http://www.opednews.com/populum/diarypage.php?did=13256
Diary Entry by Allan Wayne
May 25, 2009
Murder, intrigue, and Native American Rights.
I am sympathetic to Leonard Peltier's plight, given the vicissitudes
of Pine Ridge vs. the Government in 1975. Peltier's associates, the
Butler Brothers, I have run across some, having operated a tavern
that they frequented occasionally in Newport, Oregon, where the
clientele are commercial fishermen and loggers, and a host of others,
including Native Americans. When Dino Butler was extradited from jail
in Canada, if my memory serves me correctly, he had fled to Canada
for allegedly murdering a man in Toledo Oregon, seven miles from
Newport, a man named Donald Pier, for robbing Indian grave sites. My
wife worked at the school across the street from the apartment where
Dino broke in at night and cut the man's throat (a newspaper article
stated that an accomplice testified that Dino said stabbing him was a
very powerful feeling). The victim had a 16 year old son, I believe,
who escaped by jumping out the window.
CULTURE AS JUSTIFICATION, NOT EXCUSE
By Chiu, Elaine M
Publication: The American Criminal Law Review
Date: Fall 2006
State v. Butler
Gary Butler, Dino Butler and Robert Van Pelt were Native Americans
who belonged to the Siletz tribe and lived in the Portland, Oregon
area.10 They also belonged to a politically active organization known
as the American Indian Movement. They began to hear from fellow tribe
members that artifacts buried in the graves of dead relatives had
been appearing for sale at local antique shops.11 For many years one
of the names circulated as a grave robber of valuable objects from
Siletz burial grounds was Donald Pier.12 On January 21, 1981, these
three men went to Donald Pier's home where they smashed his fingers
in order to get him to confess to robbing Siletz graves and then cut
his throat.13 They believed that killing the grave-robber restored
the spirits of their ancestors.14
The case was dismissed on a technicality, I believe, some mistakes
that the investigators made, and Donald Pier, whoever he was, remains
dead and forgotten. Whatever happened to his son, I do not know; he
probably does not rob graves. Grave robbers, I suppose, deserve a
special place in hell. Whether they deserve to be murdered or not is
debatable, given that there are already laws in place. At the time,
the murder was kind of a big story on the Oregon coast.
Still, I wish Leonard Peltier well, and hope he is set free. Just
once in a while, however, I wonder who Donald Pier is, or what his
son is doing. I suppose if someone robbed his bones, maybe justice
might be served. Just maybe, in some cases, all life is not sacred.
.
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