Leonard Peltier on Passing of Nelson Mandela: Apartheid Still Exists in America

[Coyotl]

Leonard Peltier on Passing of Nelson Mandela: Apartheid Still Exists in America
by Levi Rickert / Currents / 06 Dec 2013 / http://nativenewsonline.net/currents/leonard-peltier-passing-nelson-mandela-apartheid-still-exists-america/

COLEMAN, FLORIDA – Leonard Peltier, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, who has been imprisoned for the past 37 years, issued statement on the passing of former South Africa President Nelson Mandela.

Peltier is serving a life sentence in the U.S. Penitentiary in Coleman, Florida. He was accused of the 1975 murders of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He was convicted in 1977.

Many people consider Leonard Peltier a political prisoner of war, as was Mr. Mandela, who was imprisoned for 27 years.

Here is Peltier’s statement released shortly after Mr. Mandela’s death was announced:

Greeting my relatives, friends, and supporters:

It saddens me to hear that a great man like Nelson Mandela has departed from this lifetime. He was a man who was truly inspirational and showed us the possibilities of how a continued struggle by indigenous people could manifest itself in levels of freedom that have been marred by centuries of oppression.

Our Native people suffered the same types of oppression many times. It is not as overt and as easily distinguished as in some places; however ............

[dembotoz]

1. yep

[Egalitarian Thug]

2. Yes, it certainly does. In huge stinking piles.

To paraphrase Dean Wormer: "Fat, stupid, and mean is no way to run an Empire".

[PatrynXX]

3. like Nelson Mandela I fight to get Leonard Peltier out too

He is a POW.. and we saw Russel Means pass away too. I thought of Leonard not long after Mandela's passing. The two are much alike.

[tritsofme]

4. I have zero sympathy for cop killers. nt

[Coyotl]

6. QUICK FACTS = CASE OF LEONARD PELTIER

QUICK FACTS
CASE OF LEONARD PELTIER
Leonard Peltier

Leonard Peltier is an imprisoned Native American considered by 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, to be a political prisoner who should be immediately released.

Leonard Peltier was convicted for the deaths of two FBI agents who died during a 1975 shoot-out on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Mr. Peltier has been in prison for over 29 years.

The Wounded Knee occupation of 1973 marked the beginning of a three-year period of political violence on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The tribal chairman hired vigilantes, self titled as “GOONS,” to rid the reservation of American Indian Movement (AIM) activity and sentiment. More than 60 traditional tribal members and AIM members were murdered and scores more were assaulted. Evidence indicated GOON responsibility in the majority of crimes but despite a large FBI presence, nothing was done to stop the violence. The FBI supplied the GOONS with intelligence on AIM members and looked away as GOONS committed crimes. One former GOON member reported that the FBI supplied him with armor piercing ammunition.

Leonard Peltier was an AIM leader and was asked by traditional people at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, to support and protect the traditional people being targeted for violence. Mr. Peltier and a small group of young AIM members set up camp on a ranch owned by the traditional Jumping Bull family.

On June 26, 1975 two FBI agents in unmarked cars followed a pick-up truck onto the Jumping Bull ranch. The families immediately became alarmed and feared an attack. Shots were heard and a shoot-out erupted. More than 150 agents, GOONS, and law enforcement surrounded the ranch.

When the shoot-out ended the two FBI agents and one Native American lay dead. The agents were injured in the shoot-out and were then shot at close range. The Native American, Joseph Stuntz, was shot in the head by a sniper’s bullet. Mr. Stuntz’s death has never been investigated, nor has anyone ever been charged in connection with his death.

According to FBI documents, more than 40 Native Americans participated in the gunfight, but only AIM members Bob Robideau, Darrell Butler, and Leonard Peltier were brought to trial.

Mr. Robideau and Mr. Butler were arrested first and went to trial. A federal jury in Iowa acquitted them on grounds of self-defense, finding that their participation in the shoot-out was justified given the climate of fear that existed on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Further, they could not be tied to the close-range shootings.

Leonard Peltier was arrested in Canada on February 6, 1976, along with Frank Blackhorse, a.k.a. Frank Deluca. The United States presented the Canadian court with affidavits signed by Myrtle Poor Bear who said she was Mr. Peltier’s girlfriend and allegedly saw him shoot the agents. In fact, Ms. Poor Bear had never met Mr. Peltier and was not present during the shoot-out. Soon after, Ms. Poor Bear recanted her statements and said the FBI threatened her and coerced her into signing the affidavits.

Mr. Peltier was extradited to the United States where he was tried in 1977. The trial was held in North Dakota before United States District Judge Paul Benson, a conservative jurist appointed to the federal bench by Richard M. Nixon. Key witnesses like Myrtle Poor Bear were not allowed to testify and unlike the Robideau/Butler trial in Iowa, evidence regarding violence on Pine Ridge was severely restricted.

An FBI agent who had previously testified that the agents followed a pick-up truck onto the scene, a vehicle that could not be tied to Mr. Peltier, changed his account, stating that the agents had followed a red and white van onto the scene, a vehicle which Mr. Peltier drove occasionally.

Three teenaged Native witnesses testified against Mr. Peltier, they all later admitted that the FBI forced them to testify. Still, not one witness identified Mr. Peltier as the shooter.

The U.S. Attorney prosecuting the case claimed that the government had provided the defense with all FBI documents concerning the case. To the contrary, more than 140,000 pages had been withheld in their entirety.

An FBI ballistics expert testified that a casing found near the agents’ bodies matched the gun tied to Mr. Peltier. However, a ballistic test proving that the casing did not come from the gun tied to Mr. Peltier was intentionally concealed.

The jury, unaware of the aforementioned facts, found Mr. Peltier guilty. Judge Benson, in turn, sentenced Mr. Peltier to two consecutive life terms.

Following the discovery of new evidence obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, Mr. Peltier sought a new trial. The Eighth Circuit ruled, “There is a possibility that the jury would have acquitted Leonard Peltier had the records and data improperly withheld from the defense been available to him in order to better exploit and reinforce the inconsistencies casting strong doubts upon the government's case." Yet, the court denied Mr. Peltier a new trial.

During oral argument, the government attorney conceded that the government does not know who shot the agents, stating that Mr. Peltier is equally guilty whether he shot the agents at point-blank range, or participated in the shoot-out from a distance. Mr. Peltier’s co-defendants participated in the shoot-out from a distance, but were acquitted.

Judge Heaney, who authored the decision denying a new trial, has since voiced firm support for Mr. Peltier’s release, stating that the FBI used improper tactics to convict Mr. Peltier, the FBI was equally responsible for the shoot-out, and that Mr. Peltier's release would promote healing with Native Americans.

Mr. Peltier has served over 29 years in prison and is long overdue for parole. He has received several human rights awards for his good deeds from behind bars which include annual gift drives for the children of Pine Ridge, fund raisers for battered women’s shelters, and donations of his paintings to Native American recovery programs.

Mr. Peltier suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, and a heart condition. Time for justice is short.

Currently, Mr. Peltier’s attorneys have filed a new round of Freedom of Information Act requests with FBI Headquarters and all FBI field offices in an attempt to secure the release of all files relating to Mr. Peltier and the RESMURS investigation. To date, the FBI has engaged in a number of dilatory tactics in order to avoid the processing of these requests.

http://www.freeleonard.org/case/

[catbyte]

7. There is a LOT more to this,tritsofme. My dad was a cop so I have no sympathy for

"Cop Killers" either, but you are off base here. Leonard Peltier is a political prisoner. This is one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in U.S. history. I hope you learn more about his case.

[NaturalHigh]

8. I agree...

and I absolutely believe that Leonard Peltier is a murderer.

[nomorenomore08]

9. Whether he actually murdered anyone or not, it's pretty clear that he didn't receive a fair trial.

That's what the "Free Leonard Peltier" thing is really about - not about nominating him for sainthood or anything.

[NaturalHigh]

10. Hmmm...

Hasn't he been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and been the presidential nominee for a couple of minor parties? No, it's not sainthood, but apparently some people think he's some sort of hero.

[nomorenomore08]

12. Okay, maybe all that's a bit much. But even if innocent he wouldn't have stood a chance

with the legal system so biased against him.

[CBGLuthier]

15. Compared to some so-called heroes, yes, he is.

I mean he is no Michael Jackson or Bruce Springsteen or any of the other fucking idiots proclaimed as heroes on DU this week but give the guy a break. Hard to get a recording contract when you are busy fighting for your people.

[mulsh]

5. Afrikaners got much of the structure of apartheid from studying US treatment of Indians.

The U.S's invaluable reservation system, Indian agents, even genocidal wars, etc were a great blue print on how to get indigenous people out of the way and subdued for a while. At least that's what South Africa's counsel general in San Francisco pointed out to our group who interviewed him for our high school senior social studies project. This was in 1974.

[mstinamotorcity2]

11. I think I remeber this. I was a teenager.

But this story is like so many others. Convict leasing is big business. And for those who are quick to call people cop killers what do they call cops who kill people like Sean Bell. There are so many men, young, old, black, white, Latino, Asian, and every other ethnic culture behind bars that may not belong there. Justice is usually for those who can afford it. Technicalities get overlooked when you have no money. How many times have we seen people who have been in jail for years on crimes they did not commit. This is a time when America is at her worst. She has a long History of violence to The Native American that just won't quit. From movies that depict them as savages to football teams that find no dis-respect. Although it can't happen I wonder, knowing what Native Americans know now, How would that Plymouth Rock thing would have went???

[Coyotl]

13. Yes. And, the Native American genocide is ongoing today.

From Pine Ridge to the front lines of colonization in the Amazon, Native Americans are still being exterminated by bullets as well as by poverty and confinement to their concentration camps.

[polly7]

14. K&R nt.