A Message to the People:
a birthday message to Leonard Peltier regarding
Leonard Peltier Freedom Month in Washington, DC
On September 12, 1891 a great freedom fighter was born. PEDRO ALBIZU CAMPOS was born to lead the Puerto Rican Independence Movement.
On September 12, 1944 Leonard Peltier, an equally great freedom fighter was born. Leonard who was destined to have the best part of his life stolen from him by the same forces of greed that have tried for over 500 years to stamp out his People in order to rape Mother Earth and pocket the riches gained by their theft, lies, deceit and treachery.
As I write, twelve of the brave, committed Puerto Rican Freedom Fighters have accepted the White House deal that will release them from prison. Although they should have been freed unconditionally, it is good that they have accepted before the forces of reaction made it impossible for their rightly gained freedom to become a reality. Many celebrations for their freedom must be going on all over the world by the many who struggled and demanded their freedom. I know that the spirit of PEDRO ALIBIZU CAMPOS is celebrating with us.
Geronimo ji Jaga is free after his many years of unjust imprisonment. Laura Whitehorn is free after doing her time, 14+ years in some of the worst Ironhouses of Greed. Silvia Baraldini has been returned home to Italy to finish her outrageous sentence among her countrymen. And freedom could still be in the future.
PELTIER IS AN INNOCENT MAN
They admit he is innocent and yet he can't even get medical treatment from his captors; although, letters pour in from all over the world, beseeching the Bureau of Prisons and his keepers at Leavenworth to allow him to have his jaw fixed by the Mayo Clinic doctor who has offered his services and expertise. How can his jailers be so totally without compassion or common decency? How can the torture of Leonard Peltier be tolerated in a country that condemns other countries they don't like for torturing their own prisoners?
Coming up is "November 1999 Leonard Peltier Freedom Month in Washington, D.C." We have got to make an overwhelming presence for this concerted effort to put Leonard's unjust imprisonment in President Clinton's face. We must get the message across that Leonard Peltier is an innocent man who has been in prison so long that his youth has left him and his health is rapidly declining. We must ask: "Where is justice for Leonard Peltier?!" and make our voices heard.
This may be the last chance for President Clinton to grant Peltier executive clemency. Leonard visualizes, "...all the colors of our Native Nations'flags flying high around a culturally brillant and attention attracting event in front of the White House..." It's a beautiful dream. Come on, People, let's make Leonard's dream come true. We can do it!
I will be fasting and praying for Leonard every other day all during the month of November. To Leonard I say, Happy Birthday, Brother. My prayer is that this will be the last one you'll have to do in the Ironhouse of Greed. May your next one be with your family, relatives and friends in glorious freedomland. Your strength and spirit leads us. AHO!
IN THE SPIRIT OF CRAZY HORSE,
Standing Deer
September 12, 1999
Message to the People
As we approach another Indigenous Peoples Day, and as we prepare for the day
so many of us accept as our own Day of Mourning that they call Thanksgiving,
there are so many injustices still being heaped upon our Red Nations, but the
injustice for Leonard Peltier? Where is justice for this indomitable warrior
who is being robbed of his very life by the takers of the fat?
Leonard has been in captivity for more than twenty-two years for a crime he
did not commit. For many of these years he has been forced to live in a cage
so small that had he been a dog the Humane Society would have closed the
prison down. During these years the keepers of the Iron Houses of Greed have
subjected him to some of the most hideous treatment in an effort to break his
will and spirit, yet his warrior heart remains strong and unyielding serving
as an inspiration to us all. Peltier is an innocent man! He has committed
no crime! He is the victim of a system of injustice which operates outside
the moral boundaries that just people claim to live by.
Just think of all the things that have happened since Leonard was first
entombed in 1976: Jimmy Carter was President; the war against Grenada was
still a dream in Reagan's diseased brain; The Gulf War with its sickening
body count on both sides (theirs outright, ours as a slow, debilitating death
of tens of thousands from undiagnosable or unnameable sicknesses that
continue even to this day) Ohad not yet entered the history books. And some
of you who are today devoting your time, energy and resources to free Leonard
were small children or had not yet been born.
Brothers and sisters, Leonard is a Prisoner of War being unjustly held
captive in his own land by the descendants of the very sea pirates who
murdered his great grandmothers and great grandfathers, decimated his People
and stole Mother Earth out from under their feet.
War has been running through my head and I speak of wars because there is a
war being waged against the Indian People throughout the Americas: the Slade
Gorton war to end our sovereignty; the logging wars to poison our water; the
war to dump their nuclear contamination on us; the war to continue to deny
our brothers and sisters in the Iron Houses the right to practice our
religion, and on and on and now our brother Leonard has been denied parole,
and told not to come back to see the parole board until 2008. The war
against him says he can't even get proper medical treatment for his jaw that
has him in severe pain constantly.
I know this man is not a complainer. He will complain about the injustices
being done to his People, but his pants leg could be on fire and he wouldn't
complain, so when I heard that he admitted he is in constant severe pain it
brought tears to my eyes because I know that brother is suffering. We have
got to do something! Call Warden Booker at Leavenworth and write him
letters; call and write Kathleen Hawk Sawyer, the director of the Federal
Bureau of Prisons. We gotta do more than we ever thought we could.
We need Leonard outside the prison walls to help us win our right to exist in
Clinton's america. Of course he doesn't have to do anything but to kick back
and let his grandchildren swarm over him, enjoy his family, relatives and
friends and do some of the things that injustice has denied him and he so
richly deserves. Just seeing his smiling face in glorious freedom will pump
new life in every struggle everywhere.
To all of you who struggle to free Leonard, I extend the left hand of my left arm which is closest to my heart. My love and strength are with you.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Standing Deer
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