Monday, 6/2/97 U.S. government needs to free Indian activist
Despite discrepancies in FBI investigation and trial, Peltier
remains behind bars
June 1 marked the 20th anniversary of Leonard Peltier’s
conviction for the murder of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge
reservation. Though his trial made national news in the ’70s,
Peltier is hardly a household name today. Given the history of the
case, his relative obscurity outside of the Native American
community is both tragic and revealing. Tragic, because he remains
in prison despite prosecutor admissions of perjury, witness
coercion, and the fabrication and suppression of evidence during
his trial. Revealing, because the majority of people in the United
States refuse to believe that we, like the "rogue" states we like
to vilify, continue to hold political prisoners without just cause.
Peltier’s case is a complex one, with roots in a number of battles
happening in "Indian Country" in the ’70s. A new chapter of the
centuries-old theft of Indian lands was opening in western South
Dakota during those years. The discovery of uranium in the Black
Hills and covert prospecting on the reservations excited a number
of energy officials and multinational companies, including
Kerr-McGee, already known for the death of Karen Silkwood and the
multiple cancer deaths of its unsuspecting Navajo mining employees.
When the American Indian Movement (AIM) began talking about
preserving natural resources on Indian lands, the government’s ears
pricked up, and a whole host of questionable activities commenced.
By 1981, the Lakota had lost both their treaty claims to the Black
Hills and another one-eighth of their reservation land. Alarmed by
the militant actions of AIM and other Indian activists, especially
the 1973 siege at Wounded Knee, the FBI had transferred the focus
of its controversial counter-intelligence program (COINTELPRO) from
the Black Panthers to AIM by 1975, and hundreds of FBI agents began
living on the Pine Ridge reservation. Unfortunately, their
activities have never been fully disclosed; congressional
investigation into possible FBI and COINTELPRO improprieties was
never concluded due to the deaths of two of their agents June 25,
1975. Furthermore, the mid-’70s are frequently referred to on the
Pine Ridge reservation as the "reign of terror." Dick Wilson, a
jowly, pasty man with a crew cut and a drinking problem, was
elected tribal chair in 1972 with the support of the U.S.
government – and less than 20 percent of the tribal vote.
Vociferously anti-AIM, he quickly established a nepotistic fiefdom
for himself and assembled paramilitary squads of local thugs under
the name GOONs – Guardians of the Oglala Nation. Armed by the FBI,
the GOONs terrorized the local population and routed out any AIM
sympathizers. Within three years, hundreds of Lakota people were
attacked and murdered; their cases have never been investigated.
When one particular AIM activist was found murdered, the FBI
"helped out" in the investigation by cutting off her hands and
sending them to Washington for fingerprinting. In this context, the
events of June 25, 1975 are not surprising. FBI agents Jack Coler
and Ronald Williams drove onto the Jumping Bull ranch in pursuit of
a young Indian man who was accused of stealing a used pair of
cowboy boots. Both vehicles stopped, shots were fired (though no
one knows who shot first), and within a short period of time, a
firefight broke out that eventually involved more than 30 Indian
men, women, and children and more than 150 FBI agents, Bureau of
Indian Affairs police and U.S. marshals. Before the day was over,
two federal agents and one Lakota man, Joe Killsright, were dead.
Killsright’s death was never investigated, but a massive campaign
began that day to convict someone for the deaths of the agents.
Four people were eventually accused of the murders. The first two
were tried together and found innocent, to the disgrace and anger
of the FBI. They dropped charges against the third, in their own
words, "so that the full prosecutive weight of the federal
government could be directed against Leonard Peltier." Peltier, a
member of AIM who had previously been identified by the FBI as a
potential leader, was singled out as the sole murderer and the
government’s last chance for a conviction. Peltier was extradited
from Canada with affidavits that the government has since admitted
to fabricating. The trial itself was moved to Fargo, a town with a
history of anti-Indian sentiment going back to the Indian wars of
the 19th century. A new judge was brought in, known for his
anti-Indian verdicts, who disallowed any contextual evidence used
in the previous trial that resulted in acquittals, any discussion
of FBI buildup on the reservation, or the reign of terror in full
swing at that time. The jury was sequestered and escorted to and
from the courthouse by SWAT teams supposedly there to protect them
from crazed AIM militants. Finally, the prosecution engaged in
outright perjury and fabrication of evidence to secure their
conviction, which they have since admitted. Two decades later, an
impressive docket exists to undermine those convictions. Appeals
court judges have rebuked the FBI for "a clear abuse of the
investigative process." The prosecution changed its story in 1985,
conceding that no evidence exists to prove Peltier was the
murderer, but stating in court that he was tried for both murder
and "aiding and abetting" a murder – a direct reversal of their
stance during the trial. The Freedom of Information Act released
hundreds of pages of evidence in 1981, previously withheld, that
virtually prove Peltier’s innocence. New evidence released in 1995
indicates that the entire shootout may have been an FBI ambush gone
awry. Yet Peltier remains in prison, without even the hope of
parole for another 11 years, because the government is "reluctant
to impute further improprieties to them (FBI)." In recent years,
The Nation and other publications have written stories and
published interviews with an anonymous man claiming to have been
the one who shot the agents. Though he sympathizes with Peltier, he
refuses to be identified, as he views his actions as justified in
the reservation climate of the time. Whether it’s just or not, and
even whether this phantom exists or not, should be moot points in
Peltier’s case. Justice does not rest on a conviction, it rests on
the fair and clear administration of law to all people in all
contexts. For Peltier, that law was violated. Ironically, Peltier
is an Indian leader whose poise and influence have increased
dramatically during his years in a prison cell. If his "leadership
potential" concerned the FBI before 1975, his status today should
have them in fits; some Native American people refer to him as "our
Nelson Mandela." His support extends far beyond the Indian
community as well. Thousands of people from all over the world have
written the president demanding Peltier’s release or at the least a
new trial, including foreign heads of state, human rights groups
like Amnesty International and numerous Nobel Peace Prize winners.
Peltier was put behind bars before many of this paper’s readers
were even born. His children are grown, and his grandchildren have
never met him outside of prison. Locked up by a vindictive
government without a solid criminal case against him, he, along
with Mumia Abu-Jamal, Geronimo Pratt and others, is a political
prisoner in the United States. If justice is to prevail for Leonard
Peltier, the only avenue left is a presidential pardon. Write
President Clinton at president@whitehouse.gov and tell him that the
time has come. Jonathan Ritter Ritter is a graduate student in
ethnomusicology. If you are interested in more information on
Leonard Peltier, contact Ritter at jlritter@ucla.edu.