Gwarth ee Lass, a.k.a. Leonard Peltier, a Lakota, Anishnabe and Cree, is America's most famous political prisoner. He is in jail because of his race and political beliefs. According to Ward Churchill, Creek/Cherokee Metis historian, "Leonard Peltier is and has been a member of the American Indian Movement and may thus rightly be considered as subject to purely political repression on the part of the U.S. government. First and foremost, however, he is Akacita, a Lakota warrior, pledged to the perpetual defense of his people against any and all transgression, whether internally or externally generated. It is within this context that his story has unfolded and that he and his circumstances may be best understood." [from the preface to The Trial of Leonard Peltier by Jim Messerschmidt (South End Press, 1983)].
The Lakota people are suffering continued injustice: land thefts, forced sterilization of women, rural poverty considered the worst in the United States, and the highest suicide rate of teenagers in the nation. This is a case that will not go away.
Peltier has been denied three appeals and the Supreme Court has refused to hear his case. He has gone through almost every alley of a legal maze through which the most determined attorney would have been shaken and discouraged. However, William Kunstler, Bruce Ellison, Vine Deloria, Jr., Lew Gurwitz, and many other lawyers and volunteers over the years have, through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), defended the innocence of Leonard Peltier.
Since the Wounded Knee firefight on July 26, 1975 on the Pine Ridge Oglala Reservation, South Dakota, they have challenged the federal government's attempts to cover up the fabrication of evidence, intimidation of witnesses and illegal paramilitary activity by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Despite the passage of time, the issues that caused the firefight and the issues raised in the aftermath have not been resolved. The issues include treaty rights, religious freedom, uranium mining and violations of the constitution. These are the keys to understanding a case that will not be forgotten.
On a hot summer day, in what is officially the poorest community in the United States, two F.B.I. agents and a Native American man were killed when shooting erupted between the two agents and members of the American Indian Movement. The tension had been mounting on the reservation for two years since the Wounded Knee Uprising of 1973, when about 300 traditional Lakotas and AIM supporters occupied the village of Wounded Knee to protest tactics of Chairman Richard Wilson and the self proclaimed GOON (Guardians of the Oglala Nation) squad. The FBI was training SWAT teams and generally supporting the oppressive tribal council leader Dick Wilson.
The tension climaxed on June 26, 1975, when Agents Ron Williams and Jack Coler entered the Jumping Bull Ranch and started to shoot. American Indians said the agents shot first. The FBI said it is inconclusive who fired the first shot. Some observers have suggested that the agents fired the first shot as a signal of a botched raid on the ranch. Both agents and a Native American, Joe Stuntz, were killed. Within an hour, the reservation was surrounded and occupied by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. The largest manhunt in U.S. history took place. Despite being surrounded, the men involved in the firefight escaped.
In November 1976, four men were indicted in the death of the two agents. Joe Stuntz's death was never investigated. Leonard Peltier, Jimmy Eagle, Bob Robideau and Dino Butler were charged for the murder of Agents Williams and Collier. While Butler, Eagle and Robideau were arrested, Peltier fled to Canada. Of the four, Butler and Robideau were acquitted and the charges against Eagle were dropped. In a memo obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, it was revealed that an Assistant U.S. attorney and members of the prosecution team decided to drop the charges on Eagle "...in order to direct the full weight of the prosecution on Peltier." This was the beginning of a concerted effort by members of the judicial system and the FBI to extradite, convict and jail Peltier.
Butler and Robideau pleaded self defense and were acquitted. After losing this case, the FBI "shopped" for a more sympathetic judge. They found Federal Judge Paul Benson, who would go along with their plans for the suppression of evidence favorable to Peltier, and the muffling of the defense in its attempts to present evidence it had. Peter Matthiessen's In the Spirit of Crazy Horse (Viking, 1980) tells a long and winding story behind Leonard's life and arrest. Through the FOIA, it was learned that evidence had been fabricated in the extradition of Peltier from Canada. The FBI coerced Myrtle Poor Bear into signing three false affidavits stating she was Peltier's lover and witnessed him kill the agents. She later testified that she did not know Peltier and was not at the Jumping Bull Ranch the day of the firefight.
The reign of terror by Dick Wilson and his GOONS continued at Pine Ridge through 19767. And while the arrests and intimidation of traditional Indians was going on, Wilson signed away to the Department of the Interior one eighth of the Pine Ridge Reservation which contained uranium, gas, oil and gravel. At the heart of the Lakota struggle is the protection of Paha Sapa, the Sacred Black Hills. This area was guaranteed to the Sioux "...for as long as the grass is green," in the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, the last treaty the U.S. government entered into with an indigenous nation. Vine Deloria Jr. and other legal scholars and historians believe that the treaty making process was a tactic in the policy of conquest, broken before they were drawn up.
In 1984, seven years after the original trial, an evidentiary hearing was held. The shadow over the hearings was Judge Paul Benson. Benson was responsible for having denied Leonard a fair trial on two previous occasions. The firing pin test on an AK 15 alleged to be Leonard's was negative. The FBI withheld the results, knowing this would have cast doubt on the government's case against Peltier in 1977. Agent Evan Hodge, a weapons expert, was caught contradicting his own testimony. After heated questioning and a brief adjournment, Hodge admitted that another agent made notes in the margins of his ballistics tests. It appeared that Leonard might finally be given a new trial. It didn't happen. Despite the evidence, the doors of justice were again slammed in Leonard's face.
There has been a tremendous amount of support for Peltier. Support groups have sprung up throughout the world. Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Mother Teresa, Ben Chavis, André Sakharov and other religious and political figures have acted in support of Peltier. Fifty five congress members signed an Amicus Brief for a new trial in 1985. Reps. Don Edwards and Ron Dellums (CA), Sens. Daniel Inouye (HI) and Brock Adams (WA) have been some of the strongest voices in both houses supporting a new trial for Peltier.
Two movies by director Michael Apted, one a documentary and the other fiction, were released in the late 1980s. Incident at Oglala is a straightforward documentary which details the events and actions which led to the shootout on June 26, 1975. Thunderheart , also by Apted, is a fictional recreation of the incident and offers some insights into what happened at the Jumping Bull Ranch.
In The Nation magazine (May 13, 1991), Peter Matthiessen had shed glaring new light on the Peltier case. In a story entitled "Who Really Killed the FBI Men," Matthiessen interviewed "Mr. X" who admitted to killing the two agents in self defense. Bob Robideau, who was a witness to the shooting, had set up the meeting. According to Mr. X, though the agents were wounded, one of them started shooting at him. He believed no crime was committed. The shooting was in self defense, the argument which led to the acquittal of Robideau and Butler.
On July 7, 1993, Judge Daniel Friedman, writing for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, denied Leonard's appeal, ignoring the facts and past circuit findings. A former Senior judge on the Eighth Circuit Court, Gerald Heaney, scolded the FBI and prosecutor for improper tactics on the reservation, but would not overturn the convictions. In a letter to Sen. Inouye, Judge Heaney had suggested that mitigating circumstances could be considered for a presidential pardon for Peltier. Sen. Brock Adams (WA), in a June 1992 statement, asked President Bush for executive clemency. This request was never answered.
The holiday season and new year are traditional times world wide for political leaders to grant a commutation of a prisoner's sentence in the spirit of reconciliation and justice.
The Leonard Peltier Freedom Campaign has begun another offensive for his freedom. From November 21st to December 24th, 1993, Leonard's family and friends are urging all who are interested in justice to send messages by letter, fax or phone to the White House. The messages should urge the President to grant executive clemency to Leonard Peltier. As well as the letters, resolutions, declarations and proclamations from tribal councils, unions, churches, schools, city councils and diverse community groups will be sent to President Clinton.
Send original letters and resolutions directly to:
President William Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
Please mail copies to:
The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, Kansas 66044.
These copies will be delivered to the President by a delegation of celebrities, attorneys, spiritual and tribal leaders to be sure that he hears from everyone.
Today, as native nations within the United States struggle to decolonize their lives, they must face issues concerning education, cultural identity and economic development for their communities, as well as racism, gambling, mining and toxic waste dumps. Justice demands that the United States government honor its treaties and its words that there is justice for all in America.
Tony Del Plato is a long time supporter of the rights of indigenous peoples and was formerly a member of the Tompkins County (NY) Human Rights Commission