After 300 years the persecution remains.
On Jan. 13, when Leonard Peltier arrived at Canaan Federal Prison in Pennsylvania after being transferred from another facility in the state, he was brutally assaulted by a group of inmates. A letter from Peltier’s sister, Betty Peltier-Solano, says he suffered numerous head blows and “blood was everywhere.” She also said one of his fingers has been broken. He has been put in solitary confinement.
For those of you who arent formiliar with Leonard Peltier and his situation as political prisoner, is a Native American activist and member of the American Indian Movement who was convicted and sentenced in 1977 to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for the murder of two FBI Agents who were killed during a 1975 shoot-out on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. There is considerable debate over Peltier’s guilt and the fairness of his trial. Some supporters and organizations consider him to be a political prisoner. Amnesty International has stated that “Although he has not been adopted as a prisoner of conscience, there is concern about the fairness of the proceedings leading to his conviction and it is believed that political factors may have influenced the way the case was prosecuted.”[1] Numerous lawsuits have been filed on his behalf but none have succeeded.
Peltier’s sister blames the FBI for this attack, as they have been responsible for so many attacks against him, both political and physical.
Since 1975 Peltier, a leader of the American Indian Movement who courageously battled the FBI in defense of his people and their sovereignty, has been in federal prison for a crime it is widely believed he did not commit.
As if the native Americans have not been flogged enough culturally, spiritually and physically. I mean come on people- the europeans who run this country caused an almost absolute extinction of the true aboriginal peoples to this country- and when the anger of such unjustness leads to any dispute, that same government will stop at nothing to see it pushed back down.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has worked long and hard to ensure that Peltier remains behind bars. The FBI openly admits that it paid a woman who testified against him in 2004 the sum of $42,000 “in compensation.” When rumors circulated that President Bill Clinton was considering a pardon for Peltier, the FBI staged a demonstration in front of the White House calling for his continued imprisonment. In 1978, fellow political prisoner Standing Deer came forward with the news that the FBI had approached him about assassinating Peltier.
Peltier pointed out, “When we exposed the Government misconduct, the Government stopped arguing that I ‘shot the agents,’ and began arguing that my conviction should be upheld on aiding and abetting grounds, even though the only two people I could have aided and abetted, Robert Robideau and Dino Butler, were acquitted on self-defense grounds.
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Call and request Leonard Peltier be treated with dignity and respect and let prison officials know that the public will hold them accountable for his safety and well-being. Peltier’s register (prison ID) number is 89637-132.
Contact: Warden Ronnie R. Holt, Warden, USP-Canaan, 3057 Easton Turnpike, Waymart, PA 18472; phone: 570-488-8000; fax: 570-488-8130; e-mail: caa/execassistant@bop.gov. D. Scott Dodrill, Director, Northeast Regional Office, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2nd and Chestnut streets, 7th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19106; phone: 215-521-7301; e-mail: nero/execassistant@bop.gov. Harley G. Lappin, Director, Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Department of Justice, 320 First Street NW, Rm. 654, Washington, DC 20534; phone: 202-307-3250; fax: 202-514-6878.
