the cartridge casing in Coler’s car, but then again at Leonard’s Fargo trial he admitted he hadn’t found any such casing but that Agent Lodge had found it & given it to him most conveniently later on.

    Or by “investigators” are we talking of Agent Lodge himself, who at the Fargo trial at one moment says he gave everything he found in Coler’s car to Cunningham, & the next moment says he didn’t give everything he found in the car to Cunningham ?

    Oh what a tangled web we weave,
    When first we practice to deceive !

    Or is the FBI source here referring to the inimitable Agent Evan Hodge, the FBI’s ballistics expert, who in an October 31, 1975 FBI lab report signd by himself said that the weapons found in an exploded vehicle outside Wichita couldn’t be linked to the ammunition components found at Oglala after the firefight ? Those weapons included a busted, damaged AR -15 rifle.

    But all of a sudden, months later, on January 19, 1976, Agent Hodge determines the .223 shell casing CAN be linked to the AR-15 rifle after all — but only THEORETICALLY, for the gun is so badly damaged it cannot be test – fired !!!

    Nevertheless, the prosecution said this was the murder weapon , & Hodge signed the affidavit to that effect for Peltier’s extradition.

    But why the great delay in this second dianosis ? Hodge said he’d been too busy with the Oglala investigation — a stunning statement considering that this casing, & another fired by a .308, were the only ones found near the bodies which could have come from the high – velocity weapon(s) that caused the agents’ deaths.

    But at Fargo Judge Benson ruled that the defense couldn’t mention the strange timings of all these ballistics reports in court, apparently in case the jury refused to buy it !!

    But what connects the AR-15 rifle itself to Peltier ?

    ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.There’s no material evidence whatsoever

    That’s why prosecutor Lynn Crooks, aware of his weak evidentiary underpinning, whipped up the courtroom with typical lynchmob language calling Peltier a coldblooded killer & suchlike just like the FBI sources are doing on this site. THEY KNOW THEIR EVIDENTIARY GROUNDING IS SEISMIC.

    But, they say, it’s Matthiessen’s book which is a pack of lies. Unluckily for them, Peter Matthiesen happens to be an indefatigable researcher & scrupulous penman in the very front ranks of american literature, & two – time winner of the National Book Award,— plus the victor in the court case FBI Agent David Price brought against him, to put his book under gags !!

    Unfortunately for the FBI this time, Matthiessen wasn’t an Indian they could railroad, but an internationally renowned & respected writer — & A WHITE MAN.

    His vindication in court for his book on Peltier is acclaimed as a landmark legal precedent as a victory for the freedom of speech.

  116. Dear a. savage, Thank you for your kind words. I am honored.

    In his fine book, THE LAKOTA WAY, Lakota writer Joseph M. Marshall III said, "There are many certainties and even more illusions masquerading as truth, nothing short of living and learning will enable us to know the difference. … Truth is what we make it; it serves our own ends. … Neither side is wrong because ultimately all we can do is live our own truth. Sometimes, however, one truth hides another. Beware of Iktomi ." (Page 123.)

    There are those among us who believe Leonard Peltier should receive justice and be set free. There are many of us who believe in love, peace, justice, truth, and freedom.

  117. Regurgitating Matthiessen's nonsense merely shows that you read his book more than once. What you don't say is that every single court who reviewed the Peltier case concluded just the opposite of what Matthiessen would have us believe, and which he got away with printing under freedom of speech claims. Why do you side with a gullible amateur investigator yet disagree with the one conclusion he got right; that "the Indians" started the shooting? Have you ever even looked at the court records? Not only do the court findings of fact expose "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse" as a fraudulent history book, they expose the hypocrisy of those who invoke Indian spirituality and sacrifice to glorify an unrepentant killer. Such a denigration of true Indian bravery! Ignorance does not justify invoking historical excuses for murder. Learn to respect the truth and you will have an easier time of finding it.

  118. Dear a. savage, Thank you for your kind words. I am honored.

    In his fine book, THE LAKOTA WAY, Lakota writer Joseph M. Marshall III said, “There are many certainties and even more illusions masquerading as truth, nothing short of living and learning will enable us to know the difference. … Truth is what we make it; it serves our own ends. … Neither side is wrong because ultimately all we can do is live our own truth. Sometimes, however, one truth hides another. Beware of Iktomi .” (Page 123.)

    There are those among us who believe Leonard Peltier should receive justice and be set free. There are many of us who believe in love, peace, justice, truth, and freedom.

  119. Regurgitating Matthiessen’s nonsense merely shows that you read his book more than once. What you don’t say is that every single court who reviewed the Peltier case concluded just the opposite of what Matthiessen would have us believe, and which he got away with printing under freedom of speech claims. Why do you side with a gullible amateur investigator yet disagree with the one conclusion he got right; that “the Indians” started the shooting? Have you ever even looked at the court records? Not only do the court findings of fact expose “In the Spirit of Crazy Horse” as a fraudulent history book, they expose the hypocrisy of those who invoke Indian spirituality and sacrifice to glorify an unrepentant killer. Such a denigration of true Indian bravery! Ignorance does not justify invoking historical excuses for murder. Learn to respect the truth and you will have an easier time of finding it.

  120. Dear axisboldaslove, i love to discuss with you about truth, what it maybe is.

    Truth — for me truth comes in 2 ways.One kind of truth is contexted between the People & their oppressors, the other is just among the People themselves.

    In the former kind, truth & lies are enemies. Among the People alone the truth is not a matter of life & death always. That depends on the context.

    Just among the People, i sometimes love lies more than truth, axis. For instance, love wears lies often to hold onto what it loves, & i am gentle with the terrors that hold love captive. Let's ever be gentle with love's fear, & give it time to die.

    With the death of love itself, however, truth comes knocking, hard – eyed, unsparing. Such truth i would never speak myself, though i will listen to it carefully if spoken, for it's the most naked truth of all.Isn't it strange, that love wears its clothes modestly, but disrobes when it is done ?

    But look at Marshall's words you quoted. They're good, especially the last sentence. But, axis, i do not agree when he says,"Neither side is wrong because… all we can do is live our own truth."

    Here again is the question, when we talk of 2 sides, are we talking of .a conflict among the people, or are we talking of the war between the People & the Destroyers, the Greeds ?

    Of course the Greeds, the Destroyers live their own truths —- & it is the very terrible nature of their truth that makes them terribly , irreparably wrong — wrong not ultimately, not eventually, but wrong right now, wrong from the very first moment they invade our lives & take control, wrong eternally & forever in the eyes of the Earth & all Creation.Their own truths condemn them.

    What's wrong with Marshall's idea is he doesn't make this distinction between the 2 kinds of truths. What's wrong is he holds it as absolute truth. There is no absolute truth.

    You'll see a kind of white history writing about the Indian Wars, axis, where the writer tries to be "fair" & "impartial" by saying that both sides, Indian & white, committed atrocities, both sides displayed nobility & courage. It sounds true, but it's not truth s i know it.

    For the founding truth to this war is that the 2 sides are fundamentally not the same at all. One is the invader , the other the invaded, the violated.
    One side fights to defend itself & the Earth, the land, the other commits genocide, speciecide & ecocide to win.One holds on to the treaties, the other violates every treaty & promise made.One is the dispossessed, the other the expropriator.

    That is Indian truth — not according to Marshall of the Lakota, but according to the truth that speaks from the tongue of every chief & warrior & tribesperson from the time of Hatuey who was burned at the stake by the Spanish down to this day. It is the truth of this distinxction between the 2 sides that echoes from the words Tecumseh hurled at a white general : "Begone, you are unfit to command ! I conquer to save, & you to murder !"

  121. Dear axisboldaslove, i love to discuss with you about truth, what it maybe is.

    Truth — for me truth comes in 2 ways.One kind of truth is contexted between the People & their oppressors, the other is just among the People themselves.

    In the former kind, truth & lies are enemies. Among the People alone the truth is not a matter of life & death always. That depends on the context.

    Just among the People, i sometimes love lies more than truth, axis. For instance, love wears lies often to hold onto what it loves, & i am gentle with the terrors that hold love captive. Let’s ever be gentle with love’s fear, & give it time to die.

    With the death of love itself, however, truth comes knocking, hard – eyed, unsparing. Such truth i would never speak myself, though i will listen to it carefully if spoken, for it’s the most naked truth of all.Isn’t it strange, that love wears its clothes modestly, but disrobes when it is done ?

    But look at Marshall’s words you quoted. They’re good, especially the last sentence. But, axis, i do not agree when he says,”Neither side is wrong because… all we can do is live our own truth.”

    Here again is the question, when we talk of 2 sides, are we talking of .a conflict among the people, or are we talking of the war between the People & the Destroyers, the Greeds ?

    Of course the Greeds, the Destroyers live their own truths —- & it is the very terrible nature of their truth that makes them terribly , irreparably wrong — wrong not ultimately, not eventually, but wrong right now, wrong from the very first moment they invade our lives & take control, wrong eternally & forever in the eyes of the Earth & all Creation.Their own truths condemn them.

    What’s wrong with Marshall’s idea is he doesn’t make this distinction between the 2 kinds of truths. What’s wrong is he holds it as absolute truth. There is no absolute truth.

    You’ll see a kind of white history writing about the Indian Wars, axis, where the writer tries to be “fair” & “impartial” by saying that both sides, Indian & white, committed atrocities, both sides displayed nobility & courage. It sounds true, but it’s not truth s i know it.

    For the founding truth to this war is that the 2 sides are fundamentally not the same at all. One is the invader , the other the invaded, the violated.
    One side fights to defend itself & the Earth, the land, the other commits genocide, speciecide & ecocide to win.One holds on to the treaties, the other violates every treaty & promise made.One is the dispossessed, the other the expropriator.

    That is Indian truth — not according to Marshall of the Lakota, but according to the truth that speaks from the tongue of every chief & warrior & tribesperson from the time of Hatuey who was burned at the stake by the Spanish down to this day. It is the truth of this distinxction between the 2 sides that echoes from the words Tecumseh hurled at a white general : “Begone, you are unfit to command ! I conquer to save, & you to murder !”

  122. Thank you, a. savage, for more wisdom about truth and lies.

    Not to defend Marshall, because I may not understand fully, but I wonder if what he meant by "neither side is wrong" is that sometimes neither of these "truths" can be proven but that one hides the other. The other thing Marshall said that I thought was interesting was that the only absolute truth is death- that is the only thing that is certain.

    What you said about Greeds and Destroyers living their own truths seems sadly true, as well as what you said about the genocide, speciecide and ecoside that occurs all too often and for a long, long time. Too often it seems that some people and certain cultures are gravely unaware of the hazzards of harming others and the world we live on. This is what attracted me to many of the Native American cultures in the first place- a high regard for the natural world- the idea that the land is a relative and not a commodity.

    Is it possible that one day those who do the invading will cease do do so? I don't know. I think only way that will happen is by teaching and encouraging people to respect others and to foster a love of all things in nature- plants animals, rocks, the land, all of it, and to treat all of those things as equally important.

    What are your thoughts on this? Is there hope?

  123. Thank you, a. savage, for more wisdom about truth and lies.

    Not to defend Marshall, because I may not understand fully, but I wonder if what he meant by “neither side is wrong” is that sometimes neither of these “truths” can be proven but that one hides the other. The other thing Marshall said that I thought was interesting was that the only absolute truth is death- that is the only thing that is certain.

    What you said about Greeds and Destroyers living their own truths seems sadly true, as well as what you said about the genocide, speciecide and ecoside that occurs all too often and for a long, long time. Too often it seems that some people and certain cultures are gravely unaware of the hazzards of harming others and the world we live on. This is what attracted me to many of the Native American cultures in the first place- a high regard for the natural world- the idea that the land is a relative and not a commodity.

    Is it possible that one day those who do the invading will cease do do so? I don’t know. I think only way that will happen is by teaching and encouraging people to respect others and to foster a love of all things in nature- plants animals, rocks, the land, all of it, and to treat all of those things as equally important.

    What are your thoughts on this? Is there hope?

  124. Marshall says, the only absolute truth is death ? How do you feel ?

    To me, not even death is an absolute truth. Death is the Changer, the Turner. But there is no lessening, no ending, there is the Flow, the Fullness, completion Self – fulfilling, — & what "absolute" can withstand this flux ? Even Death is rendered a footnote to this Flow !

    And the invaders will be swept undertow by the Turner before they cease & desist of their own free will, which they gave up when they waded ashore these Indian americas. The invaders were offered a peaceful coexistence by the Nations, & they were noted by the Nations as refusing this peace, setting in motion that which you see.

    And now is when it gets worse. For long ago it was foreseen that the Nations' descendants themselves would join the invader in disembowelling the Earth & forgetting the teachings of their ancestors.

    Some traditional ones will remain. Some of your people are joining the resistance, axis. That is the only hope remaining. That the invaders' system offers no way out may be the only real hope on this Long Walk.

  125. Marshall says, the only absolute truth is death ? How do you feel ?

    To me, not even death is an absolute truth. Death is the Changer, the Turner. But there is no lessening, no ending, there is the Flow, the Fullness, completion Self – fulfilling, — & what “absolute” can withstand this flux ? Even Death is rendered a footnote to this Flow !

    And the invaders will be swept undertow by the Turner before they cease & desist of their own free will, which they gave up when they waded ashore these Indian americas. The invaders were offered a peaceful coexistence by the Nations, & they were noted by the Nations as refusing this peace, setting in motion that which you see.

    And now is when it gets worse. For long ago it was foreseen that the Nations’ descendants themselves would join the invader in disembowelling the Earth & forgetting the teachings of their ancestors.

    Some traditional ones will remain. Some of your people are joining the resistance, axis. That is the only hope remaining. That the invaders’ system offers no way out may be the only real hope on this Long Walk.

  126. We've sure wondered far from the matter at hand, and the truth about an unrepentant killer. Nice try, but changing the subject does not change the facts…

  127. We’ve sure wondered far from the matter at hand, and the truth about an unrepentant killer. Nice try, but changing the subject does not change the facts…

  128. The american myth of free choice, free will — the very foundation of the american dream — did not survive the first invaders' rejection of the first free choice they were ever offered by the Native Nations on this land, the free choice of harmonious coexistence with all beings & all things.

    His denial of that choice has determined american history to this day. That refusal to choose became the real Manifest Destiny for white state & civilization on these stolen continents. That is why the invader cannot change today. That is his fate. And that's why he cannot rest either, which is his punishment for imprisoning the free Indian life & spirit ( which Leonard Peltier represents today ) — he cannot rest but must repeat his history in every corner of the Earth on which he visits his fouling presence. And this locked-in inability to change himself, to keep repeating himself without being able to stop anywhere, is the real nature of what faces us in the case of Leonard Peltier.

  129. The american myth of free choice, free will — the very foundation of the american dream — did not survive the first invaders’ rejection of the first free choice they were ever offered by the Native Nations on this land, the free choice of harmonious coexistence with all beings & all things.

    His denial of that choice has determined american history to this day. That refusal to choose became the real Manifest Destiny for white state & civilization on these stolen continents. That is why the invader cannot change today. That is his fate. And that’s why he cannot rest either, which is his punishment for imprisoning the free Indian life & spirit ( which Leonard Peltier represents today ) — he cannot rest but must repeat his history in every corner of the Earth on which he visits his fouling presence. And this locked-in inability to change himself, to keep repeating himself without being able to stop anywhere, is the real nature of what faces us in the case of Leonard Peltier.

  130. This division in thought here seems irreconcilable. Some believe Leonard Peltier is guilty. Some see the overwhelming evidence leads us to believe he is not. But this discussion is not going to answer that question. In time perhaps we will see but meanwhile, only a change of hearts leading to peaceful co-existance- which a. savage has so well pointed out is what the Native First Nations wanted in the first place- will ultimately heal the wounds.

    As for getting off subject- it all seems related to me. The interconnectedness of all things is something most of us Euro-Americans are only just beginning to understand (and even then often only in a faddish way), but ancient cultures, particularly American Indian cultures, seem to have understood this intuitively all along. So what is not working in the world is all connected- and a lot of things in this world are not working well. Again I say a return to, love, peace, justice, truth and freedom and the virtues of humility, perseverence, respect, honor, love, sacrifice, truth, compassion, bravery, fortitude, generosity and wisdom is what is needed most today. Don't get me wrong- I'm not preaching here- I need to learn these as much as the next person.

    Regarding Leonard Peltier- no matter what you think about his innocense or guilt, he should at the very least be moved to a prison closer to his home and given proper medical attention. There should be no argument regarding these points.

  131. if you don't like america you should relocate. you seem to be loosing your leonard followers in this crappy country. perhaps try canada. if you choose to make bad choices in the "land of free choices" there are consequences. you all have excuses for his behavior. you are not helping him. you are hurting him…………..surely there is someone else in the culture you love to separate from the "white man" that deserves to be glorified, who does good. you are not setting a good example for the future………..very sad for you all.

  132. This division in thought here seems irreconcilable. Some believe Leonard Peltier is guilty. Some see the overwhelming evidence leads us to believe he is not. But this discussion is not going to answer that question. In time perhaps we will see but meanwhile, only a change of hearts leading to peaceful co-existance- which a. savage has so well pointed out is what the Native First Nations wanted in the first place- will ultimately heal the wounds.

    As for getting off subject- it all seems related to me. The interconnectedness of all things is something most of us Euro-Americans are only just beginning to understand (and even then often only in a faddish way), but ancient cultures, particularly American Indian cultures, seem to have understood this intuitively all along. So what is not working in the world is all connected- and a lot of things in this world are not working well. Again I say a return to, love, peace, justice, truth and freedom and the virtues of humility, perseverence, respect, honor, love, sacrifice, truth, compassion, bravery, fortitude, generosity and wisdom is what is needed most today. Don’t get me wrong- I’m not preaching here- I need to learn these as much as the next person.

    Regarding Leonard Peltier- no matter what you think about his innocense or guilt, he should at the very least be moved to a prison closer to his home and given proper medical attention. There should be no argument regarding these points.

  133. Convicted killers are never given the choice to "move closer to home." I think it has something to do with serving one's sentence. Reports from Leonard's parole hearing are that he suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes, probably related to his obesity. You're right about one thing; it doesn't matter what I think, but it does matter what the parole board thinks, and they believe that Peltier is very guilty and very unrepentant. This case is about truth and justice; there should be no argument about that. If you really want to help Leonard, get him to confess and ask for forgiveness. Help him save himself. Help him save his soul. And cheer up; this country is a lot better than what you portray. There is justice, and there is truth, and you have a better chance of finding it here than in any other place on earth.

  134. if you don’t like america you should relocate. you seem to be loosing your leonard followers in this crappy country. perhaps try canada. if you choose to make bad choices in the “land of free choices” there are consequences. you all have excuses for his behavior. you are not helping him. you are hurting him…………..surely there is someone else in the culture you love to separate from the “white man” that deserves to be glorified, who does good. you are not setting a good example for the future………..very sad for you all.

  135. Convicted killers are never given the choice to “move closer to home.” I think it has something to do with serving one’s sentence. Reports from Leonard’s parole hearing are that he suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes, probably related to his obesity. You’re right about one thing; it doesn’t matter what I think, but it does matter what the parole board thinks, and they believe that Peltier is very guilty and very unrepentant. This case is about truth and justice; there should be no argument about that. If you really want to help Leonard, get him to confess and ask for forgiveness. Help him save himself. Help him save his soul. And cheer up; this country is a lot better than what you portray. There is justice, and there is truth, and you have a better chance of finding it here than in any other place on earth.

  136. Removal of Peltier to a prison nearer home, & medical attention ?? And Ms Subherwal "cannot agree more" with that ??!! Is this Amnesty's new policy ?? Who gave it this unilateral right to make this amendment for the burgeoning movement for Leonard Peltier ??

    We have not changed our focus nor lost our concentration for his freedom. The battle for him is not isolated from the goal of Native liberation, the restoration of every Treaty, the expulsion of all mining companies from Indian earth for which the Indian nations are meeting right now in the Havasupai land of the Grand Canyon, and the return of Indian sovereignty, complete & unrelinquished.

    This Earth is not Judge Benson's courtroom, where the People's voices are silenced & the truth disconnected by banging a gavel.

    Look around you at this "great" country of yours the FBI Inquisition extolls for you. Your economy is on crutches & holding out a begging bowl to China, your people are foreclosed out of their own homes, fifty million of you have no health insurance coverage, your jobless figures keep jumping up by the additions of millions, your industries are dying & you are spreading new & totally unwinnable wars which only benefit your armaments corporations, your government grows its deficits in the trillions of dollars, & the FBI which helped destroy your Constitution through its illegalities destroys the remnants by cheering a race – determined judgment against a man who is a community caretaker you should yourselves be emulating in defense of your last remaining homes & freedoms.
    We have seen some who vacillate, yesterday's friend for a day & gone by morning, compromising your professed ideals & ready to follow any path that lets you off the hook. We are not here for providing easy victories or instant spiritualities. We will endure where some of you cannot, we who have been through half a millennium of hard resistance on these lands.Our goals are the farthest reaching & the most thorough on these continents, where we are the oldest survivors. The way ahead will show us our real friends among all races.

  137. Removal of Peltier to a prison nearer home, & medical attention ?? And Ms Subherwal “cannot agree more” with that ??!! Is this Amnesty’s new policy ?? Who gave it this unilateral right to make this amendment for the burgeoning movement for Leonard Peltier ??

    We have not changed our focus nor lost our concentration for his freedom. The battle for him is not isolated from the goal of Native liberation, the restoration of every Treaty, the expulsion of all mining companies from Indian earth for which the Indian nations are meeting right now in the Havasupai land of the Grand Canyon, and the return of Indian sovereignty, complete & unrelinquished.

    This Earth is not Judge Benson’s courtroom, where the People’s voices are silenced & the truth disconnected by banging a gavel.

    Look around you at this “great” country of yours the FBI Inquisition extolls for you. Your economy is on crutches & holding out a begging bowl to China, your people are foreclosed out of their own homes, fifty million of you have no health insurance coverage, your jobless figures keep jumping up by the additions of millions, your industries are dying & you are spreading new & totally unwinnable wars which only benefit your armaments corporations, your government grows its deficits in the trillions of dollars, & the FBI which helped destroy your Constitution through its illegalities destroys the remnants by cheering a race – determined judgment against a man who is a community caretaker you should yourselves be emulating in defense of your last remaining homes & freedoms.
    We have seen some who vacillate, yesterday’s friend for a day & gone by morning, compromising your professed ideals & ready to follow any path that lets you off the hook. We are not here for providing easy victories or instant spiritualities. We will endure where some of you cannot, we who have been through half a millennium of hard resistance on these lands.Our goals are the farthest reaching & the most thorough on these continents, where we are the oldest survivors. The way ahead will show us our real friends among all races.

  138. Mr. Savage, I should have been more clear in my response. First of all, I was speaking only as myself, not as the voice of AI. Secondly, I was reacting not to the final paragraph of axisboldaslove's comment, but rather to the rest of it, where he was talking about everything being interconnected, and how we must work together to begin to heal the world's ills. AI's stance that Leonard should be granted parole immediately has not changed.

  139. Nor has my stance, a. savage, on the belief that Leonard Peltier should be granted paraole. I was only pointing out that he, a man who some of us believe has never truly been proven guilty, has NOT EVEN been granted something as basic as health care. No one has vacillated here. I beleive it is not wise of you, a savage to cast off so quickly those of us who have been supportive.

    No offense to anyone here, but this blog has bogged down to into a stalemate of endless arguments- no one convincing anyone else of anything. Voicing one's opinion is a good thing but when the discussion becomes a volley of insults, the discussion becomes fruitless.

    Good wishes and best of luck to you all.

    Peace,

    axisboldaslove

  140. Mr. Savage, I should have been more clear in my response. First of all, I was speaking only as myself, not as the voice of AI. Secondly, I was reacting not to the final paragraph of axisboldaslove’s comment, but rather to the rest of it, where he was talking about everything being interconnected, and how we must work together to begin to heal the world’s ills. AI’s stance that Leonard should be granted parole immediately has not changed.

  141. Nor has my stance, a. savage, on the belief that Leonard Peltier should be granted paraole. I was only pointing out that he, a man who some of us believe has never truly been proven guilty, has NOT EVEN been granted something as basic as health care. No one has vacillated here. I beleive it is not wise of you, a savage to cast off so quickly those of us who have been supportive.

    No offense to anyone here, but this blog has bogged down to into a stalemate of endless arguments- no one convincing anyone else of anything. Voicing one’s opinion is a good thing but when the discussion becomes a volley of insults, the discussion becomes fruitless.

    Good wishes and best of luck to you all.

    Peace,

    axisboldaslove

  142. In fact, Peltier received treatment for his jaw condition at the Mayo Clinic, and he receives health care on a regular basis when warranted. Your arguments on his behalf and the diversions from the criminal case against him point to the weakness of trying to overcome the courts' findings of fact with popularized folklore. No offense, but standing up for the verifiable truth is not a stalemate but is the right and moral thing to do. The truth will win out in the fullness of time. Peltier has no chance at freedom until he accepts responsibility for his actions, including bilking millions of well-intentioned people out of their time and money on behalf of his fraudulent defense claims. Thank God the courts and the parole boards see through it all, They honor the truth and they have ruled justly. The evidence against Peltier, including his boast about shooting Ron Williams in the face at point-blank range, is overwhelming, He is guilty, and no amount of proselytizing can change the facts.

  143. In fact, Peltier received treatment for his jaw condition at the Mayo Clinic, and he receives health care on a regular basis when warranted. Your arguments on his behalf and the diversions from the criminal case against him point to the weakness of trying to overcome the courts’ findings of fact with popularized folklore. No offense, but standing up for the verifiable truth is not a stalemate but is the right and moral thing to do. The truth will win out in the fullness of time. Peltier has no chance at freedom until he accepts responsibility for his actions, including bilking millions of well-intentioned people out of their time and money on behalf of his fraudulent defense claims. Thank God the courts and the parole boards see through it all, They honor the truth and they have ruled justly. The evidence against Peltier, including his boast about shooting Ron Williams in the face at point-blank range, is overwhelming, He is guilty, and no amount of proselytizing can change the facts.

  144. Thank you so very much, Ms Subherwal & axisbold, for your well chosen words & your timely & categorical clarifications.

    You are right, axis — there has been no "vacillation" here.

    My words are extremely foolish & blind & self-shaming regarding Leonard's staunchest & most supportive friends, among whom i count you both.In fact, the kind of person he doesn't need is a person like me who would alienate true friends such as yourselves, & weaken the work on his behalf.

    Let this be a salutary lesson for me.You may trust it will be my guide & shadow companion into the future.

    i stand ashamed & corrected before you — & connected to both of you, by way of self-correction at least.

    axis, may i say that i understand your good intentions, but now is not the time to call for a prison nearer home, when the present single demand has nothing to do with any prison or treatment therein at all.

    In every moment in a struggle, dear brother, the target is narrowed down as much as possible, for precision & power & concentration.

    We are demanding nothing short of freedom.

    Thank you both for enlightening me, my Relatives !

  145. A word more, axis .

    You say this blog has "bogged" down into "a stalemate of endless arguments with no one convincing anyone else of anything."

    i marvel at your words.

    This blog — & some others on this site, as well — has been a tremendrous teaching process, so much so that i am still in the process of digesting !!

    Do you want to know what this Peltier blog is to me ?

    It's a Canterbury procession of the living history of these Indian Americas !!

    Each journeyman & sojourner has taught me so much i am trying to write down all that i have learned before i forget, for so many lessons get lost if you don't write them up. And they keep on coming.

    You yourself have taught me unknown to yourself, though like any living lesson i have to keep on revising it / myself.

    Even the Peltier story has been revealed anew & afresh to me after passing through this blog's belly.

    And do you know who has taught me the most of all ?

    It's the gentlemen of the FBI.

    They have showed me what i never saw before.With each word they speak, they illuminate me.

    This is the firsthand experience of history.

    Each day contains fresh surprises — today's heroes are Ms Subherwal & yourself. This is the opposite of the "bogged down""stalemate" you describe today of all days — here is the flux, this is the Flow !!

    And do you know how maybe i learn ??

    Because, again contrary to what you said, i at least have never been aiming to convince anyone of anything — not you nor any other friend, and definitely not the gentlemen of the FBI.

    All along i have just been talking to myself .

  146. Thank you so very much, Ms Subherwal & axisbold, for your well chosen words & your timely & categorical clarifications.

    You are right, axis — there has been no “vacillation” here.

    My words are extremely foolish & blind & self-shaming regarding Leonard’s staunchest & most supportive friends, among whom i count you both.In fact, the kind of person he doesn’t need is a person like me who would alienate true friends such as yourselves, & weaken the work on his behalf.

    Let this be a salutary lesson for me.You may trust it will be my guide & shadow companion into the future.

    i stand ashamed & corrected before you — & connected to both of you, by way of self-correction at least.

    axis, may i say that i understand your good intentions, but now is not the time to call for a prison nearer home, when the present single demand has nothing to do with any prison or treatment therein at all.

    In every moment in a struggle, dear brother, the target is narrowed down as much as possible, for precision & power & concentration.

    We are demanding nothing short of freedom.

    Thank you both for enlightening me, my Relatives !

  147. A word more, axis .

    You say this blog has “bogged” down into “a stalemate of endless arguments with no one convincing anyone else of anything.”

    i marvel at your words.

    This blog — & some others on this site, as well — has been a tremendrous teaching process, so much so that i am still in the process of digesting !!

    Do you want to know what this Peltier blog is to me ?

    It’s a Canterbury procession of the living history of these Indian Americas !!

    Each journeyman & sojourner has taught me so much i am trying to write down all that i have learned before i forget, for so many lessons get lost if you don’t write them up. And they keep on coming.

    You yourself have taught me unknown to yourself, though like any living lesson i have to keep on revising it / myself.

    Even the Peltier story has been revealed anew & afresh to me after passing through this blog’s belly.

    And do you know who has taught me the most of all ?

    It’s the gentlemen of the FBI.

    They have showed me what i never saw before.With each word they speak, they illuminate me.

    This is the firsthand experience of history.

    Each day contains fresh surprises — today’s heroes are Ms Subherwal & yourself. This is the opposite of the “bogged down””stalemate” you describe today of all days — here is the flux, this is the Flow !!

    And do you know how maybe i learn ??

    Because, again contrary to what you said, i at least have never been aiming to convince anyone of anything — not you nor any other friend, and definitely not the gentlemen of the FBI.

    All along i have just been talking to myself .

  148. Yes —

    it's the FBI people who are the most THEMSELVES in these exchanges — revelatory of mind, method, of something of their self & soul secretions, their obsessions, their key centrality to the saga of Peltier.

    And unlike the nonhuman spider, they are fixed to the heart of the web they've spun.

  149. Yes —

    it’s the FBI people who are the most THEMSELVES in these exchanges — revelatory of mind, method, of something of their self & soul secretions, their obsessions, their key centrality to the saga of Peltier.

    And unlike the nonhuman spider, they are fixed to the heart of the web they’ve spun.

  150. Nonsense. FBI Agents are no different than other law enforcement officers – they never forget copkillers. Never. They're funny that way, but all law enforcement men and women share a common bond about killing one of their own. Call it human nature, but if you murder a cop, you will have every badge in the country looking for you. Peltier is not behind bars because of broken treaties, historical grievances, or government plots. He rots in prison because he is guilty of executing two young federal agents, and he has never expressed remorse for his crimes. Talk to the Indians closest to this story and this is what they will tell you.

  151. Nonsense. FBI Agents are no different than other law enforcement officers – they never forget copkillers. Never. They’re funny that way, but all law enforcement men and women share a common bond about killing one of their own. Call it human nature, but if you murder a cop, you will have every badge in the country looking for you. Peltier is not behind bars because of broken treaties, historical grievances, or government plots. He rots in prison because he is guilty of executing two young federal agents, and he has never expressed remorse for his crimes. Talk to the Indians closest to this story and this is what they will tell you.

  152. Do you define & determine your idea of morality by your uniform or your badge ?

    Your uniform, right or wrong ? That it ?

    Then yours is a morality of poverty, yours the poverty of morality.

    When a badge or uniform becomes its own end, it SUBVERTS its stated ends — to serve society, & nothing more.

    All jobholding adults are wageslaves, but only you wear uniforms all your lives.

    For us, it's as Red Coud said —"We come naked, & we will go away naked."

    Naked suits us — for we have nothing to hide.

    Damn, in spite of your violent power, we are a whole lot more free than you !!

    But even your own laws put strict limits on your uniforms & badges — your jurisdiction ends at the borders of reservations, which you violated long before the Oglala fight, before Wounded Knee itself.

    The weakness of a position is when it stands within a vacuum, denying its very own context & focusing on one thing only — for example, what you call "copkilling" ( your term, not mine ).

    You corral yourselves into a corner — deleting every aspect of human, social or racial complexity involved.

    Where does Leonard Peltier's perennial popularity come from ?

    It comes from his embracing the big picture all his life , the giant canvas without which no detail can be understood — imperialism, invasion, racism, genocide, broken treaties, uranium wars, & prosecutorial misconduct .

    HE INSPIRES PEOPLE OF ALL RACES by showing this giant landscape of context which connects us all to him.

    Unlike the prosecution, he isn't afraid that his "individual" case will be lost in this giant landscape of truths.

    The FBI / prosecution's fatal weakness is they deprive the people of this great landscape & confine them to Judge Benson's policed courtroom.

    Trust the People & bring them out into this vast landscape of historical geography, & all doors will open.

    For, where do events come from ?

    They don't drop from the sky — they are born out of a social process.

    All truth is contextual, & part of an ongoing process.

    If you hide from this landscape, it means you have things to hide.

    The FBI looks like the huddled streetcorner signholders urging "Repent, repent!" to hurrying passersby.

    This cannot fill up their own giant Void of evidence in this case.

    Because of this Void they are reduced to saying, talk to the Indians closest to the case.Is that a legal argument ?

    And the Indians CLOSEST to the case were the co-accused in this very case upon whom the FBI also tried to pin the blame on the basis of this exact same Void of evidence, & those Indians were all acquitted at the Cedar Rapids trial.

    ***

    You say Leonard will "rot in prison" ??

    You missed the point AGAIN.

    Today Peltier's moral Power, his stature & authority, stem from his very imprisonment. And he's just written this most exhillarating piece of legal /political analysis which thousands around the world have read already.

    In this piece he tells us that the struggle now is a battle of IDEAS.

    He paints a canvas interconnnected implications of Babylon's policies for peoples of all races.And he gives a splendid idea for the Indians of all the Dakotas to unite in one giant electoral bloc & concentrate their combined Power in "mainstream" politics for the first time in history.

    The longer you hold him in the larger than life he grows, until all your prisons combined cannot hold him anymore. i feel a boundless hope about him beyond even the bounds of mortality.For you i feel no hope at all, even within those bounds.

  153. Do you define & determine your idea of morality by your uniform or your badge ?

    Your uniform, right or wrong ? That it ?

    Then yours is a morality of poverty, yours the poverty of morality.

    When a badge or uniform becomes its own end, it SUBVERTS its stated ends — to serve society, & nothing more.

    All jobholding adults are wageslaves, but only you wear uniforms all your lives.

    For us, it’s as Red Coud said —“We come naked, & we will go away naked.”

    Naked suits us — for we have nothing to hide.

    Damn, in spite of your violent power, we are a whole lot more free than you !!

    But even your own laws put strict limits on your uniforms & badges — your jurisdiction ends at the borders of reservations, which you violated long before the Oglala fight, before Wounded Knee itself.

    The weakness of a position is when it stands within a vacuum, denying its very own context & focusing on one thing only — for example, what you call “copkilling” ( your term, not mine ).

    You corral yourselves into a corner — deleting every aspect of human, social or racial complexity involved.

    Where does Leonard Peltier’s perennial popularity come from ?

    It comes from his embracing the big picture all his life , the giant canvas without which no detail can be understood — imperialism, invasion, racism, genocide, broken treaties, uranium wars, & prosecutorial misconduct .

    HE INSPIRES PEOPLE OF ALL RACES by showing this giant landscape of context which connects us all to him.

    Unlike the prosecution, he isn’t afraid that his “individual” case will be lost in this giant landscape of truths.

    The FBI / prosecution’s fatal weakness is they deprive the people of this great landscape & confine them to Judge Benson’s policed courtroom.

    Trust the People & bring them out into this vast landscape of historical geography, & all doors will open.

    For, where do events come from ?

    They don’t drop from the sky — they are born out of a social process.

    All truth is contextual, & part of an ongoing process.

    If you hide from this landscape, it means you have things to hide.

    The FBI looks like the huddled streetcorner signholders urging “Repent, repent!” to hurrying passersby.

    This cannot fill up their own giant Void of evidence in this case.

    Because of this Void they are reduced to saying, talk to the Indians closest to the case.Is that a legal argument ?

    And the Indians CLOSEST to the case were the co-accused in this very case upon whom the FBI also tried to pin the blame on the basis of this exact same Void of evidence, & those Indians were all acquitted at the Cedar Rapids trial.

    ***

    You say Leonard will “rot in prison” ??

    You missed the point AGAIN.

    Today Peltier’s moral Power, his stature & authority, stem from his very imprisonment. And he’s just written this most exhillarating piece of legal /political analysis which thousands around the world have read already.

    In this piece he tells us that the struggle now is a battle of IDEAS.

    He paints a canvas interconnnected implications of Babylon’s policies for peoples of all races.And he gives a splendid idea for the Indians of all the Dakotas to unite in one giant electoral bloc & concentrate their combined Power in “mainstream” politics for the first time in history.

    The longer you hold him in the larger than life he grows, until all your prisons combined cannot hold him anymore. i feel a boundless hope about him beyond even the bounds of mortality.For you i feel no hope at all, even within those bounds.

  154. Wow, I haven't checked in with this conversation for a while, and I am struck by many things but I'll mention a few.

    First of all, thank you a. savage. for all the book ideas – that is awesome. I have them all written down. Thank you for the kind words as well.

    And to axisboldaslove, thank you for your comments. I would like to say to you that reading and participating in this exchange of ideas and assertions has been most informative for me, and not one bit a waste of time (even though it took me a while to return, and I apologize for that). I, like you, wish I could convince others of my stance on many issues, including Leonard Peltier's innocence, but I know that it is often futile to hope for miracles. I have to be satisfied with expressing my own convictions, otherwise I will be disappointed again and again. Everyone needs to find a way to express themselves, and people have different comfort levels with opposition and debate. If you decide not to contribute to this conversation any more, I respect that, but I hope you do, because you have said some really wonderful things. Especially the quote about hope – I love that. Also the part about the inter-connectedness of all things, that is really true.

    Which segues me into my next comment – to James Simon – just because the conversation expands into the contextual realities surrounding the history of Native oppression by whites, doesn't indicate in the least that we are avoiding the issue at hand. Personally, I am extremely interested in the spiritual realities of different Native cultures, and wish to learn all I possibly can about them, and here is someone – a. savage – who is obviously deeply involved with these mysteries. I find it fascinating, and once again, completely connected with Leonard Peltier.

    Also, James, when you use disrespectful language, like "rot in hell," all you end up doing is sound hostile. Besides which, what kind of name is "American Indian Mafia?" Why in the world would I ever believe ANYthing coming from a website with such a ridiculous and overarchingly racist name?

    Finally , a. savage, you have taught me a lot, and I thank you for your generosity and insight. You have said some beautiful and poetic things – I love the idea that you are talking to yourself here, that there is no one to convince. I don't understand some of what you said about truth and lies and love, but I find everything you say thought-provoking. Thank you.

  155. Wow, I haven’t checked in with this conversation for a while, and I am struck by many things but I’ll mention a few.

    First of all, thank you a. savage. for all the book ideas – that is awesome. I have them all written down. Thank you for the kind words as well.

    And to axisboldaslove, thank you for your comments. I would like to say to you that reading and participating in this exchange of ideas and assertions has been most informative for me, and not one bit a waste of time (even though it took me a while to return, and I apologize for that). I, like you, wish I could convince others of my stance on many issues, including Leonard Peltier’s innocence, but I know that it is often futile to hope for miracles. I have to be satisfied with expressing my own convictions, otherwise I will be disappointed again and again. Everyone needs to find a way to express themselves, and people have different comfort levels with opposition and debate. If you decide not to contribute to this conversation any more, I respect that, but I hope you do, because you have said some really wonderful things. Especially the quote about hope – I love that. Also the part about the inter-connectedness of all things, that is really true.

    Which segues me into my next comment – to James Simon – just because the conversation expands into the contextual realities surrounding the history of Native oppression by whites, doesn’t indicate in the least that we are avoiding the issue at hand. Personally, I am extremely interested in the spiritual realities of different Native cultures, and wish to learn all I possibly can about them, and here is someone – a. savage – who is obviously deeply involved with these mysteries. I find it fascinating, and once again, completely connected with Leonard Peltier.

    Also, James, when you use disrespectful language, like “rot in hell,” all you end up doing is sound hostile. Besides which, what kind of name is “American Indian Mafia?” Why in the world would I ever believe ANYthing coming from a website with such a ridiculous and overarchingly racist name?

    Finally , a. savage, you have taught me a lot, and I thank you for your generosity and insight. You have said some beautiful and poetic things – I love the idea that you are talking to yourself here, that there is no one to convince. I don’t understand some of what you said about truth and lies and love, but I find everything you say thought-provoking. Thank you.

  156. I am not FBI and I did not say "rot in hell." That is your phrase but it is apt since Peltier created his own hell. If you choose to celebrate and be inspired by a cold-blooded killer, that's your business. Meanwhile, reality and the everyday challenges of life compel the rest of us to work for a living, and to be rational, responsible, and respectful of the truth. Peltier did shoot those two young men in the face at point-blank range. That's what the evidence says, that's what every judge who's reviewed the case believes, and that's what Peltier himself bragged about as described here:
    http://www.jfamr.org/doc/kmtest1.html

    You can choose to believe it or not. Don't care what you embrace or what you think matters in a hazy world of symbology. I care about the truth and fighting the good fight. And this is one issue worth fighting for. The truth matters. Peltier is guilty. Guilty by any standard. His guilt grows with each new revelation. According to several Indians and Native journalists, Peltier interrogated murder victim Anna Mae Pictou Aquash by putting a loaded gun in her mouth in 1975, the same year she was murdered by Peltier's leaders. When apprehended in Canada, he said he would have opened fire on the RCMP had he known they were looking for him. In 1979, Peltier participated in an armed escape from prison in which one man was shot and killed. He was later found hiding in some bushes, armed with a Ruger Mini-14 assault rifle and two fully loaded banana magazines.

    Close your mind, dismiss titles, fixate on semantics, and you will miss out on discovering the truth. Open your mind, listen to the other side to the story and you will have an easier time of finding it. Again, I challenge you to watch Richard Two Elk's video on Peltier at americanindianmafia.com; and be honest. Ask yourself if an innocent man would need to change his alibis as often as Peltier has changed his. To believe Peltier, one must also believe that several hundred people, both Indians and FBI's, all conspired to deprive him of his rights and "railroad" him into prison. They must all be liars and Leonard must be the only one telling the truth. How can this be if, as the video shows, he is constantly caught lying about where he was when the killing shots were fired. His stories do not add up.

    This murder case is not about historical grievances; it's about whether or not Leonard shot two injured and disarmed men because he thought they were there to arrest him. To support Peltier’s claim of innocence is to show that you do not really care about finding the truth, nor care about his welfare. Those who celebrate his bloodlust must account for their rhetoric and behavior. The truth demands it. Too many of his supporters exploit this case for its political value without regard to what it's doing to Leonard's soul, his chance at redemption. Shame on them.

  157. I am not FBI and I did not say "rot in hell." That is your phrase but it is apt since Peltier created his own hell. If you choose to celebrate and be inspired by a cold-blooded killer, that's your business. Meanwhile, reality and the everyday challenges of life compel the rest of us to work for a living, and to be rational, responsible, and respectful of the truth. Peltier did shoot those two young men in the face at point-blank range. That's what the evidence says, that's what every judge who's reviewed the case believes, and that's what Peltier himself bragged about as described here:
    http://www.jfamr.org/doc/kmtest1.html

    You can choose to believe it or not. Don't care what you embrace or what you think matters in a hazy world of symbology. I care about the truth and fighting the good fight. And this is one issue worth fighting for. The truth matters. Peltier is guilty. Guilty by any standard. His guilt grows with each new revelation. According to several Indians and Native journalists, Peltier interrogated murder victim Anna Mae Pictou Aquash by putting a loaded gun in her mouth in 1975, the same year she was murdered by Peltier's leaders. When apprehended in Canada, he said he would have opened fire on the RCMP had he known they were looking for him. In 1979, Peltier participated in an armed escape from prison in which one man was shot and killed. He was later found hiding in some bushes, armed with a Ruger Mini-14 assault rifle and two fully loaded banana magazines.

    Close your mind, dismiss titles, fixate on semantics, and you will miss out on discovering the truth. Open your mind, listen to the other side to the story and you will have an easier time of finding it. Again, I challenge you to watch Richard Two Elk's video on Peltier at americanindianmafia.com; and be honest. Ask yourself if an innocent man would need to change his alibis as often as Peltier has changed his. To believe Peltier, one must also believe that several hundred people, both Indians and FBI's, all conspired to deprive him of his rights and "railroad" him into prison. They must all be liars and Leonard must be the only one telling the truth. How can this be if, as the video shows, he is constantly caught lying about where he was when the killing shots were fired. His stories do not add up.

    This murder case is not about historical grievances; it's about whether or not Leonard shot two injured and disarmed men because he thought they were there to arrest him. To support Peltier’s claim of innocence is to show that you do not really care about finding the truth, nor care about his welfare. Those who celebrate his bloodlust must account for their rhetoric and behavior. The truth demands it. Too many of his supporters exploit this case for its political value without regard to what it's doing to Leonard's soul, his chance at redemption. Shame on them.

  158. I am not FBI and I did not say "rot in hell." That is your phrase but it is apt since Peltier created his own hell. If you choose to celebrate and be inspired by a cold-blooded killer, that's your business. Meanwhile, reality and the everyday challenges of life compel the rest of us to work for a living, and to be rational, responsible, and respectful of the truth. Peltier did shoot those two young men in the face at point-blank range. That's what the evidence says, that's what every judge who's reviewed the case believes, and that's what Peltier himself bragged about as described here:
    http://www.jfamr.org/doc/kmtest1.html

    You can choose to believe it or not. Don't care what you embrace or what you think matters in a hazy world of symbology. I care about the truth and fighting the good fight. And this is one issue worth fighting for. The truth matters. Peltier is guilty. Guilty by any standard. His guilt grows with each new revelation. According to several Indians and Native journalists, Peltier interrogated murder victim Anna Mae Pictou Aquash by putting a loaded gun in her mouth in 1975, the same year she was murdered by Peltier's leaders. When apprehended in Canada, he said he would have opened fire on the RCMP had he known they were looking for him. In 1979, Peltier participated in an armed escape from prison in which one man was shot and killed. He was later found hiding in some bushes, armed with a Ruger Mini-14 assault rifle and two fully loaded banana magazines.

    Close your mind, dismiss titles, fixate on semantics, and you will miss out on discovering the truth. Open your mind, listen to the other side to the story and you will have an easier time of finding it. Again, I challenge you to watch Richard Two Elk's video on Peltier at americanindianmafia.com; and be honest. Ask yourself if an innocent man would need to change his alibis as often as Peltier has changed his. To believe Peltier, one must also believe that several hundred people, both Indians and FBI's, all conspired to deprive him of his rights and "railroad" him into prison. They must all be liars and Leonard must be the only one telling the truth. How can this be if, as the video shows, he is constantly caught lying about where he was when the killing shots were fired. His stories do not add up.

    This murder case is not about historical grievances; it's about whether or not Leonard shot two injured and disarmed men because he thought they were there to arrest him. To support Peltier’s claim of innocence is to show that you do not really care about finding the truth, nor care about his welfare. Those who celebrate his bloodlust must account for their rhetoric and behavior. The truth demands it. Too many of his supporters exploit this case for its political value without regard to what it's doing to Leonard's soul, his chance at redemption. Shame on them.

  159. I am not FBI and I did not say “rot in hell.” That is your phrase but it is apt since Peltier created his own hell. If you choose to celebrate and be inspired by a cold-blooded killer, that’s your business. Meanwhile, reality and the everyday challenges of life compel the rest of us to work for a living, and to be rational, responsible, and respectful of the truth. Peltier did shoot those two young men in the face at point-blank range. That’s what the evidence says, that’s what every judge who’s reviewed the case believes, and that’s what Peltier himself bragged about as described here:

    http://www.jfamr.org/doc/kmtest1.html

    You can choose to believe it or not. Don’t care what you embrace or what you think matters in a hazy world of symbology. I care about the truth and fighting the good fight. And this is one issue worth fighting for. The truth matters. Peltier is guilty. Guilty by any standard. His guilt grows with each new revelation. According to several Indians and Native journalists, Peltier interrogated murder victim Anna Mae Pictou Aquash by putting a loaded gun in her mouth in 1975, the same year she was murdered by Peltier’s leaders. When apprehended in Canada, he said he would have opened fire on the RCMP had he known they were looking for him. In 1979, Peltier participated in an armed escape from prison in which one man was shot and killed. He was later found hiding in some bushes, armed with a Ruger Mini-14 assault rifle and two fully loaded banana magazines.

    Close your mind, dismiss titles, fixate on semantics, and you will miss out on discovering the truth. Open your mind, listen to the other side to the story and you will have an easier time of finding it. Again, I challenge you to watch Richard Two Elk’s video on Peltier at americanindianmafia.com; and be honest. Ask yourself if an innocent man would need to change his alibis as often as Peltier has changed his. To believe Peltier, one must also believe that several hundred people, both Indians and FBI’s, all conspired to deprive him of his rights and “railroad” him into prison. They must all be liars and Leonard must be the only one telling the truth. How can this be if, as the video shows, he is constantly caught lying about where he was when the killing shots were fired. His stories do not add up.

    This murder case is not about historical grievances; it’s about whether or not Leonard shot two injured and disarmed men because he thought they were there to arrest him. To support Peltier’s claim of innocence is to show that you do not really care about finding the truth, nor care about his welfare. Those who celebrate his bloodlust must account for their rhetoric and behavior. The truth demands it. Too many of his supporters exploit this case for its political value without regard to what it’s doing to Leonard’s soul, his chance at redemption. Shame on them.

  160. Sarah Mills, thank you. Hope axis hears you, how deeply you appreciate him.My words have injured him, but yours can help restore him.

    i learn thru this that conrol of self & understanding of the other are the most important things in a friendship.

  161. Sarah & axis, you stand for the balanced & thinking white people. With you coming up, i have hope.

    "Rot in prison", that's what the Rightwing blogger here said.It's typical Rightwing talk. The old settler mindset, inbred, unchanged.

    To him Leonard's a "coldblooded killer". In the 19th century they said "bloodthirsty savage", before Freud arrived.They called Geronimo "the tiger of the human species", & even Tecumseh, so kind & compassionate to his captured enemies, was the very "Devil hisself".Today, with psychoanalysis & Truman Capote, "cold blooded" is the word of choice.It suits the contemporary culture, that's all.

    The Righteing blogger also describes Leonard as boasting this & that. i've never heard him boasting, but in his blog piece before the last this Rightwing person was himself boasting thatevery man & woman in uniform & carrying a badge will hunt down & get a "copkiller". "Copkiller", that deliberately provocative word thrown casually in, to inflame & rabble rouse the lynchmob that's precisely this person's own constituency. "Copkiller", the Dirty Harry style of lingo the law loves to toss about at the expense of the exploited peoples.

    We don't ever talk to such people. And we never talk at their level.Their level is part of the problem.No problem is solved at its own level.

    He piles event atop event without clearing the greater picture. For example, he says Leonard escaped in a prison break in which a man was shot & killed.He just says only that. The man who was killed is actually the key to why Leonard escaped in the first place.He was Dallas Thundershield, a Lakota boy & Leonard's friend, & they escaped together from California's Lompoc Penitentiary for both feared for Pelier's life which was then targetted by the FBI for "neutralization".

    When they were surrounded & the police called on them to surrender, Dallas stepped out, arms in the air. From behind, he looked just like Leonard. And the bullet that pierced his heart came from behgind him, from a prison guard's gun, the murderer apparently thinking that he was shooting Peltier.

    The pro – police blogger here then describes accusingly how Peltier was arrested hiding in some bushes ( how horrible ! doesn't that remind you of those skulkin Injuns of white nightmares ?? ) & carrying a gun with loaded magazines !! How strange !! If we were being hunted by men trying to kill us, wouldn't we be out sunbathing in the open with a stack of "Cosmopolitan" magazines in our hands,to show just how innocent we were all along, & not at all the way they'd described us ?? I f we tried to defend ourselves, it would show we were guilty as charged, wouldn't it !!

    But again this pro -police blogger doesn't tell us how the police caught up with Leonard & found him where he was. They found him because Leonard, after 5 days of hunger, entered a field of watermelons to eat, & an old white farmer started shooting at him. Leonard disarmed him but didn't tie him up, for fear "Grandpa"might have a heart attack with nobody around to help him. The moment Leonard left, the white man ran — to the nearest phone.And called the police, the guardians of security & order.

    This blogger here never sticks around when challenged on any point, but swiftly goes & picks up another aspect of the case …

    But in EVERY indian – white conflict context, you'll find
    it's ALWAYS the Indian whose land is being attacked
    it's ALWAYS the Indian whose land the battle is fought upon
    it's ALWAYS the Indian whose treaty is being violated
    it's ALWAYS the Indian on whose land the uranium's been dumped
    it's ALWAYS the Indian whose murders ae never prosecuted AAAND
    it's ALWAYS the Indian who then goes to prison for the rest of his life.

    If you can find an exception , just a single exception to this eternal rule of life in Apartheid America, then you can begin to believe that justice is finally being served .

  162. Sarah *& axis, here's a postscript for you from that time Leonard escped from Lompoc prison.

    After ther escape the authorities were cautioning eveyone on the airwaves that an"armed & dangerous" "coldblooded killer" was on the loose, & to report him the moment they saw him.

    So when Leonard disarmed that white farmer, the man knew he was looking at this dangerous murderer & his own days were probably done.

    Then Leonard says to him he's just going to take his car & the car keys, but he won't tie him up for "Pops, you might have a heart attack." He only requested the man to give him some time before he called the police.

    If Leonard had tied him up, he might have driven away all the way to Mexico.

    Instead, this coldblooded Indian killer let the old man stay free & unbound.

    And thereby ensured his own imprisonment once more.

  163. Sarah Mills, thank you. Hope axis hears you, how deeply you appreciate him.My words have injured him, but yours can help restore him.

    i learn thru this that conrol of self & understanding of the other are the most important things in a friendship.

  164. Sarah & axis, you stand for the balanced & thinking white people. With you coming up, i have hope.

    “Rot in prison”, that’s what the Rightwing blogger here said.It’s typical Rightwing talk. The old settler mindset, inbred, unchanged.

    To him Leonard’s a “coldblooded killer”. In the 19th century they said “bloodthirsty savage”, before Freud arrived.They called Geronimo “the tiger of the human species”, & even Tecumseh, so kind & compassionate to his captured enemies, was the very “Devil hisself”.Today, with psychoanalysis & Truman Capote, “cold blooded” is the word of choice.It suits the contemporary culture, that’s all.

    The Righteing blogger also describes Leonard as boasting this & that. i’ve never heard him boasting, but in his blog piece before the last this Rightwing person was himself boasting thatevery man & woman in uniform & carrying a badge will hunt down & get a “copkiller”. “Copkiller”, that deliberately provocative word thrown casually in, to inflame & rabble rouse the lynchmob that’s precisely this person’s own constituency. “Copkiller”, the Dirty Harry style of lingo the law loves to toss about at the expense of the exploited peoples.

    We don’t ever talk to such people. And we never talk at their level.Their level is part of the problem.No problem is solved at its own level.

    He piles event atop event without clearing the greater picture. For example, he says Leonard escaped in a prison break in which a man was shot & killed.He just says only that. The man who was killed is actually the key to why Leonard escaped in the first place.He was Dallas Thundershield, a Lakota boy & Leonard’s friend, & they escaped together from California’s Lompoc Penitentiary for both feared for Pelier’s life which was then targetted by the FBI for “neutralization”.

    When they were surrounded & the police called on them to surrender, Dallas stepped out, arms in the air. From behind, he looked just like Leonard. And the bullet that pierced his heart came from behgind him, from a prison guard’s gun, the murderer apparently thinking that he was shooting Peltier.

    The pro – police blogger here then describes accusingly how Peltier was arrested hiding in some bushes ( how horrible ! doesn’t that remind you of those skulkin Injuns of white nightmares ?? ) & carrying a gun with loaded magazines !! How strange !! If we were being hunted by men trying to kill us, wouldn’t we be out sunbathing in the open with a stack of “Cosmopolitan” magazines in our hands,to show just how innocent we were all along, & not at all the way they’d described us ?? I f we tried to defend ourselves, it would show we were guilty as charged, wouldn’t it !!

    But again this pro -police blogger doesn’t tell us how the police caught up with Leonard & found him where he was. They found him because Leonard, after 5 days of hunger, entered a field of watermelons to eat, & an old white farmer started shooting at him. Leonard disarmed him but didn’t tie him up, for fear “Grandpa”might have a heart attack with nobody around to help him. The moment Leonard left, the white man ran — to the nearest phone.And called the police, the guardians of security & order.

    This blogger here never sticks around when challenged on any point, but swiftly goes & picks up another aspect of the case …

    But in EVERY indian – white conflict context, you’ll find
    it’s ALWAYS the Indian whose land is being attacked
    it’s ALWAYS the Indian whose land the battle is fought upon
    it’s ALWAYS the Indian whose treaty is being violated
    it’s ALWAYS the Indian on whose land the uranium’s been dumped
    it’s ALWAYS the Indian whose murders ae never prosecuted AAAND
    it’s ALWAYS the Indian who then goes to prison for the rest of his life.

    If you can find an exception , just a single exception to this eternal rule of life in Apartheid America, then you can begin to believe that justice is finally being served .

  165. Yes, we need to throw the Lompoc prison guards in with the other members of the grand conspiracy. Thanks for clearing that up. If it matters, the issues raised are addressed in the book, American Indian Mafia, wherein Peltier's phony assassination story is exposed with thorough documentation. At the very least, the book affords you the opportunity to add a couple hundred more to the circle of conspirators, all of whom must have repeatedly lied about the truth-telling convict. On the other hand, Mafia may offer a common-sense alternative to the highly falsified account, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, which many Indians consider to be a gross denigration of that great noble warrior, and which apparently constitutes the sum total of your knowledge of the case. Seriously, you do a grave disservice to all Indians when you compare Peltier to authentic Indian heroes.

  166. Sarah *& axis, here’s a postscript for you from that time Leonard escped from Lompoc prison.

    After ther escape the authorities were cautioning eveyone on the airwaves that an”armed & dangerous” “coldblooded killer” was on the loose, & to report him the moment they saw him.

    So when Leonard disarmed that white farmer, the man knew he was looking at this dangerous murderer & his own days were probably done.

    Then Leonard says to him he’s just going to take his car & the car keys, but he won’t tie him up for “Pops, you might have a heart attack.” He only requested the man to give him some time before he called the police.

    If Leonard had tied him up, he might have driven away all the way to Mexico.

    Instead, this coldblooded Indian killer let the old man stay free & unbound.

    And thereby ensured his own imprisonment once more.

  167. Personally, I don't have enough information to start arguing specific points about the case. I simply don't know enough. But suffice it to say that I plan to educate myself and I'll start with Matthiessen's book. As for the moment, based on what I know, I believe Leonard is innocent and James, there is nothing you can say to convince me otherwise, not insults, not lies, not shaming or damning words. For me, it's enough that the only witness recanted her testimony and came out with the truth – that she had been threatened by the FBI into being a false witness against Leonard. Even the Parole Commission admits "the lack of any direct evidence that [Leonard] personally participated in the executions of two FBI agents.” (see Intro by AI) Is that clear enough for you? This is (hopefully) my last word to you directly James. I don't engage with people who throw insults all over the place. It's a waste of energy. So go ahead and rant and rave, but you aren't having the effect you desire.

    a. savage, thanks again for all the information. I hope our conversation continues because I have learned a lot. And you are right, also, about the value of taking on the opposition – how it helps us to clarify our own positions and strengthens our arguments. So in that sense, thanks James, for helping us all to do that. If there's anyone else reading this who hasn't commented, please do, because we need all your voices.

  168. Sarah,

    No insult intended, just trying to expose the hypocrisy of propaganda aimed at glorifying an unrepentant killer. I don't enjoy busting people's bubbles but I've looked at this case in depth and have concluded that Peltier has fooled a lot of good-hearted, well-intentioned people. By all means, read ISOCH, but you really should read Mafia first. Otherwise, you'll get fooled again, like I was and so many others. I'd like to hear what you think about that video produced by former AIM member Richard Two Elk. Yes, we need more voices to stand up for the truth, no matter where it leads. But people need to know the whole story. The AI intro is misleading. Myrtle Poor Bear did not testify at Leonard's trial nor were her 3 statements (one contradicting the other two) the only evidence used in his extradition. Leonard was not convicted of pulling the trigger, but he was found guilty of aiding and abetting the murders, which carries the same penalty under federal statute as if he did pull the trigger: a life sentence, or two for this double murder. Recall that in the 1999 CNN interview, Leonard finally admitted going down to where the agents were. Perhaps without realizing it, he placed himself at the scene of the crime during the critical window when the killing shots were fired. You mentioned the parole board findings. Here's what else the parole board concluded in 1993, after reviewing the entire case:

    "Although the above evidence is consistent with your having, while at the scene of the murders, aided and abetted the use of the above-mentioned AR-15 rifle by another individual to execute the agents, the Commission is persuaded that the greater probability is that you yourself fired the fatal shots… It would be unjust to treat the slaying of these F.B.I. agents, while they lay wounded and helpless, as if your actions had been part of a gun battle. Neither the state of relations between Native American militants and law enforcement at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation prior to June 26, 1975, nor the exchanges of gunfire between individuals at the Jumping Bull Compound and the law enforcement agents who arrived there during the hours after Agents Coler and Williams were murdered, explains or mitigates the crimes you committed… Your release on parole would promote disrespect for the law in contravention of 18 U.S.C…."

  169. Yes, we need to throw the Lompoc prison guards in with the other members of the grand conspiracy. Thanks for clearing that up. If it matters, the issues raised are addressed in the book, American Indian Mafia, wherein Peltier’s phony assassination story is exposed with thorough documentation. At the very least, the book affords you the opportunity to add a couple hundred more to the circle of conspirators, all of whom must have repeatedly lied about the truth-telling convict. On the other hand, Mafia may offer a common-sense alternative to the highly falsified account, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, which many Indians consider to be a gross denigration of that great noble warrior, and which apparently constitutes the sum total of your knowledge of the case. Seriously, you do a grave disservice to all Indians when you compare Peltier to authentic Indian heroes.

  170. Personally, I don’t have enough information to start arguing specific points about the case. I simply don’t know enough. But suffice it to say that I plan to educate myself and I’ll start with Matthiessen’s book. As for the moment, based on what I know, I believe Leonard is innocent and James, there is nothing you can say to convince me otherwise, not insults, not lies, not shaming or damning words. For me, it’s enough that the only witness recanted her testimony and came out with the truth – that she had been threatened by the FBI into being a false witness against Leonard. Even the Parole Commission admits “the lack of any direct evidence that [Leonard] personally participated in the executions of two FBI agents.” (see Intro by AI) Is that clear enough for you? This is (hopefully) my last word to you directly James. I don’t engage with people who throw insults all over the place. It’s a waste of energy. So go ahead and rant and rave, but you aren’t having the effect you desire.

    a. savage, thanks again for all the information. I hope our conversation continues because I have learned a lot. And you are right, also, about the value of taking on the opposition – how it helps us to clarify our own positions and strengthens our arguments. So in that sense, thanks James, for helping us all to do that. If there’s anyone else reading this who hasn’t commented, please do, because we need all your voices.

  171. Sarah,

    No insult intended, just trying to expose the hypocrisy of propaganda aimed at glorifying an unrepentant killer. I don’t enjoy busting people’s bubbles but I’ve looked at this case in depth and have concluded that Peltier has fooled a lot of good-hearted, well-intentioned people. By all means, read ISOCH, but you really should read Mafia first. Otherwise, you’ll get fooled again, like I was and so many others. I’d like to hear what you think about that video produced by former AIM member Richard Two Elk. Yes, we need more voices to stand up for the truth, no matter where it leads. But people need to know the whole story. The AI intro is misleading. Myrtle Poor Bear did not testify at Leonard’s trial nor were her 3 statements (one contradicting the other two) the only evidence used in his extradition. Leonard was not convicted of pulling the trigger, but he was found guilty of aiding and abetting the murders, which carries the same penalty under federal statute as if he did pull the trigger: a life sentence, or two for this double murder. Recall that in the 1999 CNN interview, Leonard finally admitted going down to where the agents were. Perhaps without realizing it, he placed himself at the scene of the crime during the critical window when the killing shots were fired. You mentioned the parole board findings. Here’s what else the parole board concluded in 1993, after reviewing the entire case:

    “Although the above evidence is consistent with your having, while at the scene of the murders, aided and abetted the use of the above-mentioned AR-15 rifle by another individual to execute the agents, the Commission is persuaded that the greater probability is that you yourself fired the fatal shots… It would be unjust to treat the slaying of these F.B.I. agents, while they lay wounded and helpless, as if your actions had been part of a gun battle. Neither the state of relations between Native American militants and law enforcement at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation prior to June 26, 1975, nor the exchanges of gunfire between individuals at the Jumping Bull Compound and the law enforcement agents who arrived there during the hours after Agents Coler and Williams were murdered, explains or mitigates the crimes you committed… Your release on parole would promote disrespect for the law in contravention of 18 U.S.C….”

  172. Sarah, thank you for you forcing out the truth, which i couldn't have done, — only you with your patience & trust in indian people have been able to do this .

    You have been able to show that, simply because Leonard was THERE, the double killings were pinned on him.

    His crime, therefore, was helping defend Oglala country & his own People, alongside his brothers & sisters.

    And Kills Right, the handsome, shy, quiet, spiritual boy who fought alongside Leonard that day, & whoexhorted his brothers to fight back,saying to all the others who were there with him, "Remember the women & children at the camp. It's the day to be a warrior ." — he who was shot execution style at close range,— no one was ever charged or prosecuted for his death. For as Gladys Bissonnette, the Oglala elder, said, "It's NOTHNIG to kill an Indian on this reservation !"

    i commend you for deciding to read Matthiessen's book. For one thing, he's a marvellous prose writer, & reading any book by him, like "Far Tortuga", a magnificent literary masterpiece which i read & reread each time with joy, is an experience .

    Secondly, Matthiessen is a deeply spiritual man, which the Indians note, & traditional people throughout the land open their doors & ceremonies to him. It's one reason they trusted him enough to request him to tell Leonard & AIM's story, for an indian writer would not get the attention from the media & th white world that a respected writer like him would.

    Finally, Matthiessen's book, which is more than just a book, it's a mosaic of carefully detailed particles making up a giant body of truth — this labor of love by him has been praised by Dee Brown, the author of "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" definitely THE most acknowledged & influential hisrtorian of the Plains indian Wars. Brown has called Matthiessen's work "the first solidly documented work of the government's assault on American Indians [ today ]."

    Apart from Brown, Matthiessen's book has been corroborated & validated by the books of Vine Deloria , Jr, the most famous & influential Lakota writer of the 20th century, & by the findings & work on Pine Ridge & the traditional people's struggle by Alvin M Josephy, Jr, the most authoritative scholar on North American Indian history.

    This trio of scholars are the acknowledhed masters in the field. And their findings vindicate Matthiessen's own.

    i envy you Sarah. You're reading this book for the first time.It will open the windows on Iindian country to you.

  173. Sarah, thank you for you forcing out the truth, which i couldn’t have done, — only you with your patience & trust in indian people have been able to do this .

    You have been able to show that, simply because Leonard was THERE, the double killings were pinned on him.

    His crime, therefore, was helping defend Oglala country & his own People, alongside his brothers & sisters.

    And Kills Right, the handsome, shy, quiet, spiritual boy who fought alongside Leonard that day, & whoexhorted his brothers to fight back,saying to all the others who were there with him, “Remember the women & children at the camp. It’s the day to be a warrior .” — he who was shot execution style at close range,— no one was ever charged or prosecuted for his death. For as Gladys Bissonnette, the Oglala elder, said, “It’s NOTHNIG to kill an Indian on this reservation !”

    i commend you for deciding to read Matthiessen’s book. For one thing, he’s a marvellous prose writer, & reading any book by him, like “Far Tortuga”, a magnificent literary masterpiece which i read & reread each time with joy, is an experience .

    Secondly, Matthiessen is a deeply spiritual man, which the Indians note, & traditional people throughout the land open their doors & ceremonies to him. It’s one reason they trusted him enough to request him to tell Leonard & AIM’s story, for an indian writer would not get the attention from the media & th white world that a respected writer like him would.

    Finally, Matthiessen’s book, which is more than just a book, it’s a mosaic of carefully detailed particles making up a giant body of truth — this labor of love by him has been praised by Dee Brown, the author of “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee” definitely THE most acknowledged & influential hisrtorian of the Plains indian Wars. Brown has called Matthiessen’s work “the first solidly documented work of the government’s assault on American Indians [ today ].”

    Apart from Brown, Matthiessen’s book has been corroborated & validated by the books of Vine Deloria , Jr, the most famous & influential Lakota writer of the 20th century, & by the findings & work on Pine Ridge & the traditional people’s struggle by Alvin M Josephy, Jr, the most authoritative scholar on North American Indian history.

    This trio of scholars are the acknowledhed masters in the field. And their findings vindicate Matthiessen’s own.

    i envy you Sarah. You’re reading this book for the first time.It will open the windows on Iindian country to you.

  174. Which warror for liberation has not been called a killer, especially an unrepentant one ?

    i told you about Leonard, hungry & exhausted & disoriented after 5 days without any food after his escape from prison. So when that white farmer named Parker began shooting at him, Leonard felt outraged & disgusted : What's wrong with these whites, that they have to shoot at a man over a patch of pumpkins ??

    So when he disarmed the man ( & this story is verified by a policeman, Mr Correl, who was present at the capture of Peltier ), Parker clearly expected to die, & asked, "Are you going to kill me now?"

    Leonard answered, "Naw, you are just a working man, like me. Well, I am a political prisoner. … In fact, I haven't killed anyone."

    Correl , the policeman who talked to the press afterward, said that letting that old man live was Peltier's "biggest mistake". If not for him, he might have gotten away.

    Correl also admitted that the police had all been told, by the FBI presumably, that Peltier was a terrible murderer who'd escapd from every law enforcement body & "massacred" those 2 FBI agents when they tried to capture "him" ( which was another falsehood, for the FBI men hadn't gone there after Leonard ).

    So when the police finally caught up with him there, Bill Turner, a Vietnam vet who was with the police force, was asked to put the cuffs on Leonard, & Turner was shaking, his voice quaking as he told Peltier repeatedly, "Don't move."

    After he was handcuffed, the FBI agent present, Agent Wilkins, pushed his gun into Leonard's face & said, "You punk, you killed my friend. I'm going to blow your fucking head off."

    Leonard said, "Go ahead."

    Turner then said, "I ain't going to be no party in no killing."

    Wilkins steped back, saying, "You lucky son of a bitch."

    Leonard had also expected to be killed there by the FBI, accordinng to the police, so when the police found Peltier's gun & a clip of ammo in the bushes ( ah, those bushes again ), they asked him why he didn't shoot it out.

    Leonard said, "I'm no killer."

    Which shows how people are manipulated into believing anything about anybody.

    And like all colonised peoples , Sarah, Indians are split up & bitterly divided. Many will be found who will say things about other Indians which the dominating powers can use against their targetted Indians.Leonard hasn't played this game of badmouthing others of his people. Those who abandon their riends & comrades often say many things in justification of themselves which are then used by the Destroyers against the People, not only among Indians but among all colonised Peoples around Earth.

    But traditional Indians, & courageous traditional Indian journalists like the Akwesasne Indian journalists & the present generation of reporters, have stayed with Leonard & his struggle, something i have always noted.

    And today, after you pressed out the truth all by yourself, we hear the admission here that the prosecution convicted Peltier of 2 consecutive lifetimes in prison, not for pulling the trigger, but for aiding & abetting. Aiding & abetting ??? That's a huge net more full of holes than nets !! Aiding & abetting are exactly the kinds of charges they dredged up against cooks & car drivers & destitutes they captured & have then held for years in Guantanamo, when they couldn't find anything to hold them with. Even the lawyers assigned the prisoners by the Army were disgusted by the government's catch – all, vague & unspecified allegations against them. But as the Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al Zaidi, who hurled his shoes at Bush, said, "It's not strange [ how they used DECEPTION to desroy Iraq ], NOT MUCH DIFFERENT THAN THE TREATMENT OF THE NATIVE AMERICANS AT THE HANDS OF THE COLONIALISTS."

    The deception al Zaidi mentions as befalling his beloved Iraq is the exact same used as well in this case of Leonard Peltier.

    ( For Leonard's marvellous essay on his parole denial, titled "I Am Now Barack Obama's Political Prisoner", go to http://www.counterpunch.com. "Counterpunch" is America's topmost political magazine & website today. )

  175. Which warror for liberation has not been called a killer, especially an unrepentant one ?

    i told you about Leonard, hungry & exhausted & disoriented after 5 days without any food after his escape from prison. So when that white farmer named Parker began shooting at him, Leonard felt outraged & disgusted : What's wrong with these whites, that they have to shoot at a man over a patch of pumpkins ??

    So when he disarmed the man ( & this story is verified by a policeman, Mr Correl, who was present at the capture of Peltier ), Parker clearly expected to die, & asked, "Are you going to kill me now?"

    Leonard answered, "Naw, you are just a working man, like me. Well, I am a political prisoner. … In fact, I haven't killed anyone."

    Correl , the policeman who talked to the press afterward, said that letting that old man live was Peltier's "biggest mistake". If not for him, he might have gotten away.

    Correl also admitted that the police had all been told, by the FBI presumably, that Peltier was a terrible murderer who'd escapd from every law enforcement body & "massacred" those 2 FBI agents when they tried to capture "him" ( which was another falsehood, for the FBI men hadn't gone there after Leonard ).

    So when the police finally caught up with him there, Bill Turner, a Vietnam vet who was with the police force, was asked to put the cuffs on Leonard, & Turner was shaking, his voice quaking as he told Peltier repeatedly, "Don't move."

    After he was handcuffed, the FBI agent present, Agent Wilkins, pushed his gun into Leonard's face & said, "You punk, you killed my friend. I'm going to blow your fucking head off."

    Leonard said, "Go ahead."

    Turner then said, "I ain't going to be no party in no killing."

    Wilkins steped back, saying, "You lucky son of a bitch."

    Leonard had also expected to be killed there by the FBI, accordinng to the police, so when the police found Peltier's gun & a clip of ammo in the bushes ( ah, those bushes again ), they asked him why he didn't shoot it out.

    Leonard said, "I'm no killer."

    Which shows how people are manipulated into believing anything about anybody.

    And like all colonised peoples , Sarah, Indians are split up & bitterly divided. Many will be found who will say things about other Indians which the dominating powers can use against their targetted Indians.Leonard hasn't played this game of badmouthing others of his people. Those who abandon their riends & comrades often say many things in justification of themselves which are then used by the Destroyers against the People, not only among Indians but among all colonised Peoples around Earth.

    But traditional Indians, & courageous traditional Indian journalists like the Akwesasne Indian journalists & the present generation of reporters, have stayed with Leonard & his struggle, something i have always noted.

    And today, after you pressed out the truth all by yourself, we hear the admission here that the prosecution convicted Peltier of 2 consecutive lifetimes in prison, not for pulling the trigger, but for aiding & abetting. Aiding & abetting ??? That's a huge net more full of holes than nets !! Aiding & abetting are exactly the kinds of charges they dredged up against cooks & car drivers & destitutes they captured & have then held for years in Guantanamo, when they couldn't find anything to hold them with. Even the lawyers assigned the prisoners by the Army were disgusted by the government's catch – all, vague & unspecified allegations against them. But as the Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al Zaidi, who hurled his shoes at Bush, said, "It's not strange [ how they used DECEPTION to desroy Iraq ], NOT MUCH DIFFERENT THAN THE TREATMENT OF THE NATIVE AMERICANS AT THE HANDS OF THE COLONIALISTS."

    The deception al Zaidi mentions as befalling his beloved Iraq is the exact same used as well in this case of Leonard Peltier.

    ( For Leonard's marvellous essay on his parole denial, titled "I Am Now Barack Obama's Political Prisoner", go to http://www.counterpunch.com. "Counterpunch" is America's topmost political magazine & website today. )

  176. Which warror for liberation has not been called a killer, especially an unrepentant one ?

    i told you about Leonard, hungry & exhausted & disoriented after 5 days without any food after his escape from prison. So when that white farmer named Parker began shooting at him, Leonard felt outraged & disgusted : What's wrong with these whites, that they have to shoot at a man over a patch of pumpkins ??

    So when he disarmed the man ( & this story is verified by a policeman, Mr Correl, who was present at the capture of Peltier ), Parker clearly expected to die, & asked, "Are you going to kill me now?"

    Leonard answered, "Naw, you are just a working man, like me. Well, I am a political prisoner. … In fact, I haven't killed anyone."

    Correl , the policeman who talked to the press afterward, said that letting that old man live was Peltier's "biggest mistake". If not for him, he might have gotten away.

    Correl also admitted that the police had all been told, by the FBI presumably, that Peltier was a terrible murderer who'd escapd from every law enforcement body & "massacred" those 2 FBI agents when they tried to capture "him" ( which was another falsehood, for the FBI men hadn't gone there after Leonard ).

    So when the police finally caught up with him there, Bill Turner, a Vietnam vet who was with the police force, was asked to put the cuffs on Leonard, & Turner was shaking, his voice quaking as he told Peltier repeatedly, "Don't move."

    After he was handcuffed, the FBI agent present, Agent Wilkins, pushed his gun into Leonard's face & said, "You punk, you killed my friend. I'm going to blow your fucking head off."

    Leonard said, "Go ahead."

    Turner then said, "I ain't going to be no party in no killing."

    Wilkins steped back, saying, "You lucky son of a bitch."

    Leonard had also expected to be killed there by the FBI, accordinng to the police, so when the police found Peltier's gun & a clip of ammo in the bushes ( ah, those bushes again ), they asked him why he didn't shoot it out.

    Leonard said, "I'm no killer."

    Which shows how people are manipulated into believing anything about anybody.

    And like all colonised peoples , Sarah, Indians are split up & bitterly divided. Many will be found who will say things about other Indians which the dominating powers can use against their targetted Indians.Leonard hasn't played this game of badmouthing others of his people. Those who abandon their riends & comrades often say many things in justification of themselves which are then used by the Destroyers against the People, not only among Indians but among all colonised Peoples around Earth.

    But traditional Indians, & courageous traditional Indian journalists like the Akwesasne Indian journalists & the present generation of reporters, have stayed with Leonard & his struggle, something i have always noted.

    And today, after you pressed out the truth all by yourself, we hear the admission here that the prosecution convicted Peltier of 2 consecutive lifetimes in prison, not for pulling the trigger, but for aiding & abetting. Aiding & abetting ??? That's a huge net more full of holes than nets !! Aiding & abetting are exactly the kinds of charges they dredged up against cooks & car drivers & destitutes they captured & have then held for years in Guantanamo, when they couldn't find anything to hold them with. Even the lawyers assigned the prisoners by the Army were disgusted by the government's catch – all, vague & unspecified allegations against them. But as the Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al Zaidi, who hurled his shoes at Bush, said, "It's not strange [ how they used DECEPTION to desroy Iraq ], NOT MUCH DIFFERENT THAN THE TREATMENT OF THE NATIVE AMERICANS AT THE HANDS OF THE COLONIALISTS."

    The deception al Zaidi mentions as befalling his beloved Iraq is the exact same used as well in this case of Leonard Peltier.

    ( For Leonard's marvellous essay on his parole denial, titled "I Am Now Barack Obama's Political Prisoner", go to http://www.counterpunch.com. "Counterpunch" is America's topmost political magazine & website today. )

  177. Which warror for liberation has not been called a killer, especially an unrepentant one ?

    i told you about Leonard, hungry & exhausted & disoriented after 5 days without any food after his escape from prison. So when that white farmer named Parker began shooting at him, Leonard felt outraged & disgusted : What’s wrong with these whites, that they have to shoot at a man over a patch of pumpkins ??

    So when he disarmed the man ( & this story is verified by a policeman, Mr Correl, who was present at the capture of Peltier ), Parker clearly expected to die, & asked, “Are you going to kill me now?”

    Leonard answered, “Naw, you are just a working man, like me. Well, I am a political prisoner. … In fact, I haven’t killed anyone.”

    Correl , the policeman who talked to the press afterward, said that letting that old man live was Peltier’s “biggest mistake”. If not for him, he might have gotten away.

    Correl also admitted that the police had all been told, by the FBI presumably, that Peltier was a terrible murderer who’d escapd from every law enforcement body & “massacred” those 2 FBI agents when they tried to capture “him” ( which was another falsehood, for the FBI men hadn’t gone there after Leonard ).

    So when the police finally caught up with him there, Bill Turner, a Vietnam vet who was with the police force, was asked to put the cuffs on Leonard, & Turner was shaking, his voice quaking as he told Peltier repeatedly, “Don’t move.”

    After he was handcuffed, the FBI agent present, Agent Wilkins, pushed his gun into Leonard’s face & said, “You punk, you killed my friend. I’m going to blow your fucking head off.”

    Leonard said, “Go ahead.”

    Turner then said, “I ain’t going to be no party in no killing.”

    Wilkins steped back, saying, “You lucky son of a bitch.”

    Leonard had also expected to be killed there by the FBI, accordinng to the police, so when the police found Peltier’s gun & a clip of ammo in the bushes ( ah, those bushes again ), they asked him why he didn’t shoot it out.

    Leonard said, “I’m no killer.”

    Which shows how people are manipulated into believing anything about anybody.

    And like all colonised peoples , Sarah, Indians are split up & bitterly divided. Many will be found who will say things about other Indians which the dominating powers can use against their targetted Indians.Leonard hasn’t played this game of badmouthing others of his people. Those who abandon their riends & comrades often say many things in justification of themselves which are then used by the Destroyers against the People, not only among Indians but among all colonised Peoples around Earth.

    But traditional Indians, & courageous traditional Indian journalists like the Akwesasne Indian journalists & the present generation of reporters, have stayed with Leonard & his struggle, something i have always noted.

    And today, after you pressed out the truth all by yourself, we hear the admission here that the prosecution convicted Peltier of 2 consecutive lifetimes in prison, not for pulling the trigger, but for aiding & abetting. Aiding & abetting ??? That’s a huge net more full of holes than nets !! Aiding & abetting are exactly the kinds of charges they dredged up against cooks & car drivers & destitutes they captured & have then held for years in Guantanamo, when they couldn’t find anything to hold them with. Even the lawyers assigned the prisoners by the Army were disgusted by the government’s catch – all, vague & unspecified allegations against them. But as the Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al Zaidi, who hurled his shoes at Bush, said, “It’s not strange [ how they used DECEPTION to desroy Iraq ], NOT MUCH DIFFERENT THAN THE TREATMENT OF THE NATIVE AMERICANS AT THE HANDS OF THE COLONIALISTS.”

    The deception al Zaidi mentions as befalling his beloved Iraq is the exact same used as well in this case of Leonard Peltier.

    ( For Leonard’s marvellous essay on his parole denial, titled “I Am Now Barack Obama’s Political Prisoner”, go to http://www.counterpunch.com. “Counterpunch” is America’s topmost political magazine & website today. )

  178. Sarah, we drink truth from the clearest & purest Sources we can find — & such Sources are not found in "mainstream" society & media, but beyond their boundaries.

    The true standards of Indian journalism are set today by the reportage of the traditional Indian journalist, Brenda Norrell.She goes to the Source, & tells us the truth about what she finds out about what is happening to her Peoples.

    For speaking the truth she has been "censored out of the [ media ] business", she says.That means the corporate media censor her words & the voices of traditional Indians, but she continues to report without the benefit of a paycheck.

    Here is what she has just written about the prosecution ( persecution ) of Indian people who are struggling today for Native sovereignty :

    "… federal judges & federal prosecutors are on the same team. The FBI can manipulate & manufacture evidence, even drive people to a so – called crime if the guys don't have a ride.

    "During the federal trial of former Navajo Chairman Peter McDonald, it became obvious : if you are an Amrican Indian, you can forget about justice. Later, during the trials of American Indian activists, it was clear : Federal prosecutors can just write a script & send people to prison.

    "There are parts of the American justice system concealed from most people : Distorted facts & planted evidence. News reporters seldom learn of the witnesses who receive federal plea agreements & lie on the witness stand. Few people except news reporters ever sit through these long, & tedously dull at times, federal trials which can go on for months.

    "A three – month trial of American Indians, or environmentalists, will smash any romantic myth about justice for all in the US court system. The bias & politics embedded within the justice system, & the backdoor deals of Congressmen with the corporations who bankroll them, seldom make the evening news."

    Read Brenda Norrell's searing piece, "Cry Me a River :Uranium & Genocide in Indian Country", Sept 17, in "Counterpunch", at http://www.counterpunch.com.

    Journey to the Source, dear friend.

  179. Sarah, we drink truth from the clearest & purest Sources we can find — & such Sources are not found in "mainstream" society & media, but beyond their boundaries.

    The true standards of Indian journalism are set today by the reportage of the traditional Indian journalist, Brenda Norrell.She goes to the Source, & tells us the truth about what she finds out about what is happening to her Peoples.

    For speaking the truth she has been "censored out of the [ media ] business", she says.That means the corporate media censor her words & the voices of traditional Indians, but she continues to report without the benefit of a paycheck.

    Here is what she has just written about the prosecution ( persecution ) of Indian people who are struggling today for Native sovereignty :

    "… federal judges & federal prosecutors are on the same team. The FBI can manipulate & manufacture evidence, even drive people to a so – called crime if the guys don't have a ride.

    "During the federal trial of former Navajo Chairman Peter McDonald, it became obvious : if you are an Amrican Indian, you can forget about justice. Later, during the trials of American Indian activists, it was clear : Federal prosecutors can just write a script & send people to prison.

    "There are parts of the American justice system concealed from most people : Distorted facts & planted evidence. News reporters seldom learn of the witnesses who receive federal plea agreements & lie on the witness stand. Few people except news reporters ever sit through these long, & tedously dull at times, federal trials which can go on for months.

    "A three – month trial of American Indians, or environmentalists, will smash any romantic myth about justice for all in the US court system. The bias & politics embedded within the justice system, & the backdoor deals of Congressmen with the corporations who bankroll them, seldom make the evening news."

    Read Brenda Norrell's searing piece, "Cry Me a River :Uranium & Genocide in Indian Country", Sept 17, in "Counterpunch", at http://www.counterpunch.com.

    Journey to the Source, dear friend.

  180. Sarah, we drink truth from the clearest & purest Sources we can find — & such Sources are not found in "mainstream" society & media, but beyond their boundaries.

    The true standards of Indian journalism are set today by the reportage of the traditional Indian journalist, Brenda Norrell.She goes to the Source, & tells us the truth about what she finds out about what is happening to her Peoples.

    For speaking the truth she has been "censored out of the [ media ] business", she says.That means the corporate media censor her words & the voices of traditional Indians, but she continues to report without the benefit of a paycheck.

    Here is what she has just written about the prosecution ( persecution ) of Indian people who are struggling today for Native sovereignty :

    "… federal judges & federal prosecutors are on the same team. The FBI can manipulate & manufacture evidence, even drive people to a so – called crime if the guys don't have a ride.

    "During the federal trial of former Navajo Chairman Peter McDonald, it became obvious : if you are an Amrican Indian, you can forget about justice. Later, during the trials of American Indian activists, it was clear : Federal prosecutors can just write a script & send people to prison.

    "There are parts of the American justice system concealed from most people : Distorted facts & planted evidence. News reporters seldom learn of the witnesses who receive federal plea agreements & lie on the witness stand. Few people except news reporters ever sit through these long, & tedously dull at times, federal trials which can go on for months.

    "A three – month trial of American Indians, or environmentalists, will smash any romantic myth about justice for all in the US court system. The bias & politics embedded within the justice system, & the backdoor deals of Congressmen with the corporations who bankroll them, seldom make the evening news."

    Read Brenda Norrell's searing piece, "Cry Me a River :Uranium & Genocide in Indian Country", Sept 17, in "Counterpunch", at http://www.counterpunch.com.

    Journey to the Source, dear friend.

  181. Sarah, we drink truth from the clearest & purest Sources we can find — & such Sources are not found in “mainstream” society & media, but beyond their boundaries.

    The true standards of Indian journalism are set today by the reportage of the traditional Indian journalist, Brenda Norrell.She goes to the Source, & tells us the truth about what she finds out about what is happening to her Peoples.

    For speaking the truth she has been “censored out of the [ media ] business”, she says.That means the corporate media censor her words & the voices of traditional Indians, but she continues to report without the benefit of a paycheck.

    Here is what she has just written about the prosecution ( persecution ) of Indian people who are struggling today for Native sovereignty :

    “… federal judges & federal prosecutors are on the same team. The FBI can manipulate & manufacture evidence, even drive people to a so – called crime if the guys don’t have a ride.

    “During the federal trial of former Navajo Chairman Peter McDonald, it became obvious : if you are an Amrican Indian, you can forget about justice. Later, during the trials of American Indian activists, it was clear : Federal prosecutors can just write a script & send people to prison.

    “There are parts of the American justice system concealed from most people : Distorted facts & planted evidence. News reporters seldom learn of the witnesses who receive federal plea agreements & lie on the witness stand. Few people except news reporters ever sit through these long, & tedously dull at times, federal trials which can go on for months.

    “A three – month trial of American Indians, or environmentalists, will smash any romantic myth about justice for all in the US court system. The bias & politics embedded within the justice system, & the backdoor deals of Congressmen with the corporations who bankroll them, seldom make the evening news.”

    Read Brenda Norrell’s searing piece, “Cry Me a River :Uranium & Genocide in Indian Country”, Sept 17, in “Counterpunch”, at http://www.counterpunch.com.

    Journey to the Source, dear friend.

  182. I actually wrote to Brenda recently: “You've done so much good reporting for Indian Country so I hate to see you so far off course on this important topic. [Lack of reporting on the fasting in front of the White House] is not so much censorship as it is scholarship. Most people in the media are loath to adopt a sympathetic stance towards a convicted killer who has never prevailed in a court of law, despites dozens of court appearances. I hate to see so many good-hearted, well-intentioned people get fooled over and over again…”

    As for Peter Matthiessen, yes it is true he is a gifted author. It is also true that Peltier fooled him out of his shoes, to the point where Matthiessen bet his reputation on the Peltier myth, and lost. Reporter Scott Anderson (The Martyrdom of Leonard Peltier, Outside Online, July, 1995) found that Matthiessen adopted a near “cavalier” approach to documentation in his book, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse. Professor Alan Dershowitz (NYT Book Review, 1983) didn’t buy the conspiracy theories either and condemned the book's conclusions, saying that Matthiessen “…fails to understand that his heroes—the radicals of AIM—did not act in the selfless spirit of Chief Crazy Horse, that noble 19-century leader of Indian resistance. They acted more in the violent spirit of Custer. By doing so, they helped to destroy the dream and hopes of American Indians.” And native journalist Tim Giago, founder of several Native publications, Nieman fellow at Harvard, and who was born and raised on the Pine Ridge reservation, wrote that Trimbach’s American Indian Mafia “takes apart” Matthiessen’s book “and exposes it for the fraud that it is. It is refreshing to finally hear the other side of the story.”

    Why did all three of these men reach the same conclusion about Matthiessen’s credibility? Because they honor the truth above all.

  183. I actually wrote to Brenda recently: “You’ve done so much good reporting for Indian Country so I hate to see you so far off course on this important topic. [Lack of reporting on the fasting in front of the White House] is not so much censorship as it is scholarship. Most people in the media are loath to adopt a sympathetic stance towards a convicted killer who has never prevailed in a court of law, despites dozens of court appearances. I hate to see so many good-hearted, well-intentioned people get fooled over and over again…”

    As for Peter Matthiessen, yes it is true he is a gifted author. It is also true that Peltier fooled him out of his shoes, to the point where Matthiessen bet his reputation on the Peltier myth, and lost. Reporter Scott Anderson (The Martyrdom of Leonard Peltier, Outside Online, July, 1995) found that Matthiessen adopted a near “cavalier” approach to documentation in his book, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse. Professor Alan Dershowitz (NYT Book Review, 1983) didn’t buy the conspiracy theories either and condemned the book’s conclusions, saying that Matthiessen “…fails to understand that his heroes—the radicals of AIM—did not act in the selfless spirit of Chief Crazy Horse, that noble 19-century leader of Indian resistance. They acted more in the violent spirit of Custer. By doing so, they helped to destroy the dream and hopes of American Indians.” And native journalist Tim Giago, founder of several Native publications, Nieman fellow at Harvard, and who was born and raised on the Pine Ridge reservation, wrote that Trimbach’s American Indian Mafia “takes apart” Matthiessen’s book “and exposes it for the fraud that it is. It is refreshing to finally hear the other side of the story.”

    Why did all three of these men reach the same conclusion about Matthiessen’s credibility? Because they honor the truth above all.

  184. how can you talk about escaping from prison and not being guilty in the same same passage???? that is crazy. again, leonard being hungry and tired after escaping from prison is not his fault. seems to be the point that is consistently avoided here. he takes no responsibility for his actions. very sad to think some people respect this supposed "political prisoner". he does not model good behavior in prison. he lives as he did before going into prison. he is a rule breaker and does not take an ounce of responsibility for his decisions.

  185. Seeker who comes afterwards, i leave words as signs for you. My words are for you only, not for any other person.

    But it IS very good to see Alan Dershowitz being cited against the Indian struggle.

    Dershowitz is no authority on Indians or anybody else.

    He's a Zionist cheerleader of Israel's genocidal wars against the Palestinians.

    A strident champion of settler imperialism & state imperialism, he is INDEED the man to talk about Crazy Horse with reverence — the Crazy Horse who fought violently to defend his Black Hills against the invading gold miners & the Army. How strange that Dershowitz invokes HIM to upbraid Leonard & the other "violent" Indians who fight today to protect the same Black Hills against the invading energy companies & the FBI ??

    Norman Finkelstein, perhaps the foremost & outstanding authority on the Palestinian conflict today, long ago thoroughly exposed Dershowitz as a plagiarist & utterly inaccurate scribbler.

    Dershowitz is also the man who in Bush's McCarthyite Prsidency, made lists of professors & scholars like Finkelstein who are independent minded, & persecuted them, encouraging students to spy on their classes, & having universities throw them out of tenure, just as Finkelstein was. If Dershowitz is against AIM & the Indian struggle, then there is still hope for AIM.

    Dershowitz wrote his review in the "NYT" ( the New York Times ). That paper, the drumbeater for Bush's Iraq war & Israel's wars in Palestine, is a vehement apologist & whitewasher of america's energy wars in the Middle East. No wonder the NYT gives pride of place to proponents of energy war like Dershowitz.

    And what about Indian journalism? Unfortunately,it is in serous bad shape today. It wears the straitjacket of the corporate media, writing lifeless stories, & is mortally afraid to touch the struggles of traditional peoples against the energy corporations. The big Indian media today is boring as hell, & so very often without anything interesting to offer.It has copied the big white media in doing away with investigation & investigative journalism completely.

    Like some slavish Black people who are scared of the revolutionary Black struggles of the 60s & 70s, a lot of Indian journalism seeks respectability & acceptance. They have turned their eyes away from their peoples who confront racism & genocide & radiation & treaties violated beyond repair.They seek fellowships in prestigious institutions, maybe. The real Indian reporter remains unfunded & often unpublished.

    Dershowitz talk of Chief Crazy Horse ? When was he chief ? And if he was alive today, chief or no, what do you think the US / FBI would do to him ?? And since when does anyone who knows anything about Indian history cite Crazy Horse & then reverently refer to the sanctity & moral validity of the US courts & "Just – us" system & law enforcement without being diagnosed & committed for uncontrolled historiographic schizophrenia ?? Old heroes are always promoted in order to condemn the new by the system or society that destroys both.

  186. how can you talk about escaping from prison and not being guilty in the same same passage???? that is crazy. again, leonard being hungry and tired after escaping from prison is not his fault. seems to be the point that is consistently avoided here. he takes no responsibility for his actions. very sad to think some people respect this supposed “political prisoner”. he does not model good behavior in prison. he lives as he did before going into prison. he is a rule breaker and does not take an ounce of responsibility for his decisions.

  187. Seeker who comes afterwards, i leave words as signs for you. My words are for you only, not for any other person.

    But it IS very good to see Alan Dershowitz being cited against the Indian struggle.

    Dershowitz is no authority on Indians or anybody else.

    He’s a Zionist cheerleader of Israel’s genocidal wars against the Palestinians.

    A strident champion of settler imperialism & state imperialism, he is INDEED the man to talk about Crazy Horse with reverence — the Crazy Horse who fought violently to defend his Black Hills against the invading gold miners & the Army. How strange that Dershowitz invokes HIM to upbraid Leonard & the other “violent” Indians who fight today to protect the same Black Hills against the invading energy companies & the FBI ??

    Norman Finkelstein, perhaps the foremost & outstanding authority on the Palestinian conflict today, long ago thoroughly exposed Dershowitz as a plagiarist & utterly inaccurate scribbler.

    Dershowitz is also the man who in Bush’s McCarthyite Prsidency, made lists of professors & scholars like Finkelstein who are independent minded, & persecuted them, encouraging students to spy on their classes, & having universities throw them out of tenure, just as Finkelstein was. If Dershowitz is against AIM & the Indian struggle, then there is still hope for AIM.

    Dershowitz wrote his review in the “NYT” ( the New York Times ). That paper, the drumbeater for Bush’s Iraq war & Israel’s wars in Palestine, is a vehement apologist & whitewasher of america’s energy wars in the Middle East. No wonder the NYT gives pride of place to proponents of energy war like Dershowitz.

    And what about Indian journalism? Unfortunately,it is in serous bad shape today. It wears the straitjacket of the corporate media, writing lifeless stories, & is mortally afraid to touch the struggles of traditional peoples against the energy corporations. The big Indian media today is boring as hell, & so very often without anything interesting to offer.It has copied the big white media in doing away with investigation & investigative journalism completely.

    Like some slavish Black people who are scared of the revolutionary Black struggles of the 60s & 70s, a lot of Indian journalism seeks respectability & acceptance. They have turned their eyes away from their peoples who confront racism & genocide & radiation & treaties violated beyond repair.They seek fellowships in prestigious institutions, maybe. The real Indian reporter remains unfunded & often unpublished.

    Dershowitz talk of Chief Crazy Horse ? When was he chief ? And if he was alive today, chief or no, what do you think the US / FBI would do to him ?? And since when does anyone who knows anything about Indian history cite Crazy Horse & then reverently refer to the sanctity & moral validity of the US courts & “Just – us” system & law enforcement without being diagnosed & committed for uncontrolled historiographic schizophrenia ?? Old heroes are always promoted in order to condemn the new by the system or society that destroys both.

  188. Let's see…. Jews, Indian journalists, "slavish" black people… anybody else you care to disparage? I must say, you make an excellent Peltier defender. Better add them all to your list!

  189. Let’s see…. Jews, Indian journalists, “slavish” black people… anybody else you care to disparage? I must say, you make an excellent Peltier defender. Better add them all to your list!

  190. Who opens a can of worms, may not condemn the effect he produces.

    Who studies all phenomena, cuts through classes, creeds, & races.

  191. Again, well done! You have explained Peltier's defense for the benefit of all the "slavish" classes: "It's not my fault I shot those two young men in the face at point-blank range as one of them pleaded for his life (had to shoot him through his raised hand)…. don't condemn me for the effect others produced."

  192. Who opens a can of worms, may not condemn the effect he produces.

    Who studies all phenomena, cuts through classes, creeds, & races.

  193. Again, well done! You have explained Peltier’s defense for the benefit of all the “slavish” classes: “It’s not my fault I shot those two young men in the face at point-blank range as one of them pleaded for his life (had to shoot him through his raised hand)…. don’t condemn me for the effect others produced.”

  194. Sisters & brothers of all races still beyond sight,

    When we unite for our common freedoms & sovereignties, Indian tradition has teachings to offer, one of which is our constant purification of action by first purifyng our speech.

    This demands of us our critical self – assessment on a daily ( & nightly ) basis.

    Practising self criticism regarding our attitudes towards both our friends & our enemies i, to begin with myself, must see i do not continue to alienate my own brothers & sisters of all races. To do this i have learned that,first, if i have any questions about anyone, i must first patiently investigate his or her position before engaging with them on whatever concerns us both.

    To this matter of forms which one ought to follow, i must add the contents of my speech, for honesty must be tempered with justice, including regarding our opponents.

    In this i have very good teachers, masters of careful speech. Suppose i mention, at random, Russell Means & Malcolm X, two men from very different milieus, both insparing critics of the various aspects of colonialism, but both very restrained ( careful ) in their utterances.

    Malcolm was the most unrestrained when he spoke about he "Uncle Toms", the Black collaborators of white domination. Recently Russell Means analyzed Barack Obama & the nature & limits of his historical role. But both men, in their different eras & applications, were very careful not to use the term "slavish", being more descriptive of their subjects' practices than being merely rhetorical — for rhetoric serves no use. Malcolm called such collaborators "the white man's tools, puppets, & parrots". But such is the continuing venom of racism in america, & the painful wounds of past & present forms of slavery suffered by our dear Black sisters & brothers ( for, as Black sisters have recently pointed out, slavery still continues in various forms in the South, among other regions ), that Malcolm, a master of words like Russ, restrained himself from ever using the word "slavish" ( to my knowledge ).

    With such teachers, i must correct my speech, & remove from my speech the ever so hurtful & injurious word "slavish" regarding those of our peoples, Black or brown or other, who are still chained with the shackles of mental colonialism. A Quisling class & clique they may be, but while having the duty of speaking the truth as clearly as i see it, i must at the same time purify my speech itself. If i have hurt anyone in the future, i promise her or him to consciously follow the example of my betters & my teachers.

  195. Sisters & brothers of all races still beyond sight,

    When we unite for our common freedoms & sovereignties, Indian tradition has teachings to offer, one of which is our constant purification of action by first purifyng our speech.

    This demands of us our critical self – assessment on a daily ( & nightly ) basis.

    Practising self criticism regarding our attitudes towards both our friends & our enemies i, to begin with myself, must see i do not continue to alienate my own brothers & sisters of all races. To do this i have learned that,first, if i have any questions about anyone, i must first patiently investigate his or her position before engaging with them on whatever concerns us both.

    To this matter of forms which one ought to follow, i must add the contents of my speech, for honesty must be tempered with justice, including regarding our opponents.

    In this i have very good teachers, masters of careful speech. Suppose i mention, at random, Russell Means & Malcolm X, two men from very different milieus, both insparing critics of the various aspects of colonialism, but both very restrained ( careful ) in their utterances.

    Malcolm was the most unrestrained when he spoke about he “Uncle Toms”, the Black collaborators of white domination. Recently Russell Means analyzed Barack Obama & the nature & limits of his historical role. But both men, in their different eras & applications, were very careful not to use the term “slavish”, being more descriptive of their subjects’ practices than being merely rhetorical — for rhetoric serves no use. Malcolm called such collaborators “the white man’s tools, puppets, & parrots”. But such is the continuing venom of racism in america, & the painful wounds of past & present forms of slavery suffered by our dear Black sisters & brothers ( for, as Black sisters have recently pointed out, slavery still continues in various forms in the South, among other regions ), that Malcolm, a master of words like Russ, restrained himself from ever using the word “slavish” ( to my knowledge ).

    With such teachers, i must correct my speech, & remove from my speech the ever so hurtful & injurious word “slavish” regarding those of our peoples, Black or brown or other, who are still chained with the shackles of mental colonialism. A Quisling class & clique they may be, but while having the duty of speaking the truth as clearly as i see it, i must at the same time purify my speech itself. If i have hurt anyone in the future, i promise her or him to consciously follow the example of my betters & my teachers.

  196. Timely mea culpa, but the cat's out of the bag. And Russell Means careful with his utterances? Ha ha! Talk to people who know him and they will tell you what a turkey of a statement that is. Russ has been "careful" not to incriminate himself in the demise of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, in the murder conspiracy that involved half his family members but about which ole Russ says he didn't have a clue back in 1975. Quislings galore!

  197. Timely mea culpa, but the cat’s out of the bag. And Russell Means careful with his utterances? Ha ha! Talk to people who know him and they will tell you what a turkey of a statement that is. Russ has been “careful” not to incriminate himself in the demise of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, in the murder conspiracy that involved half his family members but about which ole Russ says he didn’t have a clue back in 1975. Quislings galore!

  198. What caused the miscarriage of justice in Peltier's case & throughout Pine Ridge & Indian country in general ?

    The abuses that occured are due to the unnatural & unprecedented powers given the FBI & their corrupt Indian collaborators in the Tribal Council, when the US corporate state tried to crush the traditional Indian resistance to the energy corporations.

    Can such a situation be replicated in the greater American society today?

    The answer is yes, it can & it will, for society cannot stay unaffected by the rot inside the ruling institutions.

    Last week Wisconsin Senator Russell Feingold told us exactly why & how this did in fact happen, in his piece "Fixing the Patriot Act, Restoring the Constitution" ( September 24, 2009 ):

    "This lesson was most clear, " he says, "in the context of [ the ] National Security letters. In reports issued in 2007 & 2008,the Department of Justice Inspector General carefully documented rampant misuse & abuse of the National Security Letter ( NSL ) authority by the FBI. The Inspector General found — as he put it — "widespread & serious misuse of the FBI's natonal security letter authorities. In many instances, the FBI's misuse of national security letters violated NSL statutes, Attorney General Guidelines, or the FBI's own internal policies." After those Inspector General reports, there can no longer be any doubt that granting overbroad authority leads to abuses. The FBI's apparently lax attitude & in some cases grave misuse of these potentially very intrusive authorities is attributable in no small part to the USA PATRIOT Act. That flawed legislation greatly expanded the NSL authorities, essentially granting the FBI a blank cheque to obtain some very sensitive records about Americans, including people not under any suspicion of wrongdoing , without judicial approval. Congress gave the FBI very few rules to follow, & should not be … surprised at the result."

    Yes, these abuses will continue to happen, everywhere, not just Indian country.

    The corporate state's paramilitary forces like the FBI are unchecked today .

    The courts are in their control.

    Their abuse will grow worse, for they see they can get away with everything they do.

    It is only the unity of the Peoples of all races that can put an end to this lawlessness.

    On every issue, we must unite, in our own interest, for our own survival.

  199. What caused the miscarriage of justice in Peltier’s case & throughout Pine Ridge & Indian country in general ?

    The abuses that occured are due to the unnatural & unprecedented powers given the FBI & their corrupt Indian collaborators in the Tribal Council, when the US corporate state tried to crush the traditional Indian resistance to the energy corporations.

    Can such a situation be replicated in the greater American society today?

    The answer is yes, it can & it will, for society cannot stay unaffected by the rot inside the ruling institutions.

    Last week Wisconsin Senator Russell Feingold told us exactly why & how this did in fact happen, in his piece “Fixing the Patriot Act, Restoring the Constitution” ( September 24, 2009 ):

    “This lesson was most clear, ” he says, “in the context of [ the ] National Security letters. In reports issued in 2007 & 2008,the Department of Justice Inspector General carefully documented rampant misuse & abuse of the National Security Letter ( NSL ) authority by the FBI. The Inspector General found — as he put it — “widespread & serious misuse of the FBI’s natonal security letter authorities. In many instances, the FBI’s misuse of national security letters violated NSL statutes, Attorney General Guidelines, or the FBI’s own internal policies.” After those Inspector General reports, there can no longer be any doubt that granting overbroad authority leads to abuses. The FBI’s apparently lax attitude & in some cases grave misuse of these potentially very intrusive authorities is attributable in no small part to the USA PATRIOT Act. That flawed legislation greatly expanded the NSL authorities, essentially granting the FBI a blank cheque to obtain some very sensitive records about Americans, including people not under any suspicion of wrongdoing , without judicial approval. Congress gave the FBI very few rules to follow, & should not be … surprised at the result.”

    Yes, these abuses will continue to happen, everywhere, not just Indian country.

    The corporate state’s paramilitary forces like the FBI are unchecked today .

    The courts are in their control.

    Their abuse will grow worse, for they see they can get away with everything they do.

    It is only the unity of the Peoples of all races that can put an end to this lawlessness.

    On every issue, we must unite, in our own interest, for our own survival.

  200. Vigilance is always necessary but back to the point: Peltier is no doubt guilty of the crimes he committed and hence there was no miscarriage of justice in his case. Read the federal record and the court transcripts – the evidence against him is simply incontrovertible. Sadly, Peltier supporters articulate their message by misquoting and misrepresenting what the courts have concluded, time and time again. What does this say about their honesty and regard for the truth?

    Think of the number of well-intentioned people who have been conned into donating their time and money in defense of Peltier's dark soul and filling the coffers of his fraudulent tax-exempt legal fund, now under yet another new name in a continuing shell game of misappropriation. And how telling is it that his most devoted fans, aside from a shrinking minority on the res, are misinformed Indian wannabes? Frankly, Natives are sick and tired of having his falsified story shoved down their throats, as if his gutless acts compare with real Indian heroism.

  201. Vigilance is always necessary but back to the point: Peltier is no doubt guilty of the crimes he committed and hence there was no miscarriage of justice in his case. Read the federal record and the court transcripts – the evidence against him is simply incontrovertible. Sadly, Peltier supporters articulate their message by misquoting and misrepresenting what the courts have concluded, time and time again. What does this say about their honesty and regard for the truth?

    Think of the number of well-intentioned people who have been conned into donating their time and money in defense of Peltier’s dark soul and filling the coffers of his fraudulent tax-exempt legal fund, now under yet another new name in a continuing shell game of misappropriation. And how telling is it that his most devoted fans, aside from a shrinking minority on the res, are misinformed Indian wannabes? Frankly, Natives are sick and tired of having his falsified story shoved down their throats, as if his gutless acts compare with real Indian heroism.

  202. And so we have come full circle, as we always do.

    We have come now to the FBI's universal invasion of the American people's lives & privacies in general.

    What is the moral of Senator Russell Feingold's summons to us to oppose the FBI's reign of abuses under the PATRIOT Act ?

    When the FBI came to get the Panthers , the American people did not oppose them, for the Panthers were seen as menacing radicals.

    When the FBI came for Jean Seberg & sexually blackmailed the actress for her work & life with the Panthers, they drove that beautiful woman, a pregnant mother at that time, to mad torment & ultimate suicide. We remember you, Jean Seberg, for standing beside us in that time !

    When the FBI came for Martin Luther King, Jr. & sexually blackmailed him in his battle against racism & the US war machine, & when FBI operatives suggested to King THAT HE COMMIT SUICIDE like Seberg, few Americans knew the isolation & torture faced by this nonviolent man.

    When the FBI came after AIM , the courts to their credit threw out nearly all the FBI – manufactured cases against the Indian people, & the American people in general have offered Leonard an overwhelming, transnational support.

    And today the FBI has become a danger inside the very homes & private lives of all Americans.

    This is what happens when we allow power – engorged institutions to operate unchecked within society.

    Like the banks & the corporations of Wall Street freed by Congressional deregulation to feed upon the body of your Republic, the FBI centurions are now intruding with total impunity right into your inner physical & mental & spiritual space.

    This has happened because they were left totally unchecked in their illegitimate assaults on the Panthers & on King, on AIM & upon Leonard.

    The chickens have now indeed come into your homes to "roost" upon you all.

    Where will they move from here ?

    And what are you willing to do about this Occupation with its boot in your door ??

  203. And so we have come full circle, as we always do.

    We have come now to the FBI’s universal invasion of the American people’s lives & privacies in general.

    What is the moral of Senator Russell Feingold’s summons to us to oppose the FBI’s reign of abuses under the PATRIOT Act ?

    When the FBI came to get the Panthers , the American people did not oppose them, for the Panthers were seen as menacing radicals.

    When the FBI came for Jean Seberg & sexually blackmailed the actress for her work & life with the Panthers, they drove that beautiful woman, a pregnant mother at that time, to mad torment & ultimate suicide. We remember you, Jean Seberg, for standing beside us in that time !

    When the FBI came for Martin Luther King, Jr. & sexually blackmailed him in his battle against racism & the US war machine, & when FBI operatives suggested to King THAT HE COMMIT SUICIDE like Seberg, few Americans knew the isolation & torture faced by this nonviolent man.

    When the FBI came after AIM , the courts to their credit threw out nearly all the FBI – manufactured cases against the Indian people, & the American people in general have offered Leonard an overwhelming, transnational support.

    And today the FBI has become a danger inside the very homes & private lives of all Americans.

    This is what happens when we allow power – engorged institutions to operate unchecked within society.

    Like the banks & the corporations of Wall Street freed by Congressional deregulation to feed upon the body of your Republic, the FBI centurions are now intruding with total impunity right into your inner physical & mental & spiritual space.

    This has happened because they were left totally unchecked in their illegitimate assaults on the Panthers & on King, on AIM & upon Leonard.

    The chickens have now indeed come into your homes to “roost” upon you all.

    Where will they move from here ?

    And what are you willing to do about this Occupation with its boot in your door ??

  204. Full circle, as in circle the wagons. Yes, hide the women and children from the FBI and let the sick killers out of prison; that's surely the path to spirituality and healing!

  205. Full circle, as in circle the wagons. Yes, hide the women and children from the FBI and let the sick killers out of prison; that’s surely the path to spirituality and healing!

  206. Ever tried sending an Email to the FBI to protest its handling of this whole debacle? You can't. Doesn't have one. Talk about hiding from the public – and the truth! FBI? F**king Biased Idiots!

  207. Ever tried sending an Email to the FBI to protest its handling of this whole debacle? You can’t. Doesn’t have one. Talk about hiding from the public – and the truth! FBI? F**king Biased Idiots!

  208. Thank you, Mr. P., for your thoughtful response. The answers you seek can be found in the book, American Indian Mafia. Do you have the courage to read it?

  209. Thank you, Mr. P., for your thoughtful response. The answers you seek can be found in the book, American Indian Mafia. Do you have the courage to read it?

Comments are closed.