PROLOGUE

Claus Biegert

A belated message from Leonard Peltier, who celebrated his 80th birthday on December 12. I read the sentence I have just written with sadness. Leonard has not been able to celebrate a birthday for 48 years! 

When Bill Clinton made it clear during a visit to the Pine Ridge reservation before his retirement in January 2001 that he would take care of Leonard’s case, hopes were high. But the FBI and the former governor of South Dakota, Bill Janklow, put massive pressure on the outgoing president. We can only speculate what this pressure looked like, which prevented Clinton from pardoning Peltier. Since then, however, we know that it is all about revenge. The FBI wants to avenge its two agents who died on the Pine Ridge reservation in 1976. 

IN THE SPIRIT OF CRAZY HORSE

It doesn’t count that Leonard is innocent and that the charge of double murder was changed to “aiding and abetting” because he was at the scene of the crime at the time. It doesn’t count that there was no evidence that he did it, except fabricated, circumstantial evidence, overwhelmingly misused. It doesn’t count that Lynn Crooks, the prosecutor who argued the case against Peltier in the 1977 trial, admitted at a 1986 court hearing, “We don’t know who killed these agents.” It doesn’t count that Judge Heaney, who authored the decision denying a new trial, has since voiced firm support for Mr. Peltier’s release, stating that the FBI used improper tactics to convict Mr. Peltier, the FBI was equally responsible for the shoot-out, and that Mr. Peltier’s release would promote healing with Native Americans.  It doesn’t count that Pope Francis has asked Presidents Obama and Biden to finally return to Leonard the freedom that was stolen from him!

On my second and final visit (I was denied another visit two days before the scheduled date) to the penitentiary in Levenworth, Kansas, the officer examining my photo bag said, “You gonna visit Leonard Peltier…. he is a good guy, oh, I am not supposed to say that.”

Leonard’s situation mirrors the entire situation of the indigenous peoples of the USA: The protectors of the earth are in the way of our resource-plundering system.

LEONARD PELTIER’S 80th BIRTHDAY STATEMENT 2024 

Greetings my Friends, Loved Ones, Relatives, Supporters!

When I was a child, I looked to my Elders to learn how to live within Mother Earth’s rhythms. I yearn to sit by the fire with my loved ones and have our children look to me to learn the mysteries of Mother Earth. I want to laugh, share the pipe, and gaze into the eyes of a woman who does not carry handcuffs.

I have become an Elder. I suppose, in many ways, I am still the nine-year-old who founded The Resistance among my peers at Wahpeton Boarding School, the young man willing to sacrifice everything to protect my people, and the young man who worked hard and played hard when the chance arose. At the same time, I feel every second of these past eighty years wreaking havoc on my body.

I have been losing my eyesight, but my inner vision is not that of an old man. I long to get out there and work. My mind is filled with ideas to combat the greed and corruption that spread like a poisonous mold through the halls of those who govern us.

When I was sentenced, I stated: 

“I do feel pity for your people that they must live under such a ugly system.  Under your system you are taught greed, racism and corruption, and the most  serious of all, the destruction of our mother earth. Under the native American system we are taught all people are brothers and sisters, to share the wealth with the poor and needy; but the most important of all is to respect and preserve the earth, to me considered to be our mother.”

I could not help but see far and wide. I saw the continued colonization and destruction of Mother Earth and the ongoing termination of an entire People

I perceive more than most of you know, even in lockdown. I see spirit warriors stand up and speak out; it does my heart good. 

I also see the erosion of laws meant to protect our very right to survive. Civil rights used to be a pretense. They were never a true thing. Now, I see that the government is not bothering to pretend.

We cannot continue to allow greed, racism, and corruption to rule us.

Remember, my people. Remember who you are. Mother Earth herself flows through our veins. We endure. The greed, corruption, and disdain of the colonizers will bring them to their ruin. They seek to ravish Mother Earth while chasing the almighty dollar. We have survived their apocalypse. We are not simply enduring; we are destined to thrive.

The lockdowns have not been kind to my body. I am not going to stand here and cry over what happens to an eighty-year-old body held in lockdown for over four years. I will continue to plan, think, and change what is within my reach.

Hope is a hard thing, but I still hold hope. The parole denial was not unexpected. I will not say I was overjoyed with the outcome, but we knew. They may yet surprise us with the answer to the appeal Jenipher Jones and Moira Meltzer-Cohen filed.

Jenipher Jones has assured me from the start that she is fully committed to my case. I trust her word. Jenipher will fight for me and with me in court if the appeal is rejected. 

My friends, I need you to fight for you.

Police are beating children in the streets. The Parole Commission still illegally holds many of us long past our release dates. The Supreme Court has made it impossible for people to challenge wrongful convictions Indigenous people are still being forced from our land – we protect Mother 

Earth. They have stripped her bare and now want our resources. Our people go missing at a staggering rate, and no one blinks.

We are awaiting the Uhuru verdict to determine whether free speech exists, a verdict that may well come down on my eightieth birthday. And – I am still in prison. 

The Constitution reads, “We, the People.” We must tell those in power we ARE the people.

***

This statement was meant to be released on my 80th birthday. I was in a ten-day lockdown, and my Board waited for me to approve the final edits. 

I regret that no statement was released on my 80th birthday. I regret that this country has been taken by those who can cage human beings in conditions that would be illegal for dogs.

As I said, I need you to fight for you. I fight every day for my freedom with my legal team. I am now fighting for my life. They sentenced me to Death by Incarceration. They are trying hard to enforce that.

They have never managed to cage my Spirit. They never will. Do not allow 

anyone to cage yours.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse!

Doksha,

Leonard Peltier