Attack On Leonard Peltier
(from Maureen)
by Carter Camp, Ponca Nation AIM
June 30, 2003
Ah-ho My Relations,
Over the years the case of the wrongful imprisonment
of Leonard Peltier has been a unifying factor all
across "Indian Country" and among our allies
worldwide. All across our lands American Indian people
have stood shoulder to shoulder in demanding freedom
for Leonard Peltier for a reason. .. he's innocent!
Independent investigations by authors, defense
attorneys working for Peltier and not, and hundreds of
journalists has shown without doubt that he did not
get a fair trial. Within the American Indian Movement
there has never been any doubt that Leonard was framed
and used as a scapegoat by an FBI desperate to pin the
guilt of their failed attack on someone from AIM,
anyone, as long as they got a conviction.
After Dino and Bob were acquitted by a jury that was
allowed to hear the truth, the FBI spent many hours in
many meetings deciding how to convict Peltier. First
they picked a "FBI friendly" judge who they could
count on to help them bend the truth. He then refused
to allow Peltier to use the only true defense he had,
the one that had freed Dino and Bob, he ruled that
Peltier could not use "self-defense" as a defense! In
other words a federal judge ruled the truth of the
shooting would not be allowed to be used for Leonard,
so the trial was fixed from the start.
Then, because they had moved the trial to a state
where hating Indians is as common as loving John
Wayne, they got a jury predisposed against all
Indians, gave them fabricated ballistic and other
"expert" information, fed them outright lies from the
witness stand by FBI agents and withheld pertinent
information that would have given the jury any doubt.
Thus Leonard Peltier was wrongly convicted... but only
of "aiding and abetting" the killing of the two
agents. Even the government has no idea who killed
those attacking agents during the intense fight the
Indian people were waging for their lives. And in the
end I do not think it matters, no more than exactly
who killed Custer matters. We know whose homes were
being attacked and what people (Traditionals and AIM)
were being killed by the FBI and their GOONs.
We know it was an invited and welcomed AIM encampment,
on a local Lakota family's homesite containing
families from babies to grandparents, that was slated
for attack by these same invaders. We may never know
for sure but evidence points to these two agents
"jumping the gun" on the attack and starting the fight
before their backup was in place. Unfortunately for
them, but lucky for the babies, they jumped on a
hornets nest and died for their foolishness before the
helicopters and other reinforcements arrived.
The ensuing fight and it's aftermath of a quarter
century of wrongful imprisonment of Leonard Peltier
has been well documented and is known worldwide.
Leonard Peltier is known as the prime example of an
American political prisoner and millions of people
around the world have asked for his freedom. The case
has been investigated and litigated until even one of
the appeals judges asked for his freedom, the facts of
the governments case are known, at least what they
have released, so we can say with confidence that if
Peltier would have had a fair triall based on all the
facts that have come to light, he would have been
acquitted and be at home with his grandchildren right
now.
Instead his framing has been allowed to stand and
Peltier remains a political prisoner of America's
longest war. We know for certain that the fight at the
Jumping Bull home was a part of an FBI attempt to wipe
out the American Indian Movement and that all who were
there fought in self-defense. We also know the agents
were not scalped. We know that Peltier told us that he
and the other warriors, men and women, fought hard and
desperately with real guns using real bullets to repel
the attack. We know that the FBI has a different
version, a version that has been put to the lie by
responsible journalists, authors and all of ndn
country. We know they will go to any lengths to keep
the truth hidden and Peltier in jail.
In "Indian Country" we have a decided lack of
newspapers or media to cover the many happenings
around our nations and those we do have are only
guided by their owner's sense of what is good
journalism and what is not. There are no repercussions
for newspaper owners cum-reporters, editors and
publishers all in one. They can, and do, report as
news their own speculations and misunderstandings with
impunity, you will never see one of them resign for
ethical reasons as was done at the New York Times
recently, so generally it's buyer beware journalism
and we get used to it. After reading the various ndn
newspapers we can tell where they're coming from and
we pay attention to them accordingly. One of the
newspapers ndns have rejected en mass is Paul DeMain's
"News of Indian Country" mainly because it's a "point
of view" type yellow newspaper instead of an attempt
at good journalism. But DeMain has learned that in
America scandal sells so in order to drum up business
this paper has made a habit of printing and reprinting
every sort of story about the murder of Anna Mae
Aquash. Mainly he has come down for the FBI version as
put out in the first failed grand jury about her and
rehashed by the FBI and their stooges ever since.
Recently they have attempted to use our own culture
against us, one cop named Eccoffy stupidly and falsely
claimed he had had a "dream" or vision about her death
which prompted him to seek her killer. Around the rez
we all know the ex-Cop Eccoffy so we can laugh at his
perversion of our ways, but people like DeMain think a
cop's dreams are evidence and print them verbatim.
This past year DeMain got so outrageous in his
anti-AIM diatribes that Peltier was forced to file a
lawsuit against him in an attempt to stop his untrue
scandal sheet from grossly distorting the tragic death
of Anna Mae. An arrest has been made in Anna's death
and except for pure speculation DeMain knows nothing
about it so he is desperate to get in on the story no
matter the cost to truth.
Guess what? Now DeMain, like ole Bob Eccoffy, has had
a new epiphany and has decided in his wisdom that our
brother Leonard Peltier is guilty. And like ole Bob
too he uses imaginary informants that whispered in his
ear and convinced him, against all evidence new and
old, that by golly, the FBI was right all along! Oh,
he begins his "story" with many references to Pipes
and "Pipecarriers", (a fictitious position btw) and
other ndn sounding bs and he tells (brags) about how
much he has read and studied Peltier's case. He even
does some quoting from the case and various
interviews, nonsensical stuff but things I assume he
thinks bolsters his anti-Peltier conclusions, but in
the end his whole story comes down to this quote
below.....
DeMain says; " But in the end, while crossing back and
forth over the issue of "without doubt," and crossing
back again to wonder, it simply took a delegation of
people who were tired of all the deceptions, lies and
dangers to step forward and tell me the truth.
"Peltier was responsible for the close range execution
of the agents...." and that was the end of that. I
have no reason to doubt the group of people, and
others I have since conversed with, that they are now
telling the truth. They are people who have agonized
for years, grandfathers and grandmothers, AIM
activists, Pipe carriers and others who have carried a
heavy unhealthy burden within them that has taken its
toll. "
Notice what he put in quotation marks as coming from a
delegation of our people. In my opinion this is a lie,
either a lie or the FBI scout DeMain left out some
very important words, such as, " I heard" Peltier was
responsible" ect. We know the FBI and other
governmental departments were engaged in a massive
disinformation campaign (COINTELPRO) against AIM and
rumors were abundant all over ndn country, everybody
was in the know. But how many people were there that
could say for certain what DeMain claims they did?
Maybe a dozen or less in the entire world? And out of
this dozen DeMain would have you believe a whole
"group" of them sought him out to unburden themselves
to! By telling him apparently their "heavy unhealthy
burden" was lifted... and Paul gets a scoop of course.
Without this mysterious, guilt ridden "delegation" to
back up his far out story DeMain is caught for what he
is; a lowlife liar who will say and print anything to
have his moment in the sun and a pat on the head from
the FBI and other assorted ndn haters.
Well my relations, I too know those old grandfathers,
grandmothers, AIM activists and his vaunted
Pipecarriers. They are friends of mine and although I
do not get to visit with them very often the last I
heard every single one of them continues to support
Leonard Peltier and to work for his release. They all
still continue to love and honor the warriors who
fought that day to protect them and they still call
for an investigation into the murders of their
relations during the FBI reign of terror on Pine
Ridge. There is no "heavy burden of guilt" at all in
the community that I have ever detected, most of them
are very proud of the victory that day and glad the
invaders weren't able to carry out their plan. Why
should any of us be ashamed of standing in defense of
our people and fighting for our families? The "burden
of guilt" DeMain bases his lie upon does not exist,
unbeknownst to DeMain the warriors of that fight
earned and were awarded eagle feathers of honor by a
grateful community. Indian Country still honors them
all in song, dance and prayer as is our way when
warriors fight and most of all we honor Leonard
Peltier who also gave his life that day.
As a people we should not allow this DeMain character
to get away with his smear campaign against our
brother. I personally will never spend a dime for his
unreliable rag and I hope all who read this will shun
him too. There are some decent newspapers in ndn
country that will carry our letters telling the truth
and there are other ways to refute these lies such as
the internet where we can explain to everyone that
DeMain's lies were prompted by Peltiers lawsuit
against him for lying about Anna Mae not by anything
this psudo-journalist has learned. He likes to use
names like Richard LaCourse who was a real journalist,
to make it seem like they agree with him. To my
knowledge Richard was a Peltier supporter as so many
journalists are in ndn country, DeMain cheapens his
memory by linking him to his lies, but, cheap is as
cheap does. He also likes to brag about some phony
awards he has received for 'journalism', our people
need to contact every one of these organizations to
protest his yellow journalism as beyond the realm of
decency. We may know that DeMain is an unimportant
worm but how can non-ndn people know he is lying
unless we tell them? And have no doubt about it my
friends, the attack on Leonard Peltier by DeMain is a
part and parcel of the ongoing war against AIM, our
sovereignty, and our freedom as a people. He, with a
few sellouts and assorted cops, are engaged in an
anti-ndn crusade because the FBI is desperate to keep
the truth under wraps and they are using every weak
minded ndn they can co-opt. This crusade began when
the Peltier pardon effort was gaining ground and the
cops raised vast amounts of money to keep him locked
up. They know the release of Peltier might trigger an
investigation into the rez murders of the 70's and
cause some agents to take Peltier's place behind bars.
In the end my relations we must continue our thirty
year effort to bring the truth to light. We must
redouble our efforts to free Leonard Peltier from
prison and we must continue to work to ensure that the
anti-AIM crusade being waged by the FBI and their
running dogs does NOT obscure our call for an
independent international tribunal to investigate the
FBI/GOON "reign of terror" that killed sixty or more
Native people during and after Wounded Knee '73'. We
must not let the smoke screen the FBI/DeMain group is
putting out obscure the truth. Our brother is
depending on those of us outside to protect his
interests and to continue the fight. Our movement, our
organizations and our tribeswomen and men may be
divided on many things, but not this, we are unified
in our knowledge that Leonard Peltier is being held
illegally and we demand with one voice... FREE LEONARD
PELTIER!... NOW!!!
I am Carter Camp, Ponca Nation AIM
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