Monday 27 February 2023

Remembering occupation of Wounded Knee and continuing injustice of Leonard Peltier


On 27 Feb 1973 armed Native American activists occupied Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in protest at corruption and US treaty breaches with Native Americans. Despite state  violence and killings they held out for 71 days and galvanising huge support which saw.within days, hundreds of activists joining them for what became a 71-day standoff with the U.S. government and  law enforcement. agencies.
It was the fourth protest in as many years for AIM the American Indian Movement. The organization formed in the late 1960s and drew international attention with the occupation of Alcatraz in the San Francisco Bay from 1969-1971. In 1972, the Trail of Broken Treaties brought a cross-country caravan of hundreds of Indigenous activists to Washington, D.C., where they occupied the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters for six days.
Then, on Feb. 6, 1973, AIM members and others gathered at the courthouse in Custer County, South Dakota, to protest the killing of Wesley Bad Heart Bull, who was Oglala Lakota, and the lenient sentences given to some perpetrators of violence against Native Americans. When they were denied access into the courthouse, the protest turned violent, with the burning of the local chamber of commerce and other buildings. Three weeks later, AIM leaders took over Wounded Knee.
Initially provoked by the corruption of the Government's approved tribal governance , their goal too was to protest injustices against their tribes, and the many violations of various treaty's with the United States  government and current abuses and repression against their people. In the 2 years prior to the confrontation more than 60 Indians at the Pine Ridge reservation had been killed, without anyone having been bought to justice for their crimes.
Within days, hundreds of activists had joined them for what became a 71-day standoff with the U.S. government and other law enforcement agencies.
The occupation  was symbolically located at  Wounded Knee because it  was the site of a US government massacre of 300 Lakota in 1880. In addition to its historical significance, Wounded  Knee was one of the poorest communities in the United States and shared with the other Pine Ridge settlements some of the country's lowest rates of life expectancy.
The actions of AIM was acclaimed  by many Native Americans, but the 200 activists from AIM soon faced a federal government force including Marshalls, the FBI  and the Nebraska National Guard who responded to the occupation with a full scale military style assault. In the resulting melee two federal agents were shot along with two brave warriors - Buddy Lamont and Frank Clearwater - died during the siege, where over 200,000 rounds of ammunition were fired at the protestors. Also 2 federal agents had been shot during the standoff. This use of military force by the federal government was later ruled to be unlawful.
 
 
After AIM's eventual surrender Leonard Peltier, a member of the Lakota Ogkla Sioux was arrested and charged  with the murder of the two FBI agents on the  flimsiest off evidence who had been asked by the traditional people at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, to come and help protect these people from violence and to protect the peoples land  from mining operators,for uranium. In the two years prior  to the confrontation more than 60 native Americans at the Pine Ridge Reservation had been killed, without anyone being brought to justice for their crimes.
Leonard Peltier is now one of American society's  longest serving political prisoners and is considered to be the Native American peoples  own Nelson Mandela, who though admitting to being there at the time, to help protect his community from continuing violence, has always proclaimed his innocence of actually shooting anyone.
Though out the world this man 'dubbed' the Nelson Mandela of North America is considered a political prisoner. With the support of AIM (The American Indian Movement), Amnesty International, global religious and political leaders, as well as over 20 million individuals, Peltier continues to fight not only for personal freedom but for justice for all Native Americans.
 

He was never given a fair trial, faced with an all white jury,federal authorities quashed or destroyed thousands of pages of evidence which would have led to his freedom.The ballistic evidence was deeply flawed, and no real links  to identify  Mr Peltier with the murder.
.He has continued to be a victim of the racism and corruption embedded in the US criminal justice system. But Leonard Peltier is not simply a victim, he is also a fighter, writer, activist, grandfather, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and was the Presidential candidate for the Peace and Freedom Party in 2004 whose spirit refuses to be beaten. Leonard his friends family and comrades have fought over the years for real justice to be done. In the years since his conviction, millions upon millions of people around the world have come  to learn of his case, agree that he is innocent and demand his freedom. His  most recent petition for release on parole was denied in 2009, and I understand that  he is not eligible for consideration for parole again until 2024.
 Over the years he has become a model prisoner, still proclaiming his innocence,  his commitment to his fellow  Native American rights undimmed, he spends his time concentrating on art and writing ..Peltier, who is currently detained in Coleman, Florida, has spent  over 40 years in maximum security, despite multiple recommendations to lower his prisoner classification, so that he can be transferred to a less restrictive prison closer to his family, have all been rejected.It is time to free him now. 
 
 
                                       
                                           Leonard Peltier

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