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
