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[Nonviolenza] Non muoia in carcere Leonard Peltier. 114
- Subject: [Nonviolenza] Non muoia in carcere Leonard Peltier. 114
- From: Centro di ricerca per la pace Centro di ricerca per la pace <centropacevt at gmail.com>
- Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2024 10:34:08 +0100
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NON MUOIA IN CARCERE LEONARD PELTIER
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Foglio a sostegno dell'appello a scrivere al Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America affinche' conceda la grazia che restituisca la liberta' a Leonard Peltier
A cura del "Centro di ricerca per la pace, i diritti umani e la difesa della biosfera" di Viterbo
Supplemento a "La nonviolenza e' in cammino" (anno XXV)
Direttore responsabile: Peppe Sini. Redazione: strada S. Barbara 9/E, 01100 Viterbo, e-mail: centropacevt at gmail.com
Numero 114 del 4 dicembre 2024
Sommario di questo numero:
1. Una lettera ai mezzi d'informazione: dieci buone ragioni per concedere la grazia a Leonard Peltier
2. Che fare adesso per la liberazione di Leonard Peltier
3. Michele Bollinger: Leonard Peltier and the Indian struggle for Freedom (2009) (parte seconda e conclusiva)
1. INIZIATIVE. UNA LETTERA AI MEZZI D'INFORMAZIONE: DIECI BUONE RAGIONI PER CONCEDERE LA GRAZIA A LEONARD PELTIER
Vi inviamo la seguente lettera che alcune persone amiche della nonviolenza hanno inviato dall'Italia al Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America Joe Biden.
Vi saremmo assai grati se voleste dare ad essa ulteriore diffusione.
*
Egregio Presidente,
mancano meno di due mesi al termine del suo mandato presidenziale.
In queste settimane lei decidera', come e' consuetudine, di concedere la grazia ad alcuni detenuti.
Le scriviamo per chiederle di concedere la grazia a Leonard Peltier e ci permetta di elencarle alcune buone ragioni a sostegno di questo suo atto non solo di umanita', ma di verita' e di giustizia.
1. Leonard Peltier ha ottanta anni ed e' in prigione da 48 anni per un delitto che non ha commesso: non ha mai ucciso nessuno, ed anzi si e' sempre adoperato in difesa della vita delle persone, dei popoli, della natura.
2. Leonard Peltier ha subito un processo viziato da "testimonianze" dimostratesi false e da "prove" dimostratesi anch'esse false; autorevoli magistrati e numerose personalita' delle istituzioni del suo paese hanno riconosciuto che la sua condanna e' stata ingiusta, frutto di una persecuzione, palesemente contraria al diritto.
3. Leonard Peltier e' un uomo anziano gravemente malato: che possa tornare alla sua famiglia in questo poco tempo che gli resta da vivere.
4. La liberazione di Leonard Peltier e' stata chiesta da personalita' benemerite dell'umanita' come Nelson Mandela e madre Teresa di Calcutta.
5. La liberazione di Leonard Peltier e' stata chiesta da alcune delle maggiori autorita' morali e religiose mondiali: come il Dalai Lama e papa Francesco.
6. La liberazione di Leonard Peltier e' stata chiesta da prestigiose associazioni umanitarie, come Amnesty International e il Movimento Nonviolento.
7. La liberazione di Leonard Peltier e' stata chiesta dal Parlamento Europeo, dall'Onu (una cui commissione ad hoc ha ricostruito l'intera vicenda giudiziaria concludendo che debba essere liberato), e da innumerevoli altre istituzioni democratiche di tutto il mondo.
8. La liberazione di Leonard Peltier e' stata chiesta da innumerevoli istituzioni, associazioni e movimenti rappresentativi dei popoli nativi, dediti alla protezione dei diritti umani, impegnati in difesa della Madre Terra.
9. La liberazione di Leonard Peltier e' stata chiesta da milioni di persone di tutto il mondo.
10. Last, but not least, la liberazione di Leonard Peltier e' stata chiesta all'unanimita' anche dal Comitato Nazionale del Partito Democratico degli Stati Uniti d'America, il partito di cui anche lei fa parte, ed anzi e' il piu' autorevole rappresentante.
Egregio Presidente,
siamo consapevoli che lei non puo' leggere tutta la corrispondenza che le perviene, e tuttavia sentiamo il dovere di scriverle per sollecitare la sua attenzione, il suo giudizio, la sua umanita'.
Restituisca la liberta' a Leonard Peltier.
*
Alleghiamo in calce:
- Allegato primo. Per scrivere al Presidente Biden;
- Allegato secondo. Per saperne un po' di piu' su Leonard Peltier, da 48 anni prigioniero innocente;
- Allegato terzo. Alcuni ulteriori contatti utili per informazioni dirette sulle iniziative attualmente in corso in Italia e in Europa per Leonard Peltier.
Il "Centro di ricerca per la pace, i diritti umani e la difesa della biosfera" di Viterbo
Viterbo, 24 novembre 2024
Mittente: "Centro di ricerca per la pace, i diritti umani e la difesa della biosfera" di Viterbo, strada S. Barbara 9/E, 01100 Viterbo, e-mail: centropacevt at gmail.com
Il "Centro di ricerca per la pace, i diritti umani e la difesa della biosfera" di Viterbo e' una struttura nonviolenta attiva dagli anni '70 del secolo scorso che ha sostenuto, promosso e coordinato varie campagne per il bene comune, locali, nazionali ed internazionali. E' la struttura nonviolenta che negli anni Ottanta ha coordinato per l'Italia la piu' ampia campagna di solidarieta' con Nelson Mandela, allora detenuto nelle prigioni del regime razzista sudafricano. Nel 1987 ha promosso il primo convegno nazionale di studi dedicato a Primo Levi. Dal 2000 pubblica il notiziario telematico quotidiano "La nonviolenza e' in cammino". Dal 2021 e' particolarmente impegnato nella campagna per la liberazione di Leonard Peltier, l'illustre attivista nativo americano difensore dei diritti umani di tutti gli esseri umani e dell'intero mondo vivente, da 48 anni prigioniero innocente.
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Allegato primo. Per scrivere al Presidente Biden
Per scrivere al Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America e' sufficiente collegarsi al sito della Casa Bianca alla pagina web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Compilare quindi gli item successivi:
- alla voce MESSAGE TYPE: scegliere Contact the President
- alla voce PREFIX: scegliere il titolo corrispondente alla propria identita'
- alla voce FIRST NAME: scrivere il proprio nome
- alla voce SECOND NAME: si puo' omettere la compilazione
- alla voce LAST NAME: scrivere il proprio cognome
- alla voce SUFFIX, PRONOUNS: si puo' omettere la compilazione
- alla voce E-MAIL: scrivere il proprio indirizzo e-mail
- alla voce PHONE: scrivere il proprio numero di telefono seguendo lo schema 39xxxxxxxxxx
- alla voce COUNTRY/STATE/REGION: scegliere Italy
- alla voce STREET: scrivere il proprio indirizzo nella sequenza numero civico, via/piazza
- alla voce CITY: scrivere il nome della propria citta' e il relativo codice di avviamento postale
- alla voce WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SAY? [Cosa vorresti dire?]: scrivere un breve testo (di seguito una traccia utilizzabile):
"Egregio Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America,
le scriviamo per chiederle di concedere la grazia presidenziale a Leonard Peltier.
Come lei sa, Leonard Peltier ha gia' subito 48 anni di carcere per un delitto che non ha commesso.
E' vecchio, e' gravemente malato, le sue patologie non possono essere adeguatamente curate in carcere.
La sua liberazione e' stata chiesta da Nelson Mandela, da madre Teresa di Calcutta, dal Dalai Lama, da papa Francesco, da Amnesty International, dal Parlamento Europeo, dall'Onu, da milioni di persone di tutto il mondo.
Egregio Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America,
conceda la grazia a Leonard Peltier.
Restituisca la liberta' a Leonard Peltier.
Distinti saluti".
* * *
Allegato secondo. Per saperne un po' di piu' su Leonard Peltier, da 48 anni prigioniero innocente
Leonard Peltier e' un illustre attivista nativo americano difensore dei diritti umani di tutti gli esseri umani e dell'intero mondo vivente, da 48 anni prigioniero innocente.
Segnaliamo alcuni materiali di documentazione in lingua italiana disponibili nella rete telematica:
https://sites.google.com/view/viterboperleonardpeltier/home-page
https://sites.google.com/view/vetralla-per-peltier-2021/home-page
https://sites.google.com/view/vetrallaperpeltier2022/home-page
https://sites.google.com/view/vetrallaperleonardpeltier2023/home-page
https://sites.google.com/view/vetralla-per-peltier-2024/home-page
Segnaliamo anche alcune pubblicazioni a stampa in italiano e in inglese particolarmente utili:
- Edda Scozza, Il coraggio d'essere indiano. Leonard Peltier prigioniero degli Stati Uniti, Erre Emme, Pomezia (Roma) 1996 (ora Roberto Massari Editore, Bolsena Vt).
- Peter Matthiessen, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, 1980, Penguin Books, New York 1992 e successive ristampe; in edizione italiana: Peter Matthiessen, Nello spirito di Cavallo Pazzo, Frassinelli, Milano 1994.
- Leonard Peltier (con la collaborazione di Harvey Arden), Prison writings. My life is my sun dance, St. Martin's Griffin, New York 1999; in edizione italiana: Leonard Peltier, La mia danza del sole. Scritti dalla prigione, Fazi, Roma 2005.
- Jim Messerschmidt, The Trial of Leonard Peltier, South End Press, Cambridge, MA, 1983, 1989, 2002.
- Bruce E. Johansen, Encyclopedia of the American Indian Movement, Greenwood, Santa Barbara - Denver - Oxford, 2013 e piu' volte ristampata.
Segnaliamo inoltre che nella rete telematica e' disponibile una notizia sintetica in italiano dal titolo "Alcune parole per Leonard Peltier":
https://lists.peacelink.it/nonviolenza/2022/03/msg00001.html
Sempre nella rete telematica e' disponibile anche una piu' ampia ed approfondita bibliografia ragionata dal titolo "Dieci libri piu' uno che sarebbe bene aver letto per conoscere la vicenda di Leonard Peltier (e qualche altro minimo suggerimento bibliografico)":
https://lists.peacelink.it/nonviolenza/2022/09/msg00064.html
Ancora nella rete telematica segnaliamo una lettera "ad adiuvandum" alla "United States Parole Commission" del 22 giugno 2024:
https://lists.peacelink.it/nonviolenza/2024/06/msg00055.html
Segnaliamo anche che in queste settimane il "Centro di ricerca per la pace, i diritti umani e la difesa della biosfera" di Viterbo pubblica un notiziario telematico quotidiano con la testata "Non muoia in carcere Leonard Peltier" che propone iniziative e materiali.
Segnaliamo infine l'attuale sito ufficiale del Comitato di solidarieta' con Leonard Peltier, il "Free Leonard Peltier Ad Hoc Committee": www.freeleonardpeltiernow.org
* * *
Allegato terzo. Alcuni ulteriori contatti utili per informazioni dirette sulle iniziative attualmente in corso in Italia e in Europa per Leonard Peltier
Per informazioni sulle principali iniziative italiane contattare Andrea De Lotto, tel. 3490931155, e-mail: bigoni.gastone at gmail.com
Vi e' anche un gruppo su facebook: Free Leonard Peltier Italy: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1051622359691101
Un sito che fornisce preziose informazioni aggiornate sulle iniziative in Europa (in tedesco e in inglese) e' www.leonardpeltier.de
Un riferimento fondamentale in Italia e' anche l'ottima rivista "Tepee" e la storica associazione Soconas-Incomindios: per contatti scrivere o telefonare alla professoressa Naila Clerici: cell. 3478207381, e-mail: naila.clerici at soconasincomindios.it, facebook: facebook.com/pages/Soconas-Incomindios/, youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1jno1fq2G_HnMd50IG0hww
Ricordiamo infine ancora una volta che il sito ufficiale (in inglese) del Comitato di solidarieta' con Leonard Peltier, il "Free Leonard Peltier Ad Hoc Committee", e' www.freeleonardpeltiernow.org
2. REPETITA IUVANT. CHE FARE ADESSO PER LA LIBERAZIONE DI LEONARD PELTIER
Come e' noto, la "United States Parole Commission" ha negato la "liberta' sulla parola" a Leonard Peltier, ed ha fissato la prossima udienza al 2026. Gli avvocati di Leonard Peltier hanno gia' annunciato che ovviamente interporranno appello avverso questa decisione.
Come e' noto Leonard Peltier, l'illustre attivista nativo americano difensore dei diritti umani di tutti gli esseri umani e dell'intero mondo vivente, e' detenuto da 48 anni in un carcere di massima sicurezza per un delitto che non ha commesso; la sua condanna si baso' su "testimonianze" false e su "prove" altrettanto false. E' anziano (ha quasi 80 anni) e gravemente malato, e le sue plurime patologie non possono essere curate adeguatamente in regime carcerario. Numerosissime personalita' benemerite dell'umanita', associazioni benefiche come Amnesty International, istituzioni democratiche di tutto il mondo - in primis l'Onu e il Parlamento Europeo - chiedono la sua liberazione.
*
Che fare?
Occorre perseverare lungo tutte e tre le vie che possono portare alla liberazione di Leonard Peltier:
1. la richiesta al Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America di concedere la "grazia presidenziale";
2. la richiesta al Procuratore Generale degli Stati Uniti d'America di concedere il "rilascio compassionevole";
3. la richiesta alla "United States Parole Commission" di concedere la "liberta' sulla parola".
*
Alcune indicazioni pratiche
a) Per scrivere al Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America:
aprire la pagina ad hoc nel sito: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ e seguire le indicazioni li' contenute.
Proposta di testo:
Egregio Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America,
e' consuetudine che avvicinandosi il termine del mandato quadriennale il Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America conceda la grazia ad alcuni detenuti.
La preghiamo di voler concedere la grazia al signor Leonard Peltier, detenuto da quasi mezzo secolo, ormai quasi ottantenne, affetto da gravissime patologie che non possono essere curate in regime carcerario, la cui liberazione e' stata richiesta da personalita' illustri come Nelson Mandela, madre Teresa di Calcutta, il Dalai Lama, papa Francesco e da istituzioni come l'Onu e il Parlamento Europeo.
Voglia gradire distinti saluti.
b) Per scrivere al Procuratore Generale degli Stati Uniti d'America:
aprire la pagina ad hoc nel sito: https://www.justice.gov/doj/webform/your-message-department-justice e seguire le indicazioni li' contenute.
Proposta di testo:
Egregio Procuratore Generale degli Stati Uniti d'America,
la preghiamo di voler concedere il "rilascio compassionevole" ("compassionate release") al signor Leonard Peltier, detenuto da quasi mezzo secolo, ormai quasi ottantenne, affetto da gravissime patologie che non possono essere curate in regime carcerario, la cui liberazione e' stata richiesta da personalita' illustri come Nelson Mandela, madre Teresa di Calcutta, il Dalai Lama, papa Francesco e da istituzioni come l'Onu e il Parlamento Europeo.
Voglia gradire distinti saluti.
c) Per scrivere alla "United States Parole Commission":
usare l'indirizzo e-mail: USParole.questions at usdoj.gov
Proposta di testo:
Egregie signore ed egregi signori della "United States Parole Commission",
pur consapevoli della vostra recente decisione, ci permettiamo di sollecitare ulteriormente una tempestiva riconsiderazione della situazione del signor Leonard Peltier, detenuto da quasi mezzo secolo, ormai quasi ottantenne, affetto da gravissime patologie che non possono essere curate in regime carcerario, la cui liberazione e' stata richiesta da personalita' illustri come Nelson Mandela, madre Teresa di Calcutta, il Dalai Lama, papa Francesco e da istituzioni come l'Onu e il Parlamento Europeo.
Vogliate gradire distinti saluti.
*
d) Per informare gli avvocati che assistono Leonard Peltier:
usare gli indirizzi e-mail: ksharp at sanfordheisler.com, jenipherj at forthepeoplelegal.com
Proposta di testo:
Egregia avvocata, egregio avvocato,
vi informiamo che abbiamo scritto al Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America, al Procuratore Generale degli Stati Uniti d'America, alla "United States Parole Commission", le lettere il cui testo alleghiamo.
Vogliate gradire distinti saluti.
*
Tre consigli a chi vuole esprimere e promuovere la solidarieta'
I. La prima forma di solidarieta' e' la conoscenza
- occorre studiare adeguatamente tanto i fatti quanto il contesto;
- occorre far circolare l'informazione, avendo cura che sia un'informazione precisa ed incontrovertibile;
- occorre promuovere altre adesioni all'impegno, avendo cura che ci si attenga scrupolosamente al fine della liberazione di Leonard Peltier e che la metodologia sia rigorosamente nonviolenta;
- soprattutto: occorre far sentire la propria voce direttamente alle istanze istituzionali concretamente preposte alla decisione sulla liberazione di Leonard Peltier; e farla sentire in modo adeguato: ovvero comprensibile e persuasivo. Non serve, ed e' anzi dannosa, la retorica d'accatto, ignorante e stereotipata, che ovviamente non convince nessuno.
E' semplicemente indispensabile la lettura di tutti i seguenti testi:
- Ward Churchill e Jim Vander Wall, Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement, South End Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1988, 2002, Black Classic Press, Baltimore 2022.
- Ward Churchill e Jim Vander Wall, The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States, South End Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1990, 2002, Black Classic Press, Baltimore 2022.
- Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, Beacon Press, Boston 2014.
- Steve Hendricks, The Unquiet Grave: The FBI and the Struggle for the Soul of Indian Country, Thunder's Mouth Press, New York 2006.
- Bruce E. Johansen, Encyclopedia of the American Indian Movement, Greenwood, Santa Barbara - Denver - Oxford, 2013 e piu' volte ristampata.
- Peter Matthiessen, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, 1980, Penguin Books, New York 1992 e successive ristampe.
- Jim Messerschmidt, The Trial of Leonard Peltier, South End Press, Cambridge, MA, 1983, 1989, 2002.
- Leonard Peltier (con la collaborazione di Harvey Arden), Prison Writings: My Life is my Sun Dance, St. Martin's Griffin, New York 1999.
- Michael E. Tigar, Wade H. McCree, Leonard Peltier, Petitioner, v. United States. U.S. Supreme Court transcript of record with supporting pleading, Gale MOML U.S. Supreme Court Records, 1978 e successive ristampe.
- Joseph H. Trimbach e John M. Trimbach, American Indian Mafia: An FBI Agent's True Story About Wounded Knee, Leonard Peltier, and the American Indian Movement (AIM), Outskirts Press, Denver 2009.
II. La prima forma di azione nonviolenta e' la parresia
- occorre prendere la parola e dire la verita' contrastando la violenza del potere;
- occorre prendere la parola e dire la verita' alle istituzioni per ottenere il rispetto del diritto e della morale;
- occorre prendere la parola e dire la verita' come atto politico che invera l'esercizio della democrazia.
Leonard Peltier e' innocente. Leonard Peltier e' in pericolo di morte. Leonard Peltier deve essere liberato.
Nella vicenda di Leonard Peltier si compendia e si testimonia la condizione imposta dalla violenza etnocida, genocida ed ecocida del potere colonialista, imperialista e razzista a tutti i popoli oppressi, all'umanita' intera e all'intero mondo vivente.
La liberazione di Leonard Peltier significa quindi riconoscere il diritto alla vita non solo di ogni persona innocente e di ogni popolo oppresso, ma di tutti gli esseri umani in quanto tali, dell'umanita' intera, di tutti gli esseri viventi e dell'intero mondo vivente.
III. Il tempo e' poco, agire ora
La vecchiaia e le patologie di Leonard Peltier rendono urgente l'impegno per la sua liberazione.
Occorre scrivere ora ai soggetti istituzionali che hanno il potere di restituirgli la liberta'.
Occorre promuovere ora ogni iniziativa nonviolenta adeguata a far crescere l'impegno per la sua liberazione.
Occorre attivare i mezzi d'informazione per ottenere ora la massima attenzione possibile dell'opinione pubblica.
*
Free Leonard Peltier.
Non muoia in prigione un uomo innocente.
Mitakuye Oyasin.
Il "Centro di ricerca per la pace, i diritti umani e la difesa della biosfera" di Viterbo
Viterbo, 7 luglio 2024
3. DOCUMENTAZIONE. MICHELE BOLLINGER: LEONARD PELTER AND THE INDIAN STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM (2009) (PARTE SECONDA E CONCLUSIVA)
[Dal sito della "International Socialist Review" riprendiamo il seguente articolo basato su una relazione tenuta il 20 giugno 2009]
Wounded Knee
Dick Wilson, a former bootlegger, was elected Oglala Sioux tribal council president in 1972. Wilson was deeply unpopular because of his mistreatment of the elderly and traditional people on the reservation, his undemocratic methods, and the rampant nepotism and corruption that infested his administration. He was infamous for embezzling Housing and Urban Development money and misusing funds, and for neglecting everything else on the reservation. Wilson used federal funds to start what some have called a paramilitary, and what became a virtual death squad. The cocky, crew-cutted Wilson only named his armed gang Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOON) after angry Pine Ridge residents had been calling them the "goon squad" for awhile.
The GOONs went after anyone who spoke out against Wilson, using violence, harassment, and intimidation to uphold his dictatorship. At first, resistance to Wilson was organized through the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO) which organized impeachment petitions (one of which had more signatures on it than the number of people who had voted for him) and filed for impeachment hearings multiple times, mobilizing hundreds of people for those hearings. These became a farce, however, when Wilson decided to preside over them himself.
It was at this point that a meeting of 200 members of the OSCRO and traditional elders, including the traditionalist chief Frank Fools Crow, decided to invite AIM to help them in their struggle. The speeches of women such as Ellen Moves Camp and Gladys Bissonette were decisive in the meeting. After delivering a speech in Lakota, she turned to the AIM leaders present at the meeting and appealed to them to bring their members to Pine Ridge. "For many years we have not fought any kind of war," she said, "and we have forgotten how to fight." AIM knew what they were getting into; there had been countless threats issued by Wilson in press releases that they were going to shoot and kill AIM members who came to Pine Ridge.
It was the decision at this meeting that led to the stunning seventy-one-day occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973. On February 27, 1973, a caravan of about 300 armed Oglala Sioux and AIM activists entered the town of Wounded Knee and declared it liberated territory. They took over the trading post, the church, blocked all the roads, and took several white hostages. The leading participants included Leonard Crow Dog, Carter Camp, Madonna Thunder Hawk, Russell Means, and Dennis Banks. "This was a rebirth of our dignity and our self pride," Russell Means said of the occupation. Dennis Banks said, "The message that went out is that a band of Indians could take on the U.S. government. Tecumseh had his day, Geronimo, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse. We had ours." Their demands were simple and included a call to investigate corruption in the reservation tribal government, and a demand that Congress hold hearings on broken treaties.
The response by the U.S. government was overwhelming: within hours, 200 FBI agents, federal marshals, and BIA police surrounded and blockaded the town, using two armored personnel carriers and a couple of fighter jets in their operation - later to be augmented by fifteen more armored personnel carriers, authorized by the U.S. Army. U.S. military personnel, disguising their presence by wearing civilian clothes, played a central role in the siege. South Dakota's two Senators, George McGovern and James Abourezk, came to negotiate getting the hostages released, only to discover that the hostages, sympathetic to the Indians, were free to come and go as they pleased. One eighty-two-year-old hostage told reporters that they had decided to stay in order to protect AIM activists, whom he feared the troops would kill if the hostages left.
The government immediately rejected the occupiers' demands, sending in mid-level officials who delivered an ultimatum for them to leave. AIM burned it in front of a bunch of TV cameras. By this point Wounded Knee was on the nightly news, and polls showed that 90 percent of Americans followed it very closely. A delegation led by Leonard Fools Crow went to the United Nations. Marlon Brando, who had participated in one of the fish-ins in the Pacific Northwest, refused to accept his Oscar for best actor in The Godfather, sending Apache actress Sacheen Littlefeather to decline the Oscar on his behalf.
With the Watergate scandal in progress, the federal government didn't want to look any worse, especially on the same site as the 1890 massacre. On March 8 it pulled back the roadblocks and hoped the occupation would peter out. Instead, hundreds of supporters and a great deal of supplies poured in and the occupiers declared themselves the Independent Oglala Nation. Some of the local Sioux departed to be replaced by Indians from other nations, as well as by white leftists, veterans, Chicano activists, and a small number of Asian and Black participants. Several thousand people joined in the occupation, either for a day or for many more.
The blockade was reestablished on an even stronger footing and Wounded Knee came under severe attack. The occupation met with repression from the FBI and U.S. marshals, and from Dick Wilson and his GOONs, who were furious that the feds didn't unleash an all-out assault from the start. In fact, they shot at both camps to try to start firefight.
It didn't take long for the feds to catch up, though. As Former FBI Chief Joseph Trimbach bragged in the years that followed: "The director said, tell Trimbach he can have anything he wants! Which was pretty neat, because it was like having a blank check. I had agents go up to Rapid City and buy every rifle they could find." (Earlier this year, Trimbach and his son, who have made careers for themselves by vilifying AIM, made a very public showing of sending a letter to Obama smearing Peltier and his supporters.)
The military response was overwhelming. Half a million rounds were fired into Wounded Knee, including some from a .50-caliber machine gun that fired two-inch diameter shells; fighter jets loomed overhead; and armored personnel carriers roamed the perimeter. The government cut power and water and forced the media out at gunpoint. In spite of the horrible conditions - food shortages and a late winter storm - people held their ground.
The occupation received support from Native Americans across the country, and from other Indian nations who were inspired by their example. A delegation of chiefs from the Six Nations of the Iroquois confederacy arrived on March 19 to convey their support. A statement by the Grand Council of the Iroquois asked the U.S. government, "You are concerned for the destruction of property at the BIA building and at Wounded Knee. Where is your concern for the destruction of our people, for human lives?"
The U.S. government was worried that Wounded Knee would become an example others would follow. A high-ranking BIA official expressed alarm over his view that Wounded Knee had "crystallized a revolutionary movement in the United States." Federal forces escalated their tactics, attempting to destabilized the occupation from the inside and attack it also from the outside. Two men, Frank Clearwater and Buddy Lamont, a Vietnam veteran, were shot and killed during separate firefights in which federal agents poured thousands of rounds into Wounded Knee. Frank Clearwater had just arrived in Wounded Knee with his wife to offer their support. He was hit by a stray bullet that pierced the local church where he had been resting; Buddy Lamont, an Oglala Sioux and Vietnam veteran well-liked on Pine Ridge, was struck down by a sniper. His great grandparents had been with Crazy Horse at the Little Bighorn battle, and his grandmother was one of the few to survive the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre.
With no electricity, no water, dwindling food supplies, and then a devastating fire that burned down the trading post - together with the coordinated arrests of several AIM leaders who were touring the country raising support - the occupation had reached its point of exhaustion by the end of April. After seventy-one days, on May 8, AIM agreed - at Fools Crow's request - to end it. The militants were disarmed and 120 were arrested. The night before, scores of people snuck out and evaded arrest, leaving toy guns for the feds to find.
Gladys Bissonette, who had been in the occupation throughout, said on its last day:
This was one of the greatest things that every happened in my life. And although today is our last day here, I still feel like I'll always be here because this is part of my home... I hope that the Indians, at least throughout the Pine Ridge Reservation, unite and stand up together, hold hands, and never forget Wounded Knee. We didn't have anything here, we didn't have nothing to eat. But we had one thing - that was unity and friendship amongst 64 different tribes... I have never seen anything like this.
In the end, 1,200 people nationwide were arrested for Wounded Knee, and 500 traditionals were indicted. Almost all the defendants indicted for their direct involvement in the occupation were acquitted, and Leonard Crow Dog was the only one who served any prison time - a few months.
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Reign of terror
Leonard Peltier was not at Wounded Knee. But he would fall victim to its aftermath- as would hundreds of others.
The FBI launched an attack on AIM as part of its COINTELPRO program, which had begun in the mid-1960s under J. Edgar Hoover and was used to destroy the Black Panther Party - the murder of BPP leader Fred Hampton, among many - while Dick Wilson and the BIA established an extreme reign of terror on Pine Ridge.
"The FBI set out to eliminate 'radical' political opposition inside the U.S. When traditional modes of repression (exposure, blatant harassment, and prosecution for political crimes) failed to counter the growing insurgency," commented one journalist, "and even helped to fuel it, the Bureau took the law into its own hands and secretly used fraud and force to sabotage constitutionally-protected political activity."
The FBI employed many dirty tricks against its targets including wiretapping, assassination, "bad-jacketing" (spreading rumors that certain activists were informants in order to discredit them), and the use of agents provocateurs - all in coordination with state and local officials, police forces, and district attorneys. Future South Dakota governor Bill Janklow declared at the time: "The only way to deal with the Indian problem in South Dakota is to put a gun to the AIM leaders' heads and pull the trigger." Many compare those years on Pine Ridge to a paramilitary invasion.
Dick Wilson and his GOONs went on a rampage of beatings and assassinations of AIM members, supporters, and the traditionals on Pine Ridge. Within three years, at least sixty-nine AIM members and supporters were violently murdered on or near the Pine Ridge Reservation, while hundreds more were physically assaulted.
Write Bruce Johansen and Roberto Maestas, "Using only the documented political deaths, the yearly murder rate on Pine Ridge Reservation between March 1, 1973, and March 1, 1976, was 170 per 100,000. By comparison, Detroit, the reputed 'murder capital of the United States,' had a rate of 20.2 per 100,000 in 1974... In a nation of 200 million persons, a murder rate comparable with that of Pine Ridge between 1973 and 1976 would have left 340,000 persons dead for political reasons in one year; 1.32 million in three... The political murder rate at Pine Ridge between March 1, 1973 and March 1, 1976 was almost equivalent to that in Chile during the three years after a military coup supported by the United States deposed and killed President Salvador Allende."
Among the victims were Pedro Bissonette, Philip Black Elk, Priscilla White Plume, Byron DeSersa, and Anna Mae Aquash. Most of the cases have never been solved, or even pursued—because the FBI and the BIA have blood on their hands in every single one of them and any decent investigation would point back to them.
Anna Mae Aquash, who was murdered in February 1976, was bad-jacketed by the FBI before her death. A BIA doctor, who also failed to notice that she had been shot in the head, removed her hands in a possible attempt to conceal her identity. It remains unclear if she was murdered by GOONs, the FBI, or AIM members who were convinced by FBI rumors that she was an informant. Many on the reservation believed that she was targeted by the FBI in retaliation for the deaths of the two FBI agents for which Peltier was prosecuted. Two former AIM members were eventually prosecuted for her murder. But there is so much deliberate disinformation and confusion surrounding the case, it is likely that the full truth will never be known.
It was the FBI-and-GOON driven reign of terror that led to - some would say provoked - the Incident at Oglala. Amid this terror and fear, traditional leaders on Pine Ridge once again called on AIM for protection, especially for older traditional people. That is why Peltier and dozens of others were camping on the Jumping Bull property on that fateful day in June 1975.
"The FBI had more than 50 agents swarming over the Pine Ridge Reservation (prior to 1973 they only had 2 or 3 agents in the area, if that)," wrote Peltier. "Seems like the more FBIs we had around, the more murders we had."
AIM members across the country faced constant harassment and frame-ups that drained the organization's resources and, eventually, broke its leadership. There were AIM-led actions through the end of the 1970s; a core of activists protested the Robideau and Butler trials as well as Peltier's; there was a protest outside the FBI building in 1979. But the Peltier conviction in 1977 was a severe blow from which AIM never recovered.
What explains the virulence of the offensive against AIM? Economic motives were clearly at work. Around the time of the Wounded Knee occupation, Wilson signed over a portion of the reservation known to be rich in uranium and molybdenum to the U.S. Forest Service. Early 1970s government estimates of potential profits from uranium mining in the Black Hills was in the range of a half billion dollars.
But the rationale extends beyond narrow economic reasons. The U.S. government was striving to smash the left, to break the back of political struggle, and the influence of revolutionary politics in particular. Indian militancy emerged on the scene just as many other struggles in this era begin to reach a political impasse; many struggles did not regain their footing after 1972, which is when AIM was ascending.
AIM was incredibly popular and well connected with the main radical currents in U.S. society that were influenced by national liberation struggles around the world. Furthermore, AIM symbolized armed struggle and militancy against oppression. The government feared that AIM could be a key factor in reviving struggle - one reason they became so desperate to end the occupation at Wounded Knee was so that it ended before campuses let out for the summer.
By 1973, the ruling class in this country was actively engaged in the process of breaking the back of revolutionary struggles here and abroad. The U.S. backed Augusto Pinochet's coup in Chile that year, for example.
Violent repression and divisive COINTELPRO tactics broke up and demoralized AIM, while the general decline of other social movements in this period sealed its fate. AIM continued to organize through end of the 1970s and maintains a presence in some areas of the U.S. today, but never recovered from the reign of terror and Peltier's conviction in particular.
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What the movement won
Despite this severe repression and the short time frame for AIM's influence, the Native American struggles won a great deal.
AIM essentially fought against the annihilation of Indian culture - and won. Traditions like the sacred Sun Dance could have been lost forever. The movement dealt a huge blow to racism, and changed people's consciousness in ways that we still see today. American Indian studies programs have thrived on campuses and the history curriculum taught in schools, while still highly problematic, is fundamentally different than what it was forty years ago. It is now commonly accepted that genocide was committed against Native Americans. And while we still have sports teams that use Indian mascots and the U.S. certainly hasn't gotten rid of Columbus Day, these things are commonly met with ridicule, disdain, and opposition. When people hear that a predominantly Native American community college in Colorado named their basketball team the "Fighting Whiteys," many cheer.
Important material gains were won. The policy of termination was ended. Nearly a dozen new policies and programs - in education, financing, and health - were instituted. Mount Adams was returned to the Yakama Nation in Washington State, and 48,000 acres of the Sacred Blue Lake lands were returned to Taos Pueblo in New Mexico. The Pacific Northwest Indians eventually won the right to 50 percent of harvestable fish.
The reforms won in the 1960s and 1970s made a number of material improvements in people's lives. The percentage of families on the Pine Ridge Reservation living below the poverty line fell 10 percent by the end of the 1970s and per capita income went up 7 percent. In fact, poverty overall fell for Native Americans more so than any other group. Unfortunately, these changes didn't last. During the Reagan years the number of Indians living in poverty went up 23 percent.
Given the severity of the poverty on reservations today, a massive investment in Native American communities is beyond urgent. Native Americans live in unspeakably horrid conditions in many places, especially the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Reservations. A chilling - and telling - 2007 Al-Jazeera broadcast showed footage of two Lakota people pushing their gasless car down a desolate road—they were taking their TV to the pawn shop for cash so they could eat. "A day in the life of a Lakota" remarked one.
Reservation life is characterized by 80 percent unemployment and a median income of $2,600 to $3,500 a year. The life expectancy on Pine Ridge is the lowest in the Western Hemisphere outside of Haiti.
Major illnesses strike Native Americans more severely than many other groups—diabetes and tuberculosis rates are eight times that of the rest of the population, cervical cancer rates are five times higher, rates of heart disease are twice as high. Suicide, depression, and alcoholism plague and paralyze entire communities. Most houses are substandard, with inadequate heat, water and sanitation, and on average each house is shared by a dozen people.
As Peltier rightly argues, "No one can bring the dead back. But we can do something for the living. Economic reparations to Native Americans are absolutely essential for a just future, as is the return of sacred sites and significant pieces of ancestral territory, as well as a fair share of natural resources on lands taken in violation of treaties."
The U.S. government has continually stalled in the face of a 1996 Native American Rights Fund class-action lawsuit against the United States on behalf of 500,000 plaintiffs over the mismanagement of billions of dollars in oil, gas, grazing, timber, and other royalties overseen by the Department of the Interior for Indian trustees since 1887. Countless reports have proven widespread fraud and mismanagement of these funds. Even the department's own commissioned 2002 report concluded that somewhere between $10 billion and $40 billion is owed to the plaintiffs. Yet Washington has refused to account for the lost funds owed but not paid to tribes and individuals - even after Congress ordered it in 1994 - on the grounds that such an investigation would cost too much.
It's safe to say that the U.S. government as well as countless U.S. corporations owe an enormous debt to American Indians, far beyond these billions in royalties. Activists need to ensure that they start by returning freedom to Leonard Peltier, and that they keep on paying.
The fight for Leonard Peltier's release from prison is about taking the first step toward rectifying the crimes done to Native Americans, but its also about challenging the U.S. gulag that incarcerates not just political prisoners like Leonard and Mumia Abu-Jamal, but also one in every hundred adults - disproportionately people of color, working-class, and poor people who have been victims of draconian "tough-on-crime" laws.
Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton played decisive roles on this front - and Peltier has languished in prison for over thirty-three years. But with the possibility of Peltier's parole in front of us, the time is now to rebuild the struggle against the criminal justice system and put Leonard Peltier's case back at the heart of it.
In the words of Peltier: "The destruction of our people must stop! We are not statistics. We are people from whom you took this land by force and blood and lies... You practice crimes against humanity at the same time that you piously speak to the rest of the world of human rights! America, when will you live up to your own principles?"
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NON MUOIA IN CARCERE LEONARD PELTIER
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Foglio a sostegno dell'appello a scrivere al Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America affinche' conceda la grazia che restituisca la liberta' a Leonard Peltier
A cura del "Centro di ricerca per la pace, i diritti umani e la difesa della biosfera" di Viterbo
Supplemento a "La nonviolenza e' in cammino" (anno XXV)
Direttore responsabile: Peppe Sini. Redazione: strada S. Barbara 9/E, 01100 Viterbo, e-mail: centropacevt at gmail.com
Numero 114 del 4 dicembre 2024
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Informativa sulla privacy
Alla luce delle normative europee in materia di trattamento di elaborazione dei dati personali e' nostro desiderio informare tutti i lettori del notiziario "La nonviolenza e' in cammino" che e' possibile consultare la nuova informativa sulla privacy: https://www.peacelink.it/peacelink/informativa-privacy-nonviolenza
Per non ricevere piu' il notiziario e' sufficiente recarsi in questa pagina: https://lists.peacelink.it/sympa/signoff/nonviolenza
Per iscriversi al notiziario, invece, l'indirizzo e' https://lists.peacelink.it/sympa/subscribe/nonviolenza
*
L'unico indirizzo di posta elettronica utilizzabile per contattare la redazione e' centropacevt at gmail.com
NON MUOIA IN CARCERE LEONARD PELTIER
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Foglio a sostegno dell'appello a scrivere al Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America affinche' conceda la grazia che restituisca la liberta' a Leonard Peltier
A cura del "Centro di ricerca per la pace, i diritti umani e la difesa della biosfera" di Viterbo
Supplemento a "La nonviolenza e' in cammino" (anno XXV)
Direttore responsabile: Peppe Sini. Redazione: strada S. Barbara 9/E, 01100 Viterbo, e-mail: centropacevt at gmail.com
Numero 114 del 4 dicembre 2024
Sommario di questo numero:
1. Una lettera ai mezzi d'informazione: dieci buone ragioni per concedere la grazia a Leonard Peltier
2. Che fare adesso per la liberazione di Leonard Peltier
3. Michele Bollinger: Leonard Peltier and the Indian struggle for Freedom (2009) (parte seconda e conclusiva)
1. INIZIATIVE. UNA LETTERA AI MEZZI D'INFORMAZIONE: DIECI BUONE RAGIONI PER CONCEDERE LA GRAZIA A LEONARD PELTIER
Vi inviamo la seguente lettera che alcune persone amiche della nonviolenza hanno inviato dall'Italia al Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America Joe Biden.
Vi saremmo assai grati se voleste dare ad essa ulteriore diffusione.
*
Egregio Presidente,
mancano meno di due mesi al termine del suo mandato presidenziale.
In queste settimane lei decidera', come e' consuetudine, di concedere la grazia ad alcuni detenuti.
Le scriviamo per chiederle di concedere la grazia a Leonard Peltier e ci permetta di elencarle alcune buone ragioni a sostegno di questo suo atto non solo di umanita', ma di verita' e di giustizia.
1. Leonard Peltier ha ottanta anni ed e' in prigione da 48 anni per un delitto che non ha commesso: non ha mai ucciso nessuno, ed anzi si e' sempre adoperato in difesa della vita delle persone, dei popoli, della natura.
2. Leonard Peltier ha subito un processo viziato da "testimonianze" dimostratesi false e da "prove" dimostratesi anch'esse false; autorevoli magistrati e numerose personalita' delle istituzioni del suo paese hanno riconosciuto che la sua condanna e' stata ingiusta, frutto di una persecuzione, palesemente contraria al diritto.
3. Leonard Peltier e' un uomo anziano gravemente malato: che possa tornare alla sua famiglia in questo poco tempo che gli resta da vivere.
4. La liberazione di Leonard Peltier e' stata chiesta da personalita' benemerite dell'umanita' come Nelson Mandela e madre Teresa di Calcutta.
5. La liberazione di Leonard Peltier e' stata chiesta da alcune delle maggiori autorita' morali e religiose mondiali: come il Dalai Lama e papa Francesco.
6. La liberazione di Leonard Peltier e' stata chiesta da prestigiose associazioni umanitarie, come Amnesty International e il Movimento Nonviolento.
7. La liberazione di Leonard Peltier e' stata chiesta dal Parlamento Europeo, dall'Onu (una cui commissione ad hoc ha ricostruito l'intera vicenda giudiziaria concludendo che debba essere liberato), e da innumerevoli altre istituzioni democratiche di tutto il mondo.
8. La liberazione di Leonard Peltier e' stata chiesta da innumerevoli istituzioni, associazioni e movimenti rappresentativi dei popoli nativi, dediti alla protezione dei diritti umani, impegnati in difesa della Madre Terra.
9. La liberazione di Leonard Peltier e' stata chiesta da milioni di persone di tutto il mondo.
10. Last, but not least, la liberazione di Leonard Peltier e' stata chiesta all'unanimita' anche dal Comitato Nazionale del Partito Democratico degli Stati Uniti d'America, il partito di cui anche lei fa parte, ed anzi e' il piu' autorevole rappresentante.
Egregio Presidente,
siamo consapevoli che lei non puo' leggere tutta la corrispondenza che le perviene, e tuttavia sentiamo il dovere di scriverle per sollecitare la sua attenzione, il suo giudizio, la sua umanita'.
Restituisca la liberta' a Leonard Peltier.
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Alleghiamo in calce:
- Allegato primo. Per scrivere al Presidente Biden;
- Allegato secondo. Per saperne un po' di piu' su Leonard Peltier, da 48 anni prigioniero innocente;
- Allegato terzo. Alcuni ulteriori contatti utili per informazioni dirette sulle iniziative attualmente in corso in Italia e in Europa per Leonard Peltier.
Il "Centro di ricerca per la pace, i diritti umani e la difesa della biosfera" di Viterbo
Viterbo, 24 novembre 2024
Mittente: "Centro di ricerca per la pace, i diritti umani e la difesa della biosfera" di Viterbo, strada S. Barbara 9/E, 01100 Viterbo, e-mail: centropacevt at gmail.com
Il "Centro di ricerca per la pace, i diritti umani e la difesa della biosfera" di Viterbo e' una struttura nonviolenta attiva dagli anni '70 del secolo scorso che ha sostenuto, promosso e coordinato varie campagne per il bene comune, locali, nazionali ed internazionali. E' la struttura nonviolenta che negli anni Ottanta ha coordinato per l'Italia la piu' ampia campagna di solidarieta' con Nelson Mandela, allora detenuto nelle prigioni del regime razzista sudafricano. Nel 1987 ha promosso il primo convegno nazionale di studi dedicato a Primo Levi. Dal 2000 pubblica il notiziario telematico quotidiano "La nonviolenza e' in cammino". Dal 2021 e' particolarmente impegnato nella campagna per la liberazione di Leonard Peltier, l'illustre attivista nativo americano difensore dei diritti umani di tutti gli esseri umani e dell'intero mondo vivente, da 48 anni prigioniero innocente.
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Allegato primo. Per scrivere al Presidente Biden
Per scrivere al Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America e' sufficiente collegarsi al sito della Casa Bianca alla pagina web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Compilare quindi gli item successivi:
- alla voce MESSAGE TYPE: scegliere Contact the President
- alla voce PREFIX: scegliere il titolo corrispondente alla propria identita'
- alla voce FIRST NAME: scrivere il proprio nome
- alla voce SECOND NAME: si puo' omettere la compilazione
- alla voce LAST NAME: scrivere il proprio cognome
- alla voce SUFFIX, PRONOUNS: si puo' omettere la compilazione
- alla voce E-MAIL: scrivere il proprio indirizzo e-mail
- alla voce PHONE: scrivere il proprio numero di telefono seguendo lo schema 39xxxxxxxxxx
- alla voce COUNTRY/STATE/REGION: scegliere Italy
- alla voce STREET: scrivere il proprio indirizzo nella sequenza numero civico, via/piazza
- alla voce CITY: scrivere il nome della propria citta' e il relativo codice di avviamento postale
- alla voce WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SAY? [Cosa vorresti dire?]: scrivere un breve testo (di seguito una traccia utilizzabile):
"Egregio Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America,
le scriviamo per chiederle di concedere la grazia presidenziale a Leonard Peltier.
Come lei sa, Leonard Peltier ha gia' subito 48 anni di carcere per un delitto che non ha commesso.
E' vecchio, e' gravemente malato, le sue patologie non possono essere adeguatamente curate in carcere.
La sua liberazione e' stata chiesta da Nelson Mandela, da madre Teresa di Calcutta, dal Dalai Lama, da papa Francesco, da Amnesty International, dal Parlamento Europeo, dall'Onu, da milioni di persone di tutto il mondo.
Egregio Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America,
conceda la grazia a Leonard Peltier.
Restituisca la liberta' a Leonard Peltier.
Distinti saluti".
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Allegato secondo. Per saperne un po' di piu' su Leonard Peltier, da 48 anni prigioniero innocente
Leonard Peltier e' un illustre attivista nativo americano difensore dei diritti umani di tutti gli esseri umani e dell'intero mondo vivente, da 48 anni prigioniero innocente.
Segnaliamo alcuni materiali di documentazione in lingua italiana disponibili nella rete telematica:
https://sites.google.com/view/viterboperleonardpeltier/home-page
https://sites.google.com/view/vetralla-per-peltier-2021/home-page
https://sites.google.com/view/vetrallaperpeltier2022/home-page
https://sites.google.com/view/vetrallaperleonardpeltier2023/home-page
https://sites.google.com/view/vetralla-per-peltier-2024/home-page
Segnaliamo anche alcune pubblicazioni a stampa in italiano e in inglese particolarmente utili:
- Edda Scozza, Il coraggio d'essere indiano. Leonard Peltier prigioniero degli Stati Uniti, Erre Emme, Pomezia (Roma) 1996 (ora Roberto Massari Editore, Bolsena Vt).
- Peter Matthiessen, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, 1980, Penguin Books, New York 1992 e successive ristampe; in edizione italiana: Peter Matthiessen, Nello spirito di Cavallo Pazzo, Frassinelli, Milano 1994.
- Leonard Peltier (con la collaborazione di Harvey Arden), Prison writings. My life is my sun dance, St. Martin's Griffin, New York 1999; in edizione italiana: Leonard Peltier, La mia danza del sole. Scritti dalla prigione, Fazi, Roma 2005.
- Jim Messerschmidt, The Trial of Leonard Peltier, South End Press, Cambridge, MA, 1983, 1989, 2002.
- Bruce E. Johansen, Encyclopedia of the American Indian Movement, Greenwood, Santa Barbara - Denver - Oxford, 2013 e piu' volte ristampata.
Segnaliamo inoltre che nella rete telematica e' disponibile una notizia sintetica in italiano dal titolo "Alcune parole per Leonard Peltier":
https://lists.peacelink.it/nonviolenza/2022/03/msg00001.html
Sempre nella rete telematica e' disponibile anche una piu' ampia ed approfondita bibliografia ragionata dal titolo "Dieci libri piu' uno che sarebbe bene aver letto per conoscere la vicenda di Leonard Peltier (e qualche altro minimo suggerimento bibliografico)":
https://lists.peacelink.it/nonviolenza/2022/09/msg00064.html
Ancora nella rete telematica segnaliamo una lettera "ad adiuvandum" alla "United States Parole Commission" del 22 giugno 2024:
https://lists.peacelink.it/nonviolenza/2024/06/msg00055.html
Segnaliamo anche che in queste settimane il "Centro di ricerca per la pace, i diritti umani e la difesa della biosfera" di Viterbo pubblica un notiziario telematico quotidiano con la testata "Non muoia in carcere Leonard Peltier" che propone iniziative e materiali.
Segnaliamo infine l'attuale sito ufficiale del Comitato di solidarieta' con Leonard Peltier, il "Free Leonard Peltier Ad Hoc Committee": www.freeleonardpeltiernow.org
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Allegato terzo. Alcuni ulteriori contatti utili per informazioni dirette sulle iniziative attualmente in corso in Italia e in Europa per Leonard Peltier
Per informazioni sulle principali iniziative italiane contattare Andrea De Lotto, tel. 3490931155, e-mail: bigoni.gastone at gmail.com
Vi e' anche un gruppo su facebook: Free Leonard Peltier Italy: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1051622359691101
Un sito che fornisce preziose informazioni aggiornate sulle iniziative in Europa (in tedesco e in inglese) e' www.leonardpeltier.de
Un riferimento fondamentale in Italia e' anche l'ottima rivista "Tepee" e la storica associazione Soconas-Incomindios: per contatti scrivere o telefonare alla professoressa Naila Clerici: cell. 3478207381, e-mail: naila.clerici at soconasincomindios.it, facebook: facebook.com/pages/Soconas-Incomindios/, youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1jno1fq2G_HnMd50IG0hww
Ricordiamo infine ancora una volta che il sito ufficiale (in inglese) del Comitato di solidarieta' con Leonard Peltier, il "Free Leonard Peltier Ad Hoc Committee", e' www.freeleonardpeltiernow.org
2. REPETITA IUVANT. CHE FARE ADESSO PER LA LIBERAZIONE DI LEONARD PELTIER
Come e' noto, la "United States Parole Commission" ha negato la "liberta' sulla parola" a Leonard Peltier, ed ha fissato la prossima udienza al 2026. Gli avvocati di Leonard Peltier hanno gia' annunciato che ovviamente interporranno appello avverso questa decisione.
Come e' noto Leonard Peltier, l'illustre attivista nativo americano difensore dei diritti umani di tutti gli esseri umani e dell'intero mondo vivente, e' detenuto da 48 anni in un carcere di massima sicurezza per un delitto che non ha commesso; la sua condanna si baso' su "testimonianze" false e su "prove" altrettanto false. E' anziano (ha quasi 80 anni) e gravemente malato, e le sue plurime patologie non possono essere curate adeguatamente in regime carcerario. Numerosissime personalita' benemerite dell'umanita', associazioni benefiche come Amnesty International, istituzioni democratiche di tutto il mondo - in primis l'Onu e il Parlamento Europeo - chiedono la sua liberazione.
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Che fare?
Occorre perseverare lungo tutte e tre le vie che possono portare alla liberazione di Leonard Peltier:
1. la richiesta al Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America di concedere la "grazia presidenziale";
2. la richiesta al Procuratore Generale degli Stati Uniti d'America di concedere il "rilascio compassionevole";
3. la richiesta alla "United States Parole Commission" di concedere la "liberta' sulla parola".
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Alcune indicazioni pratiche
a) Per scrivere al Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America:
aprire la pagina ad hoc nel sito: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ e seguire le indicazioni li' contenute.
Proposta di testo:
Egregio Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America,
e' consuetudine che avvicinandosi il termine del mandato quadriennale il Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America conceda la grazia ad alcuni detenuti.
La preghiamo di voler concedere la grazia al signor Leonard Peltier, detenuto da quasi mezzo secolo, ormai quasi ottantenne, affetto da gravissime patologie che non possono essere curate in regime carcerario, la cui liberazione e' stata richiesta da personalita' illustri come Nelson Mandela, madre Teresa di Calcutta, il Dalai Lama, papa Francesco e da istituzioni come l'Onu e il Parlamento Europeo.
Voglia gradire distinti saluti.
b) Per scrivere al Procuratore Generale degli Stati Uniti d'America:
aprire la pagina ad hoc nel sito: https://www.justice.gov/doj/webform/your-message-department-justice e seguire le indicazioni li' contenute.
Proposta di testo:
Egregio Procuratore Generale degli Stati Uniti d'America,
la preghiamo di voler concedere il "rilascio compassionevole" ("compassionate release") al signor Leonard Peltier, detenuto da quasi mezzo secolo, ormai quasi ottantenne, affetto da gravissime patologie che non possono essere curate in regime carcerario, la cui liberazione e' stata richiesta da personalita' illustri come Nelson Mandela, madre Teresa di Calcutta, il Dalai Lama, papa Francesco e da istituzioni come l'Onu e il Parlamento Europeo.
Voglia gradire distinti saluti.
c) Per scrivere alla "United States Parole Commission":
usare l'indirizzo e-mail: USParole.questions at usdoj.gov
Proposta di testo:
Egregie signore ed egregi signori della "United States Parole Commission",
pur consapevoli della vostra recente decisione, ci permettiamo di sollecitare ulteriormente una tempestiva riconsiderazione della situazione del signor Leonard Peltier, detenuto da quasi mezzo secolo, ormai quasi ottantenne, affetto da gravissime patologie che non possono essere curate in regime carcerario, la cui liberazione e' stata richiesta da personalita' illustri come Nelson Mandela, madre Teresa di Calcutta, il Dalai Lama, papa Francesco e da istituzioni come l'Onu e il Parlamento Europeo.
Vogliate gradire distinti saluti.
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d) Per informare gli avvocati che assistono Leonard Peltier:
usare gli indirizzi e-mail: ksharp at sanfordheisler.com, jenipherj at forthepeoplelegal.com
Proposta di testo:
Egregia avvocata, egregio avvocato,
vi informiamo che abbiamo scritto al Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America, al Procuratore Generale degli Stati Uniti d'America, alla "United States Parole Commission", le lettere il cui testo alleghiamo.
Vogliate gradire distinti saluti.
*
Tre consigli a chi vuole esprimere e promuovere la solidarieta'
I. La prima forma di solidarieta' e' la conoscenza
- occorre studiare adeguatamente tanto i fatti quanto il contesto;
- occorre far circolare l'informazione, avendo cura che sia un'informazione precisa ed incontrovertibile;
- occorre promuovere altre adesioni all'impegno, avendo cura che ci si attenga scrupolosamente al fine della liberazione di Leonard Peltier e che la metodologia sia rigorosamente nonviolenta;
- soprattutto: occorre far sentire la propria voce direttamente alle istanze istituzionali concretamente preposte alla decisione sulla liberazione di Leonard Peltier; e farla sentire in modo adeguato: ovvero comprensibile e persuasivo. Non serve, ed e' anzi dannosa, la retorica d'accatto, ignorante e stereotipata, che ovviamente non convince nessuno.
E' semplicemente indispensabile la lettura di tutti i seguenti testi:
- Ward Churchill e Jim Vander Wall, Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement, South End Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1988, 2002, Black Classic Press, Baltimore 2022.
- Ward Churchill e Jim Vander Wall, The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States, South End Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1990, 2002, Black Classic Press, Baltimore 2022.
- Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, Beacon Press, Boston 2014.
- Steve Hendricks, The Unquiet Grave: The FBI and the Struggle for the Soul of Indian Country, Thunder's Mouth Press, New York 2006.
- Bruce E. Johansen, Encyclopedia of the American Indian Movement, Greenwood, Santa Barbara - Denver - Oxford, 2013 e piu' volte ristampata.
- Peter Matthiessen, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, 1980, Penguin Books, New York 1992 e successive ristampe.
- Jim Messerschmidt, The Trial of Leonard Peltier, South End Press, Cambridge, MA, 1983, 1989, 2002.
- Leonard Peltier (con la collaborazione di Harvey Arden), Prison Writings: My Life is my Sun Dance, St. Martin's Griffin, New York 1999.
- Michael E. Tigar, Wade H. McCree, Leonard Peltier, Petitioner, v. United States. U.S. Supreme Court transcript of record with supporting pleading, Gale MOML U.S. Supreme Court Records, 1978 e successive ristampe.
- Joseph H. Trimbach e John M. Trimbach, American Indian Mafia: An FBI Agent's True Story About Wounded Knee, Leonard Peltier, and the American Indian Movement (AIM), Outskirts Press, Denver 2009.
II. La prima forma di azione nonviolenta e' la parresia
- occorre prendere la parola e dire la verita' contrastando la violenza del potere;
- occorre prendere la parola e dire la verita' alle istituzioni per ottenere il rispetto del diritto e della morale;
- occorre prendere la parola e dire la verita' come atto politico che invera l'esercizio della democrazia.
Leonard Peltier e' innocente. Leonard Peltier e' in pericolo di morte. Leonard Peltier deve essere liberato.
Nella vicenda di Leonard Peltier si compendia e si testimonia la condizione imposta dalla violenza etnocida, genocida ed ecocida del potere colonialista, imperialista e razzista a tutti i popoli oppressi, all'umanita' intera e all'intero mondo vivente.
La liberazione di Leonard Peltier significa quindi riconoscere il diritto alla vita non solo di ogni persona innocente e di ogni popolo oppresso, ma di tutti gli esseri umani in quanto tali, dell'umanita' intera, di tutti gli esseri viventi e dell'intero mondo vivente.
III. Il tempo e' poco, agire ora
La vecchiaia e le patologie di Leonard Peltier rendono urgente l'impegno per la sua liberazione.
Occorre scrivere ora ai soggetti istituzionali che hanno il potere di restituirgli la liberta'.
Occorre promuovere ora ogni iniziativa nonviolenta adeguata a far crescere l'impegno per la sua liberazione.
Occorre attivare i mezzi d'informazione per ottenere ora la massima attenzione possibile dell'opinione pubblica.
*
Free Leonard Peltier.
Non muoia in prigione un uomo innocente.
Mitakuye Oyasin.
Il "Centro di ricerca per la pace, i diritti umani e la difesa della biosfera" di Viterbo
Viterbo, 7 luglio 2024
3. DOCUMENTAZIONE. MICHELE BOLLINGER: LEONARD PELTER AND THE INDIAN STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM (2009) (PARTE SECONDA E CONCLUSIVA)
[Dal sito della "International Socialist Review" riprendiamo il seguente articolo basato su una relazione tenuta il 20 giugno 2009]
Wounded Knee
Dick Wilson, a former bootlegger, was elected Oglala Sioux tribal council president in 1972. Wilson was deeply unpopular because of his mistreatment of the elderly and traditional people on the reservation, his undemocratic methods, and the rampant nepotism and corruption that infested his administration. He was infamous for embezzling Housing and Urban Development money and misusing funds, and for neglecting everything else on the reservation. Wilson used federal funds to start what some have called a paramilitary, and what became a virtual death squad. The cocky, crew-cutted Wilson only named his armed gang Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOON) after angry Pine Ridge residents had been calling them the "goon squad" for awhile.
The GOONs went after anyone who spoke out against Wilson, using violence, harassment, and intimidation to uphold his dictatorship. At first, resistance to Wilson was organized through the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO) which organized impeachment petitions (one of which had more signatures on it than the number of people who had voted for him) and filed for impeachment hearings multiple times, mobilizing hundreds of people for those hearings. These became a farce, however, when Wilson decided to preside over them himself.
It was at this point that a meeting of 200 members of the OSCRO and traditional elders, including the traditionalist chief Frank Fools Crow, decided to invite AIM to help them in their struggle. The speeches of women such as Ellen Moves Camp and Gladys Bissonette were decisive in the meeting. After delivering a speech in Lakota, she turned to the AIM leaders present at the meeting and appealed to them to bring their members to Pine Ridge. "For many years we have not fought any kind of war," she said, "and we have forgotten how to fight." AIM knew what they were getting into; there had been countless threats issued by Wilson in press releases that they were going to shoot and kill AIM members who came to Pine Ridge.
It was the decision at this meeting that led to the stunning seventy-one-day occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973. On February 27, 1973, a caravan of about 300 armed Oglala Sioux and AIM activists entered the town of Wounded Knee and declared it liberated territory. They took over the trading post, the church, blocked all the roads, and took several white hostages. The leading participants included Leonard Crow Dog, Carter Camp, Madonna Thunder Hawk, Russell Means, and Dennis Banks. "This was a rebirth of our dignity and our self pride," Russell Means said of the occupation. Dennis Banks said, "The message that went out is that a band of Indians could take on the U.S. government. Tecumseh had his day, Geronimo, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse. We had ours." Their demands were simple and included a call to investigate corruption in the reservation tribal government, and a demand that Congress hold hearings on broken treaties.
The response by the U.S. government was overwhelming: within hours, 200 FBI agents, federal marshals, and BIA police surrounded and blockaded the town, using two armored personnel carriers and a couple of fighter jets in their operation - later to be augmented by fifteen more armored personnel carriers, authorized by the U.S. Army. U.S. military personnel, disguising their presence by wearing civilian clothes, played a central role in the siege. South Dakota's two Senators, George McGovern and James Abourezk, came to negotiate getting the hostages released, only to discover that the hostages, sympathetic to the Indians, were free to come and go as they pleased. One eighty-two-year-old hostage told reporters that they had decided to stay in order to protect AIM activists, whom he feared the troops would kill if the hostages left.
The government immediately rejected the occupiers' demands, sending in mid-level officials who delivered an ultimatum for them to leave. AIM burned it in front of a bunch of TV cameras. By this point Wounded Knee was on the nightly news, and polls showed that 90 percent of Americans followed it very closely. A delegation led by Leonard Fools Crow went to the United Nations. Marlon Brando, who had participated in one of the fish-ins in the Pacific Northwest, refused to accept his Oscar for best actor in The Godfather, sending Apache actress Sacheen Littlefeather to decline the Oscar on his behalf.
With the Watergate scandal in progress, the federal government didn't want to look any worse, especially on the same site as the 1890 massacre. On March 8 it pulled back the roadblocks and hoped the occupation would peter out. Instead, hundreds of supporters and a great deal of supplies poured in and the occupiers declared themselves the Independent Oglala Nation. Some of the local Sioux departed to be replaced by Indians from other nations, as well as by white leftists, veterans, Chicano activists, and a small number of Asian and Black participants. Several thousand people joined in the occupation, either for a day or for many more.
The blockade was reestablished on an even stronger footing and Wounded Knee came under severe attack. The occupation met with repression from the FBI and U.S. marshals, and from Dick Wilson and his GOONs, who were furious that the feds didn't unleash an all-out assault from the start. In fact, they shot at both camps to try to start firefight.
It didn't take long for the feds to catch up, though. As Former FBI Chief Joseph Trimbach bragged in the years that followed: "The director said, tell Trimbach he can have anything he wants! Which was pretty neat, because it was like having a blank check. I had agents go up to Rapid City and buy every rifle they could find." (Earlier this year, Trimbach and his son, who have made careers for themselves by vilifying AIM, made a very public showing of sending a letter to Obama smearing Peltier and his supporters.)
The military response was overwhelming. Half a million rounds were fired into Wounded Knee, including some from a .50-caliber machine gun that fired two-inch diameter shells; fighter jets loomed overhead; and armored personnel carriers roamed the perimeter. The government cut power and water and forced the media out at gunpoint. In spite of the horrible conditions - food shortages and a late winter storm - people held their ground.
The occupation received support from Native Americans across the country, and from other Indian nations who were inspired by their example. A delegation of chiefs from the Six Nations of the Iroquois confederacy arrived on March 19 to convey their support. A statement by the Grand Council of the Iroquois asked the U.S. government, "You are concerned for the destruction of property at the BIA building and at Wounded Knee. Where is your concern for the destruction of our people, for human lives?"
The U.S. government was worried that Wounded Knee would become an example others would follow. A high-ranking BIA official expressed alarm over his view that Wounded Knee had "crystallized a revolutionary movement in the United States." Federal forces escalated their tactics, attempting to destabilized the occupation from the inside and attack it also from the outside. Two men, Frank Clearwater and Buddy Lamont, a Vietnam veteran, were shot and killed during separate firefights in which federal agents poured thousands of rounds into Wounded Knee. Frank Clearwater had just arrived in Wounded Knee with his wife to offer their support. He was hit by a stray bullet that pierced the local church where he had been resting; Buddy Lamont, an Oglala Sioux and Vietnam veteran well-liked on Pine Ridge, was struck down by a sniper. His great grandparents had been with Crazy Horse at the Little Bighorn battle, and his grandmother was one of the few to survive the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre.
With no electricity, no water, dwindling food supplies, and then a devastating fire that burned down the trading post - together with the coordinated arrests of several AIM leaders who were touring the country raising support - the occupation had reached its point of exhaustion by the end of April. After seventy-one days, on May 8, AIM agreed - at Fools Crow's request - to end it. The militants were disarmed and 120 were arrested. The night before, scores of people snuck out and evaded arrest, leaving toy guns for the feds to find.
Gladys Bissonette, who had been in the occupation throughout, said on its last day:
This was one of the greatest things that every happened in my life. And although today is our last day here, I still feel like I'll always be here because this is part of my home... I hope that the Indians, at least throughout the Pine Ridge Reservation, unite and stand up together, hold hands, and never forget Wounded Knee. We didn't have anything here, we didn't have nothing to eat. But we had one thing - that was unity and friendship amongst 64 different tribes... I have never seen anything like this.
In the end, 1,200 people nationwide were arrested for Wounded Knee, and 500 traditionals were indicted. Almost all the defendants indicted for their direct involvement in the occupation were acquitted, and Leonard Crow Dog was the only one who served any prison time - a few months.
*
Reign of terror
Leonard Peltier was not at Wounded Knee. But he would fall victim to its aftermath- as would hundreds of others.
The FBI launched an attack on AIM as part of its COINTELPRO program, which had begun in the mid-1960s under J. Edgar Hoover and was used to destroy the Black Panther Party - the murder of BPP leader Fred Hampton, among many - while Dick Wilson and the BIA established an extreme reign of terror on Pine Ridge.
"The FBI set out to eliminate 'radical' political opposition inside the U.S. When traditional modes of repression (exposure, blatant harassment, and prosecution for political crimes) failed to counter the growing insurgency," commented one journalist, "and even helped to fuel it, the Bureau took the law into its own hands and secretly used fraud and force to sabotage constitutionally-protected political activity."
The FBI employed many dirty tricks against its targets including wiretapping, assassination, "bad-jacketing" (spreading rumors that certain activists were informants in order to discredit them), and the use of agents provocateurs - all in coordination with state and local officials, police forces, and district attorneys. Future South Dakota governor Bill Janklow declared at the time: "The only way to deal with the Indian problem in South Dakota is to put a gun to the AIM leaders' heads and pull the trigger." Many compare those years on Pine Ridge to a paramilitary invasion.
Dick Wilson and his GOONs went on a rampage of beatings and assassinations of AIM members, supporters, and the traditionals on Pine Ridge. Within three years, at least sixty-nine AIM members and supporters were violently murdered on or near the Pine Ridge Reservation, while hundreds more were physically assaulted.
Write Bruce Johansen and Roberto Maestas, "Using only the documented political deaths, the yearly murder rate on Pine Ridge Reservation between March 1, 1973, and March 1, 1976, was 170 per 100,000. By comparison, Detroit, the reputed 'murder capital of the United States,' had a rate of 20.2 per 100,000 in 1974... In a nation of 200 million persons, a murder rate comparable with that of Pine Ridge between 1973 and 1976 would have left 340,000 persons dead for political reasons in one year; 1.32 million in three... The political murder rate at Pine Ridge between March 1, 1973 and March 1, 1976 was almost equivalent to that in Chile during the three years after a military coup supported by the United States deposed and killed President Salvador Allende."
Among the victims were Pedro Bissonette, Philip Black Elk, Priscilla White Plume, Byron DeSersa, and Anna Mae Aquash. Most of the cases have never been solved, or even pursued—because the FBI and the BIA have blood on their hands in every single one of them and any decent investigation would point back to them.
Anna Mae Aquash, who was murdered in February 1976, was bad-jacketed by the FBI before her death. A BIA doctor, who also failed to notice that she had been shot in the head, removed her hands in a possible attempt to conceal her identity. It remains unclear if she was murdered by GOONs, the FBI, or AIM members who were convinced by FBI rumors that she was an informant. Many on the reservation believed that she was targeted by the FBI in retaliation for the deaths of the two FBI agents for which Peltier was prosecuted. Two former AIM members were eventually prosecuted for her murder. But there is so much deliberate disinformation and confusion surrounding the case, it is likely that the full truth will never be known.
It was the FBI-and-GOON driven reign of terror that led to - some would say provoked - the Incident at Oglala. Amid this terror and fear, traditional leaders on Pine Ridge once again called on AIM for protection, especially for older traditional people. That is why Peltier and dozens of others were camping on the Jumping Bull property on that fateful day in June 1975.
"The FBI had more than 50 agents swarming over the Pine Ridge Reservation (prior to 1973 they only had 2 or 3 agents in the area, if that)," wrote Peltier. "Seems like the more FBIs we had around, the more murders we had."
AIM members across the country faced constant harassment and frame-ups that drained the organization's resources and, eventually, broke its leadership. There were AIM-led actions through the end of the 1970s; a core of activists protested the Robideau and Butler trials as well as Peltier's; there was a protest outside the FBI building in 1979. But the Peltier conviction in 1977 was a severe blow from which AIM never recovered.
What explains the virulence of the offensive against AIM? Economic motives were clearly at work. Around the time of the Wounded Knee occupation, Wilson signed over a portion of the reservation known to be rich in uranium and molybdenum to the U.S. Forest Service. Early 1970s government estimates of potential profits from uranium mining in the Black Hills was in the range of a half billion dollars.
But the rationale extends beyond narrow economic reasons. The U.S. government was striving to smash the left, to break the back of political struggle, and the influence of revolutionary politics in particular. Indian militancy emerged on the scene just as many other struggles in this era begin to reach a political impasse; many struggles did not regain their footing after 1972, which is when AIM was ascending.
AIM was incredibly popular and well connected with the main radical currents in U.S. society that were influenced by national liberation struggles around the world. Furthermore, AIM symbolized armed struggle and militancy against oppression. The government feared that AIM could be a key factor in reviving struggle - one reason they became so desperate to end the occupation at Wounded Knee was so that it ended before campuses let out for the summer.
By 1973, the ruling class in this country was actively engaged in the process of breaking the back of revolutionary struggles here and abroad. The U.S. backed Augusto Pinochet's coup in Chile that year, for example.
Violent repression and divisive COINTELPRO tactics broke up and demoralized AIM, while the general decline of other social movements in this period sealed its fate. AIM continued to organize through end of the 1970s and maintains a presence in some areas of the U.S. today, but never recovered from the reign of terror and Peltier's conviction in particular.
*
What the movement won
Despite this severe repression and the short time frame for AIM's influence, the Native American struggles won a great deal.
AIM essentially fought against the annihilation of Indian culture - and won. Traditions like the sacred Sun Dance could have been lost forever. The movement dealt a huge blow to racism, and changed people's consciousness in ways that we still see today. American Indian studies programs have thrived on campuses and the history curriculum taught in schools, while still highly problematic, is fundamentally different than what it was forty years ago. It is now commonly accepted that genocide was committed against Native Americans. And while we still have sports teams that use Indian mascots and the U.S. certainly hasn't gotten rid of Columbus Day, these things are commonly met with ridicule, disdain, and opposition. When people hear that a predominantly Native American community college in Colorado named their basketball team the "Fighting Whiteys," many cheer.
Important material gains were won. The policy of termination was ended. Nearly a dozen new policies and programs - in education, financing, and health - were instituted. Mount Adams was returned to the Yakama Nation in Washington State, and 48,000 acres of the Sacred Blue Lake lands were returned to Taos Pueblo in New Mexico. The Pacific Northwest Indians eventually won the right to 50 percent of harvestable fish.
The reforms won in the 1960s and 1970s made a number of material improvements in people's lives. The percentage of families on the Pine Ridge Reservation living below the poverty line fell 10 percent by the end of the 1970s and per capita income went up 7 percent. In fact, poverty overall fell for Native Americans more so than any other group. Unfortunately, these changes didn't last. During the Reagan years the number of Indians living in poverty went up 23 percent.
Given the severity of the poverty on reservations today, a massive investment in Native American communities is beyond urgent. Native Americans live in unspeakably horrid conditions in many places, especially the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Reservations. A chilling - and telling - 2007 Al-Jazeera broadcast showed footage of two Lakota people pushing their gasless car down a desolate road—they were taking their TV to the pawn shop for cash so they could eat. "A day in the life of a Lakota" remarked one.
Reservation life is characterized by 80 percent unemployment and a median income of $2,600 to $3,500 a year. The life expectancy on Pine Ridge is the lowest in the Western Hemisphere outside of Haiti.
Major illnesses strike Native Americans more severely than many other groups—diabetes and tuberculosis rates are eight times that of the rest of the population, cervical cancer rates are five times higher, rates of heart disease are twice as high. Suicide, depression, and alcoholism plague and paralyze entire communities. Most houses are substandard, with inadequate heat, water and sanitation, and on average each house is shared by a dozen people.
As Peltier rightly argues, "No one can bring the dead back. But we can do something for the living. Economic reparations to Native Americans are absolutely essential for a just future, as is the return of sacred sites and significant pieces of ancestral territory, as well as a fair share of natural resources on lands taken in violation of treaties."
The U.S. government has continually stalled in the face of a 1996 Native American Rights Fund class-action lawsuit against the United States on behalf of 500,000 plaintiffs over the mismanagement of billions of dollars in oil, gas, grazing, timber, and other royalties overseen by the Department of the Interior for Indian trustees since 1887. Countless reports have proven widespread fraud and mismanagement of these funds. Even the department's own commissioned 2002 report concluded that somewhere between $10 billion and $40 billion is owed to the plaintiffs. Yet Washington has refused to account for the lost funds owed but not paid to tribes and individuals - even after Congress ordered it in 1994 - on the grounds that such an investigation would cost too much.
It's safe to say that the U.S. government as well as countless U.S. corporations owe an enormous debt to American Indians, far beyond these billions in royalties. Activists need to ensure that they start by returning freedom to Leonard Peltier, and that they keep on paying.
The fight for Leonard Peltier's release from prison is about taking the first step toward rectifying the crimes done to Native Americans, but its also about challenging the U.S. gulag that incarcerates not just political prisoners like Leonard and Mumia Abu-Jamal, but also one in every hundred adults - disproportionately people of color, working-class, and poor people who have been victims of draconian "tough-on-crime" laws.
Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton played decisive roles on this front - and Peltier has languished in prison for over thirty-three years. But with the possibility of Peltier's parole in front of us, the time is now to rebuild the struggle against the criminal justice system and put Leonard Peltier's case back at the heart of it.
In the words of Peltier: "The destruction of our people must stop! We are not statistics. We are people from whom you took this land by force and blood and lies... You practice crimes against humanity at the same time that you piously speak to the rest of the world of human rights! America, when will you live up to your own principles?"
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NON MUOIA IN CARCERE LEONARD PELTIER
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Foglio a sostegno dell'appello a scrivere al Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America affinche' conceda la grazia che restituisca la liberta' a Leonard Peltier
A cura del "Centro di ricerca per la pace, i diritti umani e la difesa della biosfera" di Viterbo
Supplemento a "La nonviolenza e' in cammino" (anno XXV)
Direttore responsabile: Peppe Sini. Redazione: strada S. Barbara 9/E, 01100 Viterbo, e-mail: centropacevt at gmail.com
Numero 114 del 4 dicembre 2024
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