[Ppnews] Leonard Peltier is a Six-Time Nobel Nominee

Tue Apr 28 16:57:39 EDT 2009

contact at whoisleonardpeltier.info
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:22:08 -0700 (PDT)

Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee
April 28, 2009
For Immediate Release:
Leonard Peltier is a Six-Time Nobel Nominee

American Indian activist and political prisoner 
Leonard Peltier has been nominated for the Nobel 
Peace Prize for the sixth consecutive 
year.  Peltier has been an inmate in the United 
States federal prison system since 1976, so the 
fact that he has earned the distinction of a 
Nobel nomination every year since 2004 is especially remarkable.

Peltier's unlawful conviction in the deaths of 
two FBI agents in South Dakota has long been 
internationally decried as one of the most 
blatant injustices in recent United States legal 
history.  In the aftermath of his trial, federal 
prosecutors were openly excoriated for having 
manufactured evidence against Peltier, for having 
withheld exculpatory evidence, and also for 
having coerced witnesses into giving false testimony.

Lynn Crooks, Assistant Special Prosecutor in 
Peltier's trial, admitted to a federal judge that 
"the government does not know who killed its 
agents, nor do we know what participation Leonard Peltier may have had in it."

And yet Leonard Peltier has remained a prisoner 
for more than 33 years.  Fifty five United States 
Senators and Congressional Representatives 
(including Democrats and Republicans) have filed 
an appeal brief demanding that Peltier receive a 
new trial. Amnesty International has repeatedly 
called for Peltier's immediate release from 
prison, governments from all over the world have 
passed resolutions insisting that Peltier be 
released, and a large contingent of distinguished 
human rights advocates have been very outspoken 
in their strong support for Peltier - including 
six people who have already received the Nobel 
Peace Prize: Nelson Mandela (1993), Rigoberta 
Menchu Tum (1992), Mikhail Gorbachev (1990), the 
14th Dalai Lama (1989), Archbishop Desmond Tutu 
(1984), and Mother Teresa (1979).

Despite his well known status as a political 
prisoner, however, the basis for Peltier's Nobel 
nominations has been his remarkable success in 
furthering the causes of peace and human 
rights.  During his 33 years of unjust 
incarceration, Peltier has worked tirelessly on a 
multitude of organized efforts to help other 
people achieve a more dignified and  humane 
existence.  While the Nobel Committee in Oslo 
(Norway) requests that letters of nomination not 
be made public, it is nonetheless widely known 
that Leonard Peltier has facilitated numerous 
significant donations to a wide variety of 
charities and human rights organizations.

Peltier is, of course, not financially wealthy - 
but he is an accomplished painter. Often 
expending his meager prison commissary account 
funds on art supplies such as paints, brushes, 
and canvas, he produces works of art which are 
subsequently donated and auctioned.  Peltier has 
also worked to establish assistance programs for 
many underprivileged groups, and he has helped in 
other ways to fund a multitude of efforts from 
scholarships for Native students to shelters for 
victims of domestic violence.  The Christmas 
fundraising effort begun by Peltier more than 25 
years ago on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 
South Dakota (one of the most impoverished places 
in the United States) has steadily been expanded 
and now provides assistance on at least five 
different Indian Reservations  the families now 
receiving the benefits of this annual program 
number more than one thousand.  It is difficult 
to determine precisely the sum total of donations 
and contributions that Peltier has helped to 
facilitate, Peltier refuses to boast about his 
humanitarian work and many of his projects have 
not been made public.  It is estimated, however, 
that the total contributions resulting from 
Peltier's work during his 33 year imprisonment 
extend into the millions of dollars.

Peltier's long record of human rights advocacy 
involves more than raising money.  He has written 
a great deal while in prison, consistently taking 
advantage of every opportunity to encourage 
people not to harbor resentments, to take care of 
the environment, and to treat each other with 
love and respect.  It is no small irony that a 
person treated in such an inhumane way should so 
strongly advocate the humane treatment of others, 
that a person so financially impoverished should 
help raise such extraordinary amounts of money 
for others, that a person with such just cause 
for bitterness and resentment should encourage 
forgiveness, and that a person imprisoned should 
be one of America's strongest advocates for freedom.

Peltier's 1999 book Prison Writings: My Life is 
My Sundance (Saint Martin's Press) continues to 
be a best seller on many lists.  It is fitting 
that Leonard Peltier's own words (from his book) 
should conclude this official press release: "We 
are in this together - the rich, the poor, the 
red, the white, the black, the brown, and the 
yellow.  We are all one family of humankind.  We 
share responsibility for our Mother Earth and for 
all those who live and breathe upon her.  I 
believe our work will be unfinished until not one 
human being is hungry or battered, not a single 
person is forced to die in war, not one innocent 
languishes imprisoned, and no one is persecuted 
for his or her beliefs.  I believe in the good in 
humankind.  I believe that the good can prevail, 
but only with great effort.  And that effort is 
ours, each of ours, yours and mine
.Never cease in the fight for
peace, justice, and equality for all people.  Be 
persistent in all that you do and don't allow 
anyone to sway you from your conscience."

Please join the LP-DOC is congratulating Leonard 
on this monumental achievement!

Write to Leonard Peltier at this address:

Leonard Peltier # 89637-132
USP Lewisburg
PO BOX 1000
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania 17837

************************************************

For more information about Leonard Peltier's 
case, about his humanitarian work, or about his 
works of art, please contact his defense committee at this address:

Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee
P.O. Box 7488
Fargo, North Dakota 58106
http://whoisleonardpeltier.info/

Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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