Update Leonard Peltier Campaign in Ireland Part I

Update- Leonard Peltier Campaign in Ireland- Part I

Four years ago, September 8, 2002, I arrived in Ireland for the first time. My first day in the country was spent in a besieged part of Belfast known as the Short Strand. The Short Strand is a Catholic community that has the misfortune of being an island surrounded by hostile and hate filled loyalist neighbors. I was given a guided tour of the area, which had come under nightly assaults for the previous four months. In the midst of an on-going IRA cease-fire and an increase in votes for Sinn Fein, many loyalists began to sense that their position as the regions dominate class was being threatened. In their fear, Ulster’s unionists resorted to the most barbaric actions taken against their Catholic neighbors. Passing into the Belfast city centre I noticed graffiti that read, “End the Siege of the Short Strand.”
Minutes later, I was led on foot through the same area. As we began our tour, I could hear fireworks going off in the distance. It was explained to me that fireworks are thrown onto houses after balloons filled with gasoline had been thrown onto the same roofs. Thus, with a bit of careful aim you ignite a full-blown fire on top of the homes of your neighbour. Overhead were the sounds of helicopters. The helicopters weren’t hovering in the sky to stop or contain the carnage. Rather, they were there to monitor the situation in case any of the Short Strand residents decided to resist. “Would this be enough to provoke the IRA into abandoning their cease fire?” The pro-British pyromaniacs hoped the answer would be ‘Yes.’ They were to be disappointed.
For a little over an hour I surveyed burned homes, broken out windows covered by sheets of plywood, children with casts covering third-degree burns on their arms and legs, broken glass and barbed wire. One of my tour guides finally asked what my impressions were. “I’ll bet you’ve never seen anything like this before,” I was asked. I thought for a while with a numb look on my face. I explained that I’d seen senseless sectarian discrimination like this a hundred times before, on reservations and inner cities all across the US and Canada. It was at that moment that I made a realization that has been repeatedly confirmed for me over the past four years. Observing the similarities between the Irish and Native Americans caused me to think, “We have more in common than either of us knows.”
Four days after my shocking experience in the Short Strand, I was invited to attend a function in West Belfast. Located on the famous Falls Road is a cultural centre called ‘An Culturlann.’ The Culturlann is a Gaelic speaking get-away, bookshop, restaurant and meeting place. On 12 September, Leonard Peltier’s 58th birthday, I travelled to the Culturlann to witness the unveiling of a mural dedicated to Leonard Peltier. For the two years that followed, the recreation of Leonard’s famous ‘Hawk Man’ painting greeted Belfast residents as they made their way from the city centre into the Falls Rd. Just past the Divis Towers apartment building, Leonard looked out at Belfast across the street from the entrance to St. Peter’s cathedral. He was sandwiched between a mural advocating Palestinian solidarity and a mural devoted to the Turkish hunger strikes.
In attendance at the mural unveiling was civil rights icon Bernadette Devlin-McAliskey. Bernadette McAliskey: nationalist leader, Bloody Sunday survivor and formerly the youngest MP ever; personified in her presence that day the enormous degree of support Leonard Peltier has enjoyed in Ireland for thirty years. I would later discover that Nobel Peace Prize winner and SDLP leader John Hume was in attendance at yet another Leonard Peltier mural unveiling in 2000. That same year Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, spoke in person with President Bill Clinton twice on behalf of Leonard’s clemency petition.
I’ve consistently found the Irish mind to parallel my own in terms of the feelings that both of our peoples have many things in common. We were both invaded by a foreign empire, and in the case of Native Americans it was the descendants of the same imperial conquering force that invaded Ireland. We are both engaged in liberation struggles at present; each of us fighting for sovereignty, self-determination, equality and the humane treatment of our people. Each of us are also actively involved in preservation of language, culture and tradition. Of course, this is just a short version of an even bigger list of similarities. As I’ve said, I’m not alone in this realisation. Countless times I’ve encountered Irish people- from everyday citizens to activists, from grass roots campaigners to republican former POWs- who’ve said to me that they read or were inspired by some account of Native American history. Most commonly, individuals have proudly professed to me that they read, “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” by Dee Brown. This is especially true of former political prisoners.
Ireland has proven to be the perfect place for a campaign to increase international support for Leonard Peltier. Since I accepted the position of LPDC Rep in Ireland and England in May, I’ve met with countless elected representatives in Irish government. I’ve met with individuals from most political parties, as well as a few independently elected members of Irish parliament.
I’ve received an enormous amount of support from Amnesty International, specifically the Bray chapter of the Irish Section of Amnesty International. The Irish Section of Amnesty is based in Dublin. I have met their coordinator for North American issues and the results have been an ever present helping hand whenever I’ve needed it. A life-long activist named Judy Russell, who is a member of Amnesty here in Ireland, was directly responsible for the showing of ‘Incident at Oglala’ I did on Leonard’s birthday this year. The event was held south of Dublin in a very nice hotel along the sea front. Around 20 Amnesty members were present for the film and my speech afterwards. Ms. Russell was kind enough to coordinate the event, arrange for the Bray group to coordinate their monthly meeting around the event, and she even took care of the costs of equipment rental (microphone, PA, etc). She is one of many hard-working activists with Amnesty that have dedicated time from their already busy schedules to support the campaign for Leonard Peltier in Ireland. I’ve yet to meet with Amnesty International in London. However, I’m preparing for a tour of England that will encompass such a meeting. I hope we can enjoy the same support from the London section as we have been blessed to receive from the folks in the Dublin branch (Thanks Judy, Kieran and Brian).
The biggest support that I have received has come overwhelmingly from Sinn Fein and their supporters (known simply as ‘The Republican Movement’). In part two of this update, I will explore in greater depth the support that Leonard has received from the nationalist community. I have recently returned from three days in Derry, in the heart of the republican northwest. I will enclose a detailed account of that trip. The campaign for Leonard Peltier in Ireland continues to gather momentum and build-up steam. Next month I will apprise everyone on recent events as they pertain to on-going efforts for Leonard Peltier’s fight for freedom and the methods in which the people of Ireland are working for those ends.

Please click here for newspaper articles :

http://www.leonardpeltier.net/worldevents/dave.htm

Aho/ Nea’ese/ Go Raibh maith agut,
Dave Bailey (natsitsa@yahoo.com)
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee Representative
in Ireland and England

The Unquiet Grave: The FBI and the Struggle for the Soul of Indian Country - A Book Review by Robert Robideau

Book Review By Robert Robideau Co-Director of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee

The Unquiet Grave: The FBI and the Struggle for the Soul of Indian Country by Steve Hendricks

Steve Hendrick's new book The Unquiet Grave: The FBI and the Struggle for the Soul of Indian Country is focused on the 1976 execution style killing of Anna Mae Aquash, a Mic Mac from Nova Scotia, Canada.


Anna Mae Aquash was a leading member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) from 1970 to the time of her death and although known for taking part in the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, she is best known for her involvement with Dennis Banks and Leonard Peltier during the aftermath of the June 26, 1975 Oglala shoot out with the FBI on the Pine Ridge reservation.

Because of her important role in AIM, she became a target of the FBI's Counterintelligence program ("COINTELPRO"). After the exposure of FBI informant Douglas Durham in the summer of 1974 the FBI began to spread rumors that she too was an informant. This effort to discredit her and divide our movement is known as "badjacketing" in the language of the FBI, lead to her death.

I met Anna Mae for the first time in June of 1975 during an AIM convention in Farmington, New Mexico when I and others had been asked by leadership to discern whether or not she was an informant. We reported that we believed she was not an informant. In the passage of 30 years there has not been any evidence to disprove us.

Several books have been written about AIM and the FBI. Twenty six years ago, I was privileged to meet and work with noted author Peter Matthiessen. Peter Matthiessen's In the Spirit of Crazy Horse became the first important book written about events involving the federal government and Native Americans that took place between 1972 and 1976.

Peter Matthiessen called Hendrick’s book, "An impressive and important book." Peter also said in a phone conversation with me that there was “nothing new in the book,” I would disagree with Peter, I found new information, some revealing, while other skewed and unacceptable.

Hendrick’s book exposed further critical information about the FBI’s long and continuing war against the American Indian Movement, bringing into sharp focus the outrageous illegal actions of the FBI. He does not seriously explore the FBI’s cointelpro activities creating the suspicions in AIM that Anna Mae could be an informant, but instead condemns the AIM for the act. It is believed in AIM that FBI’s informer and provocateur Douglas Durham played a large role that lead to the killing of Anna Mae Aquash.


Hendricks has shared with the LPDC, the complex web of information ingeniously taken by him through the Freedom Information Act. His efforts has exposed hundreds of documents from the FBI’s investigation: memorandums, reports and teletypes, follow movements of Anna Mae Aquash prior to her death, which the LPDC has been unable get access to. One very important revelation is that these documents confirm that the FBI knew 30 years ago who the shooters were.


The investigation leads Hendricks into both camps as he goes from one FBI agent to the next and to members of AIM prying obvious lies and half truths and emotionally charged expressions that reveal their feelings for each other.


Although, the interplay of word games exposes that there are deep dark secrets being kept by both the American Indian Movement leadership and the FBI. It is clear that Anna Mae Aquash, a Canadian citizen, was threatened and abused by the FBI. She was found shot to death and her body dumped in a ravine.

An FBI-ordered autopsy failed to reveal the bullet wound in the back of her head, leading to more criticism of the FBI and suspicions that they might have played a role it the killing is not seriously explored by Hendricks.

The indictment of two individuals, John "Boy" Graham and Arlo Looking Cloud 30 years later, when the FBI had gathered sufficient evidence to have brought the case to trial in the 1970’s has renewed suspicions of fowl play by those in AIM and Native American communities close to the events.

Arlo Looking Cloud was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment despite a deal made with the Feds for his cooperation. The trial, felt by many to be a sham, and disguise to cover up the FBI’s real purpose of retrying Leonard Peltier for the killing of their dead agents after the federal prosecutors had made public that they could not prove Peltier shot and killed the agents.

The sensational trial testimony of Kamook Banks Ecoffey, that Leonard Peltier had confessed to the killing of agents Coler and Williams, was skewed by the $42,000 in "moving expenses" the FBI had paid nevertheless made headline news for months to follow.

Kamook Banks later married Robert Ecoffey an ex goon, who became an investigator in the case undoubtedly introduced both Kamook Banks and another AIM member, since expelled after turning informant, John Trudell, to the FBI.

On an hour-long interview by host Mike McCormick on KEXP 90.3 FM, Seattle, Washington, Steve Hendricks made the outrageous and ridiculous charge that the reason why the “FBI, who had the names of Anna Mae’s killers 30 years ago did not prosecute because they feared that their informant David Hill may have been too close to the murder.”

Steve Hendricks, unoriginal accusations that David Hill became an FBI informant after being arrested and released for the Mount Rushmore Bombings were first lauded by John Trudell twenty-six years ago, then adopted by Paul DeMain, Editor of News From Indian Country. Without proof these are unacceptable and dangerous accusations to be throwing around. This behavior,on the part of Hendricks, is irresponsible, under other circumstances he, himself describes in his book, would easily be interpreted as the activities of a provocateur.

It put me on my guard when Hendricks ask that we believe an FBI’s story that they rejected David Hill as an informant because he “knew nothing.” There is more then ample evidence to show otherwise and also that his actions in the 1970s were completely loyal to our struggle. If he had been an informant, arrest would have come much earlier then they did. Those of us in AIM who knew David Hill best are not buying these regurgitated stories and false accusations.

Much of Hendrick’s information about David Hill undoubtedly came from FBI informant John Trudell, who has labeled many individuals in the American Indian Movement and associates as informants. For many years Trudell’s behavior has been that of provocateur.

In disregard for the Reign of Terror, accelerated by the counter intelligent activities of the FBI to destroy AIM from 1973 to 1976 resulting in 60 murders, Trudell, in a interview with Indian Country Today recently charged that it was “…The explosion of militancy [ of AIM ] surging from many sources. In that summer of 1975, you had the shootout in Oglala, the killing of Joe Stuntz, the killing of the two FBI agents, you had the bombing at Mount Rushmore , there was a series of bombings at Pine Ridge in the fall. And the operative in my mind, as I consider it, was mostly in that group, hyping up the violence. Annie Mae had gravitated to that most active group and as the government tracked them, she was amongst the people that were accused of doing these things.”

SEE: http://www.leonardpeltier.net/reignofterror.htm

Despite Hendrick’s admission that Paul DeMain, “… will not disclose his sources,” he still regurgitates and validates DeMain’s accusations that attempt to condemn David Hill of being in a house where it is alleged the order to kill Anna Mae came. If DeMain’s sources are so good why weren’t they called to testify at the Looking Cloud trial?

SEE: http://www.leonardpeltier.net/peeledapple.htm


There has been an ongoing effort for the past 30 years, without success, to get congress to investigate the Reign of Terror and culpability of the FBI as sanctioned in a memo entitled "Para military activity in Indian Country" which was issued because of the 1973 Wounded Knee confrontation with the United States government.

Thirty years of investigations by the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee has contributed much to exposing criminal activities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who, under the Nixon administration, was given Presidential authority to destroy the American Indian Movement and others dissent groups through the counter intelligence program (COINTELPRO) a processor to today’s Patriot Act.

Hendricks references, but does not explore the importance of the FBI’s domestic Conintelpro period to that of President Bush’s Patriot Act.

The Leonard Peltier and Anna Mae Aquash cases have inspired two other books to be written by Ward Churchill and Jim Vanderwall, Agents of Repression and The COINTELPRO PAPERS.

It is evident that Hendricks agrees with the FBIs condemnation that Peltier shot the agents, but says that Peltier should be freed because he has served 30 years in prison and the illegal methods used by the FBI to gain the conviction. Then Hendricks says that if he were to ‘met Leonard Peltier that he knew that he would not like him.’ The pronouncements left me wondering about Hendricks motivation for writing the book.

Steve Hendricks has not just written a book with a single purpose in mind. His web site, http://www.stevehendricks.org/, is indicative of a plan to create a long time career from the tribulations, sufferings, sacrifices and struggles of our past and continuing wars with the United States. I would hope that this is not true.

Hendrick’s the Unquiet Grave, despite its coverage of much information already written in other books and its short comings, deserves to be read by all who have an interest in learning the dynamics of this story and how it has played a significant role in exposing the United States government, its legal institutions and agencies originally intended for, but does not protect you under the law.

Robert Robideau

Co-Director Leonard Peltier Defense Committee

The Myth Keepers of Columbus, by Robert Robideau

The Historical Debt to Native People Has Still Not Been Paid
The Myth Keepers of Columbus
By ROBERT ROBIDEAU
In 1993, 500 years after European invaders of the Americas had brought the first Native Americans to Europe in chains, my plane landed in Barcelona, Spain, I had been invited to the International Cultural Symposium to speak on behalf of Leonard Peltier. The day after my arrival, I took a walk down their famous Rambler to the Placa del Portal de la Pau where I ran head long into a monument of Christopher Columbus. Build for the World Exhibition in 1888, the iron column is an impressive 197 feet tall and weighs 205 tons. On top the column stands a 26 foot statue of Columbus with head sculptured high, positioned to face out over its outstretched arm, with finger pointing over the Mediterranean sea and out to the distant horizon toward the Americas. As I moved around its base I discovered a series of relief's depicting the "new lands." What I saw was not the innocence that had been carved, but instead the first stages of colonization, the rape and plunder of the land and people of the Americas.
Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in Genoa, Italy. At age 14 he became a sailor, shipwrecked off of Portugal in 1470, he remained until his idea to sail west to India, known then as "Hindustan," was financed by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain in 1492. He reached the Bahamas on October 12th, visited Cuba and Hispaniola (Haiti), where he left a small colony before returning to Spain on March 15th, 1493 bringing with him 6 captive Taino people, taken from the Caribbean islands, who were presented to Ferdinand and Isabella in the royal court of Barcelona as proof of his travel. A painting that today hangs in (government building) show the Taino people at the feet of the king and queen in servile postures of slaves. The 6 Tainos never saw home again, their spirits still linger in the streets of Barcelona.
In his delirium Columbus thought he landed in Paradise. He wrote in his journal that Taínos had beautiful, tall, slender olive bodies. They wore short haircuts with a long hank at the back of the head. They were clean-shaven and hairless. According to Columbus the Taíno tongue was "gentle, the sweetest in the world, always with a laugh."
Friendly relations did not last long, many Tainos were beaten and murdered. The Spanish brought diseases with them that the Tainos lacked immunity to. The weapons that the Spanish were far superior to the Tainos. An estimated fifty thousand Tainos perished within two years of Columbus landing. The Spanish jammed more then five hundred Taino prisoners into a boat for Spain. They became homeless in their own land. They were devastated by abuse, starvation, and disease. Life was never the same for Indians of the Americas after 1492. Puerto Rico, an Island once occupied by Tainos were almost wiped out within two decades.
With the arrival of Columbus begin the onslaught of genocide in the Americas that Europeans only whisper about. The legacy of Columbus has kept Native Americans at the very bottom of the socio-economic ladder. Population surveys of the Americas estimates that at the time Columbus stumbled onto the Americas 100 million people inhabited it, a count far greater then that of all Europe in those times. More then 10 million resided in the United States, today less then a million remain in the United States. Many tribes have long become decimated and extinct.
The myth that continues to be propagated is that Native Americans were savages and the civilization brought by Europeans saved them. Reality is that the foods, medicines and political structures of Native Nations in the Americas not only saved Europeans from constant famine in Europe but also taught them much about freedom and democracy, later adopted by the forefathers of Euro Americans. The model of Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee, also known as the League of Peace and Power) enabled the United States to form in part its constitution which, thanks to President Bush's Patriot Act, is well on the road to become myth. Today, the myth of democracy, has become a perverted tool to dominate, subjugate and colonize other countries around the world such as Iraq and Palestine.
The United States held their first celebration of the "discovery of America" in New York, on October 12, 1792. At that time the only statue of Columbus in existence was in New York. In 1876, Italian Americans of Philadelphia erected a statue of Columbus in Fairmount Park. In 1905 Italian Americans in Denver, Colorado were the first to observe Columbus Day. It was not until September 1934 that President Franklin D. Roosevelt made it national holiday. Finally, Columbus Day became a federal legal holiday in 1971 after lobbying from the National Columbus Day Committee. Columbus Day or "El Dia de la Raza" has brought a wave of dissent across the United States and Canada by many Native Americans who feel that it perpetuates a myth that breeds bias and racism toward them.
Since 1970 Native Americans have gathered to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving in remembrance of the genocide of millions of Native Peoples, theft of Native lands and the relentless assault on Native cultures since Columbus open the flood gates to European invasions of the Americas. It is curious that Columbus Day is, except for religious holidays, the only historical event which all Pan-American countries celebrate.
Since 1989 the Colorado AIM chapter has lead a protest against the Columbus Day Parade in Denver declaring, "As the original people of this land, we cannot and will not, tolerate social and political festivities that celebrate our genocide. We are committed to the active, open and public rejection of disrespect and racism in its various forms---including Columbus Day and Columbus Day Parades." For these last 17 years they have tried to educate the general public about their feelings for Columbus Day; they have protested, blockaded and gone to jail for their efforts to stop this parade of indoctrinated myth keepers.
The issue of Columbus and Columbus Day is not easily resolvable in a society spoon feed on its propaganda of myths and historical lies that propagate the idea that Europeans were a superior race of two legged homo sapiens that came to save the Indians from their barbaric ways. The Europeans who came and settled invented and schooled the myth that they had created the New World by their imaged "discovery, " just as they had come to create the creation myth of its origins known as the "Bearing Strait Theory." Native Americans just had to have come from somewhere, but not the western hemisphere.
What good does Columbus Day contribute by celebrating racist propaganda and myths that perpetuate genocide in institutions of education. Nazi Germany is perfect example of where such false, racist and opportunistic ideas lead. The most popularly believed myth of scholars is that native Americans were Jews. Louis Hennepin, in his New Discovery of a Vast Country in America wrote, "These savages originally sprung from the Jews," because they lived "in a form of tents, like as did Jews" and they are "subtle and crafty as Jews."
The first thought that crept to mind was that the encounter with the statue of Columbus must represent some sort of warning and I had better watch my step. Sure enough in 1996 I was teased back to Barcelona, Spain where I began a new life out of the reach of the FBI and the emergence of fascist rumblings in the States.
Europe too, I felt, had a historical debt and there was social need to transmit that Indian cultures had not been completely destroyed. We still existed despite 500 years of genocide and so I founded an AIM museum to bring awareness of it to Europeans so that they would not forget.
Robert Robideau - Co Director Leonard Peltier Defense Committee.

Article by Mike Tishio, Standard Journal, Lewisburg Pennsylvania

To: Leonard Peltier Supporters

From: Leonard Peltier Defense Committee

Subject: Article by Mike Tishio, Standard Journal, Lewisburg Pennsylvania

by Mike Tischio
Staff writer

LEWISBURG - Leonard Peltier, 62, a Native American activist, is incarcerated at the U.S. Penitentiary in Lewisburg serving two consecutive life sentences for murder. Two FBI agents, Ronald A. Williams and Jack R. Coler died in a shoot-out, and three men were tried, with Peltier being the only one convicted.

On Saturday at the Lewisburg Hotel, Peltier attorneys and defense team sat down with several guests to detail their side of the story. CO-Director of the defense team, Robert Robideau, spoke about what he termed an "FBI conspiracy" and an ongoing strategy to keep Peltier imprisoned forever. Robideau never said Peltier didn't shoot anyone, but he did say that the FBI's version of the events that day is a lie. Robideau's proof - he was there.
In 1975, on the Pine Ridge Reservation, Peltier was one of a group of Native Americans, and American Indian Movement (AIM) members at the Jumping Bull Ranch within the reservation. Following the incident Peltier, Robideau and Darelle "Dino" Butler were all tried for the killing of the FBI agents. Robideau and Butler were tried in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and found not-guilty
by a federal jury.

Peltier, who fled to Canada, was extradited but arrived too late to be tried with Butler and Robideau. A United State District Court in Fargo, North Dakota found Peltier guilty of the murders of Williams and Coler. Robideau and the Peltier defense team contend that from the extradition on through Peltier's trial and all his appeals, the FBI manipulated the trial location,
withheld evidence and badgered witnesses into giving false testimony.

Barry Bachrach, attorney for Peltier along with Michael Kuzma, said the plot against Peltier was summed up by a parole officer at a hearing in 1995. Bachrach claimed the parole board member said that "someone has to be responsible for the (FBI) deaths, and you've been held liable." Bachrach and Kuzma added that to date, no solid evidence has ever directly connected
Peltier to either death.

Robideau spoke of an agency, the FBI, that regularly abused its power and authority all the while trampling the rights of U.S. citizens, who happened to be members of various dissident groups. "No one should be in prison for Williams or Coler's deaths," said Robideau. "It was like a war zone that day; many FBI, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and local police officers were
shooting at the people in the ranch, and they shot back."

Kuzma pointed out that both the 8th and 10th Circuit Court of Appeals found problems with the government's case against Peltier. "There is much evidence in this record of improper conduct on the part of some FBI agents," from a ruling by the 8th Circuit Court in 1986. "Much of the governments behavior at the Pine Ridge Reservation and in its prosecution of Mr. Peltier is to be condemned. The government withheld evidence. It intimidated witnesses. These facts are not disputed," from a ruling by the 10th Circuit Court in 2003.

Despite it all, Peltier remains in prison. As it stands now, two additional suits against the FBI are being filed on behalf of Peltier, according to Kuzma. They will be argued this December. Peltier's defense is continuing to push for files on the case to be released. "They have withheld over 140,000 files over the years, and now the government claims that to release the remaining evidence would put our country at risk from trans-national terrorists," said Kuzma.
If the case gets to trial in December, the U.S. Penitentiary at Lewisburg, as well as the entire community could get national attention from an incident that occurred about 2,000 miles to the west, and over thirty years ago.
Mike Tischio
Standard Journal/ Lewisburg Pennsylvania

Activists Around Country Fast As Leonard Peltier Endures His 30th Year in
Prison

For immediate release: October 2, 2006

For more information: Ted Glick, 973-338-5398, Toni Zeidan,
LPDC-915-533-6655

The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee in collaboration with the Peoples Fast for Justice announced today that people from around the country are and will be fasting for Leonard's freedom and for an end to the celebration of Oct 12th as Columbus Day. The fast began on October 1st and will go until October 12th.

These 12 day fasts in October have been happening since 1992. Some of those participating in this year's fast have been part of it each year since 1992.

Toni Zeidan,Co-Director of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, explained that, "When we deprive our bodies of food we do not just carry out an action of solidarity with Leonard Peltier, deprived of freedom, but we also elevate our spirits, unify our minds and bodies, and strengthen our prayers."

In 1976 Peltier was unjustly convicted before an all-white jury in North Dakota of the killing of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation on June 26, 1975. On October 15, 1985 the government admitted in open court that they did not have proof of who killed their agents. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has since said that "the prosecution of Mr.Peltier is to be
condemned; they [the prosecution] withheld evidence and coerced testimony.
These facts are undisputed."

Participants in the fast include: Tanya Aghazarian, Napa, Ca., Suskol Inter-Tribal Council; Adrienne Maree Brown, Ruckus Society; Rainbow Casey, Desert Hot Spring, Ca.; Ted Glick, Bloomfield, N.J., Peoples Fast for Justice; Mimi Goodwin, Sitka, Alaska; Lisa Jones, Port Orange, Fl.; Esperanza Martell, N.Y., N.Y., Iglesia San Romero de las Americas; Onaje Muid, Englewood, N.J., Peoples Organization for Progress; Michael Novick, Los Angeles, Ca., Anti-Racist Action; Native American Indian Center,Columbus, Oh.; Elizabeth Shanklin, Bronx, N.Y.; Patricia "Tuffy" St. Peter, California; Mark Stansbery, Columbus, Oh.; Diane Thomas, Bay Area, Ca.; Jennifer Tippetts, Columbia, Md.; Vanessa Tricoche, Brooklyn, N.Y.; Toni Zeidan, Co-Director, Leonard Pelter Defense Committee. Organizations are listed for identification purposes.

For additional information contact the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee at
info@leonardpeltier.net

or Peoples Fast for Justice at indpol@igc.org.

In Solidarity,

Leonard Peltier Defense Committee