Leonard Peltier [by Peter Coyote]

Leonard Peltier

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/coyote/detail?entry_id=43892

By Peter Coyote
July 19 2009

As of this year, my good friend, Native American leader Leonard
Peltier, has been imprisoned for 29 years for a murder that even the
government has no idea if he committed or not. The Appeals Court
judge that sentenced him wrote a letter to President Clinton asking
for clemency, and informing the President that the case had many
errors in it, but that his hands had been tied. Furthermore, he held
the FBI equally culpable for the events that started a massive
fire-fight on the Sioux reservation that resulted in the deaths of
two FBI agents.

Leonard has been in prison longer than many people convicted of
murder. He has been eligible for parole for many years and every
appeal has been denied. Both his parents have died while he was
incarcerated and he has survived two attempts on his life; had his
jaw wired shut after botched surgery and is now suffering from old
age. During the 1996 Democratic Convention I asked a Deputy in the
Justice Department about Leonard and he told me, "When you first
spoke to me, I thought you were crazy. I’m embarrassed to say that
everything you told me was the truth. All I can say is that there are
some very powerful people in Washington that do not want to see him
leave prison alive."

Here are the facts of the case.

In 1973 the highest per capita murder rate in the country was the
Sioux reservation at Pine Ridge. The head of Oglalla Sioux police
force, a virtual dictator named Dick Wilson and his GOON Squad
(Guardians of the Oglalla Nation) were systematically picking off
everyone working for electoral reform on the reservation and
traditional elders---more than 60 in that year alone. The situation
got so bad, that the tribe's elder women called the American Indian
Movement (AIM) for help, and they arrived and set up an encampment,
with women and children, schools and kitchens.

In this tense and murderous climate, on June 26, 1975, two FBI agents
in unmarked cars followed a pick-up truck onto the Jumping Bull ranch
supposedly to serve a warrant on a young boy who had stolen some
cowboy boots. It also happened to be the same day that GOON Squad
chief Dick Wilson was in Washington, illegally signing away the
tribe's uranium rights to multinational mining corporations. The
families immediately became alarmed and feared an attack. Shots were
heard and a shoot-out erupted. Tribal police had been readied as
back-up outside the ranch, but when they heard the return fire, they
abandoned the FBI men who were wounded, then eventually executed at
close range. Everyone who was there insists that Leonard was minding
the children and not even involved in the gun-fight. When they
searched the bodies and found the Federal ID the Native leaders
dispersed far and wide, correctly anticipating that the reservation
would be over-run 'y Federal forces. It was, and they shot it to
pieces, instituting a week long reign of terror where elders were
harassed and beaten, houses burned and shot up, and the native
population terrorized.

Leonard was finally captured in Canada and brought to trial where he
and his cohorts were freed by an all-white jury. The FBI was enraged
and assembled a new case by fabricating evidence, suborning
witnesses, breaking the chains of evidence, having witnesses perjure
themselves---all errors cited by the Appeals judge who later
petitioned on Leonard's behalf, but despite numerous errors, Leonard
was sentenced to life in prison.

His case was masterfully explained by author Peter Mathiessen in his
book, The Spirit of Crazy Horse which was kept off bookstore and
library shelves for eight years due to a suit brought by two FBI men
who did not like the way they were portrayed. More than 16 million
people around the world have signed petitions demanding his release.
Amnesty International, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,
National Congress of American Indians, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial
Center for Human Rights, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Rev. Jesse
Jackson, among many others, have called Leonard a political prisoner
who should be immediately released. Even the government finally
admitted they had no idea of who had killed the agents. Native
warrior has confessed to the crime, but refuses to turn himself in
saying it was an act of war.

29 years later Leonard languishes in prison, a political prisoner,
tarnishing the reputation of the legal system of our country;
offering cheap propaganda to our enemies, and a reminder of the deep
injustice any country is capable of committing when they abandon the
rule of law, to seek a predetermined outcome. I have been Leonard’s
friend since before he went to prison. I have never abandoned efforts
to see him freed and I am asking anyone who hears or reads these
remarks to learn something about the case by reading Peter
Mathiessen's book or going to www.freeleonard.org If you do, you will
certainly want to do something. You might begin with a call or
hand-written letter to your congress-person. Thank you.

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