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any one. There's a really good book that, iirc, came out in the 80s, In The Spirit of Crazy Horuse by Peter Mattiessen. It was banned in this country for a while, if you can believe that. We passed around copies until they were falling apart. In the Spirit of Crazy Peter Matthiessen 1991 Viking Penguin This book that was banned from the US for eight years and covers the events leading up to the 1975 violence at Wounded Knee, the shoot-out, Leonard Peltier's extradition, the Supreme Court case, and his subsequent conviction. Matthiessen focuses on the injustice inflicted on Peltier and argues that he deserves a new and just trial. His book which covers the "most protracted and bitterly fought legal cases in publishing history" was banned from the US for eight years. ISBN
http://serc.carleton.edu/resources/17169.html
Robert Redford also went to bat for Leonard when it was feared that he would be killed in prison. Redford describes the situation in this video at about 38:30.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/25/sundance_founder_robert_redford_on_his
Transcript for people who can't do video:
AMY GOODMAN: Issues that you take on that other people don’t, for example, speaking up for Native Americans. You narrated the Incident at Oglala about Leonard Peltier. Why did you choose to do that?
ROBERT REDFORD: Again, it was the story beneath the story that was out there. I felt that what his case—because I was already very much involved and interested in Native American rights and issues, I had made some documentaries about it through the ‘70s. And I got a call from Peter Matthiessen, the writer, who was wanting to write a book about Leonard. This was back in 1980, and Leonard had just been sent to Marion prison in Marion, Illinois, high-security prison. He contacted me, and we talked about it.
And I knew a little bit about his story on Pine Ridge and that he was being abused by the law, he wasn’t getting a fair trial, and that they had lured him across from Canada. He had been a fugitive, and they had lured him across from Canada on the pretense that he would be treated fairly, and he wasn’t. Once he crossed the border, they nailed him and put him in jail, because the other two had gotten off by poor lawyering.
And so, Peter was going to be writing this book, and he said, “Look, maybe you can help.” He said, “The guy is in Marion prison, and there’s a rumor floating around that they’re going to take him out and kill him.” And he said, “Maybe if you went in there,” because I just finished a film about a warden, called Brubaker, and that was just out in the cinemas and getting a lot of attention, so he said, “Maybe if you went there.” So I did.
And when I went there, I met a lot of political activists that were trying to help Leonard. And we met in a hotel room, and they were very secretive and all that, and they said, “We know we’re being followed or bugged.” And I said, “Well, what can we do?” And they said, “Well, if you could just go in there, and it be known that you’re going in, that maybe you could see him. And maybe just your appearance would keep something from happening.” Now, I didn’t know whether that was going to be true or not, but I was certainly willing to do that. So I went in and met the warden, and it was a big deal, you know, me coming into the prison and so forth.
So they took me down into—through these layers of cellblocks into the deepest security. And the honor at that time was I was the first person allowed to see Leonard live, without a glass in front of us. And I spent forty-five minutes with him. That was all. And I was convinced after that forty-five minutes that he was getting maltreated and that it was not fit—that he was—what I was seeing was a misapplication of justice and that there was a double standard in the law and that he was being victimized. It was going to be an eye for an eye, as far as the FBI was concerned, because they had blown the case with the other two, so somebody’s going to pay. And they didn’t have the evidence, but they were going to make him pay anyway.
So that led to a long, long time of trying to help him. And then, finally—and I had lobbied in DC, and, you know, I don’t know if that does any good, and particularly these days, but I decided a film might be the better way to go, and if a documentary could be made about the injustice of his case, maybe that would help.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s play a clip.
LEONARD PELTIER: You are, and have always been, prejudiced against me and any Native Americans who have stood before you. You have openly favored the government all through this trial, and you are happy to do whatever the FBI would want you to do in this case. You’re about to perform an act which will close one more chapter in the history of the failure of the United States courts and the failure of the people of the United States to do justice in the case of a Native American. After centuries of murder, could I have been wise in thinking that you would break that tradition and commit an act of justice?
ROBERT REDFORD: In 1977, Leonard Peltier was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in federal prison. |
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