[Ppnews] Leonard Peltier - Statement for Oglala Commemoration

[Political Prisoner News]

Greetings my friends and relatives,

I want to start off this statement or speech or whatever you want to  
call it by saying again as I've said before thank you thank you  thank  
you from the bottom of my heart for supporting me and for standing up  
for right wherever you are.  I can't express to you in words how  
extremely grateful I am not just to the people of America but to the  
people all over the world who have supported the cause of Indian  
people and myself.

I know a lot of you have given up a lot to help so many in my  
predicament.  Daily I am made aware of political prisoners around the  
world.  Many who have been killed or tortured or who knows what for  
trying to right the wrongs in their area, country or nation.   I have  
been asked to make statements in support of other movement people  
around the world from time to time, South America, Europe and other  
places.  People who love freedom, people who love the earth, people  
who love their family, people who love the freedom to make their own  
choice with their own resources, and all indigenous people- we share a  
common bond.  The bond of brother and sister hood, the bond of  
believing there is a greater power than ourselves.   And I don't mean  
some government power;   I mean the greatest power in all the universe  
the Creator Himself.


We also as human beings upon this earth have to recognize that there  
have always been those who suffer from an illness called greed.  They  
have an appetite for gaining material wealth that is never satisfied.  
They have an appetite for land that is never satisfied.  And the most  
common symptom of their illness is indifference to the suffering they  
cause with their quest.  These people are the ones that have  
identified themselves as our common enemy.  It is so terrible that  
under the guise of religion and shouting freedom they pit one people  
against another.  This isn't something new.  All down through history  
it has taken place.  All down through history there have been men,  
spiritual men, holy men, great thinkers and philosophers who have  
tried to unite us against this common enemy.

Today my brothers and sisters I want you to know that if nothing else  
if we don't unite against the destruction against the Mother Earth we  
will have a common future that is void of clean air, clean water, and  
basic freedoms.  We must reach our hands out to embrace others to the  
cause of life.  We must do our best from where ever we are with  
whatever tools available to enhance and further our quality of life.   
We must find a way to break down the barriers that divide one people  
from another. We must find the things we have in common and find ways  
to solve our differences as basic humanity.  We must evolve to a  
higher level of thinking or to as you might say a traditional level of  
thinking which obviously is superior to what they call progress today.  
  Our traditional values taught us to live in harmony with Earth the  
greatest manifestation of the Creator that we have to relate to. Our  
traditions taught us to respect our bodies the greatest gift we have  
or possess as an individual.  Our traditions taught us to preserve the  
environment for our children and all our future generations.  As a  
member of the American Indian Movement these values are what we were  
about.  Poverty isn't solved by money poverty is solved by attitude.   
The problems we have today among all our people are caused by  
attitude.  They are caused by an attitude that was given to us in  
boarding schools and on reservations that were nothing more than  
concentration camps in the past.  They are attitudes by people who  
came to us talking to us about God and wanting us to embrace their  
version of religion and as one brother said once, “They told us to  
bow our heads, and when we looked up our land was gone, our culture  
was gone, our children was gone, our way of life was gone.”  And now  
the air itself is dwindling.

I have been in this cage for some 34 years and though I have been  
caged I have sought the spirit in prayer of our brother the eagle, I  
have sought to have an overview of things for as anyone can see I  
don't have the freedom to examine life from a close perspective.  And  
from this distant view, abstract view, this detached view, at times I  
get to see the destruction and divisiveness that these political  
powers that have scattered us for so long have involved themselves in  
promoting among our people.  I don't know if it is because I am older  
now or because my future is so uncertain or if through some spiritual  
inspiration I deeply want to say so much.  I deeply want to move you  
to do something to save our earth and our children and our children's  
future.  I didn't get to raise my children; I haven't got to really  
know them or my children’s children.  I may never get to, but I love  
them all just the same.  And I love life as much as anyone on the  
outside.  And I don't know how long I will walk this cage.  Some days  
I feel quite healthy and energized and some days I feel like the 64  
year old man that I am.  I'm always hopeful that I will be free at  
some point, perhaps in the latter part of July after my parole  
hearing, and perhaps I won't.  The people that hold me, the FBI and  
the conglomerate corporations that have for so long controlled the  
resources of this country and others and for so long have done their  
best to stifle, to denigrate, and to vilify the voice of the oppressed  
are some of the most formidable well funded political people on Earth.  
  I was told that the FBI themselves are some 10,000 strong.

I am but a common man, I am not a speaker but I have spoken.  I am not  
all that tall but I have stood up.  I am not a philosopher or poet or  
a singer or any of those things that particularly inspire people but  
the one thing that I am is the evidence that this country lied when  
they said there was justice for all. I am the evidence that they lied  
when they extradited me from Canada.  I am the evidence that they can  
lie at your trial, they can manufacture evidence at your trial, they  
can intimidate witnesses at your trial, they can have back room  
conversations and agreements with the judge at your trial.  I am the  
evidence that the attitude, the powers that be still hold us in a  
grip.  They hold us in an emotional grip. They hold us in a poverty  
grip. They hold us in a cultural deprivation grip.  I could go on and  
on about the things that go on that weigh so heavily against our  
people but the bottom line is my case is well documented by court  
after court after court, by hearing after hearing after hearing, by  
statement after statement after statement.  And we as a people are the  
evidence that this country fails to keep its treaties, this country  
fails to keep its word. This country has failed to follow its own  
Constitution - the treaty between the people and the government.  We  
are that evidence.  I am nothing more than evidence.  That is why  
people all over the world and here at home have supported the cause of  
justice in my case.  In my particular situation I can't say that there  
will ever be any level of justice.

They cannot give back the 34 years of life that have been taken from  
me.  They can not give back the life of Joe Stuntz that they took June  
26th 1975. They cannot give back the lives of the 60 something people  
that they directly or indirectly caused the death of.  They cannot  
give back the thousand upon thousands of Indian people that were  
killed and abused since the inception of this government.  But the one  
thing we can do, we must do, is find a way to change their attitude.   
My brother Leonard Crow Dog once said, "If you want to change the  
white man you have to change his religion."  And religion is a word  
that means how you do something on a regular basis; most generally it  
is associated with your spirituality. Perhaps with global warming as  
it is and the changes in the weather patterns and the questionable  
future that faces the earth, they will start to listen.  Maybe they  
will reach back and embrace the words of our people foretold again and  
again.  We must live the way that the Earth will renew itself every  
spring.  We must help them reach back. We must speak to them at every  
opportunity. We must make an effort to reach back ourselves to our own  
cultural values. And in doing so we can start to solve the many  
destructive challenges we face.  We must more than ever before find a  
way to heal the wounds of our children and prevent the social  
illnesses that are so prevalent across our reservations and  
communities.  We have the tools, we have the teachings, we have the  
philosophies, we have the culture, we have the artists, we have the  
singers, we have the philosophers, I could go on and on but in essence  
what I am trying to say is it is imperative that we bring together all  
our resources to enhance the future for our children in a way that  
they themselves can further the healthy teachings of our culture and  
way of life; and in doing so I have no doubt that we can change the  
world.

If I am freed next month or if I die in prison remember my words and  
remember we are evidence that the Creator made a beautiful people a  
people that respected the Earth and nature and each other.  We are  
evidence on every level of goodness that when the Creator made us He  
meant for us to be free.  All our traditions have taught us this way.   
And even this very form of government that exists today was copied  
from our people.  Our people with our foods, our medicines, belief in  
freedom and right to choose have influenced the world.  Its too bad  
they didn't adopt a healthy attitude that we had toward the Earth or  
an attitude of respect for us the first keepers of this portion of the  
Earth.  If there is something about me that this government can point  
at and say is wrong or any person say is wrong I will by my own  
choice, if it proves to be fact, seek to fix it myself.  But I also  
want to remind them the policies that have been in place for so long  
have made us what we are today.  The policies that have been in place  
for so long, have created another reservation called Iraq and another  
reservation called Afghanistan, and the list goes on and on, you see  
what's happening over there is what happened here and all down through  
North and South America.

I am just a common man and I am evidence that the powers that put me  
here would like to sweep under the carpet. The same way they did all  
of our past leaders, warriors and people they massacred.  Just as at  
Wounded Knee the Fifth Cavalry sought its revenge for Custer's loss  
and massacred some 300 Indian men women and children then gave out 23  
Medals of Honor and swept the evidence of their wrongdoing aside.     
Perhaps this statement is somewhat more lengthy than the others I've  
made; perhaps it is some things I should have said before and perhaps  
more, if so I hope you will forgive me.  I recently was thought to be  
having a heart attack because of pain in my chest. After having been  
beaten and kicked and stomped in the last year, I am not quite sure  
what was causing the pain.  I had never been beaten, kicked and  
stomped like that before.  And also I have never been 64 years old  
before.  The one thing all this did for me is it really brought home  
my sense of mortality.  I don't want to spend the rest of my life in  
this prison.  And I don't want you to spend the rest of your life in  
some prison of the mind, heart or attitude.  I want you to enjoy your  
life.

If nothing else give somebody a hug for me and say, "This is from Leonard."

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse

Leonard Peltier