[Ppnews] Statement to UN Human Rights Council about Leonard Peltier

[Political Prisoner News]

From: Paulette Dauteuil <albq.jericho at gmail.com>


Greetings
This is a statement that will be submited by 
David Hill to the Human Rights Council at the University of NM Law School:

United Nations Human Rights 
Council
March 16,2010
University Of New Mexico Law School

Greeting to you all.

My name is David Hill. I am of the Choctaw nation 
and an organizer with the American Indian 
Movement since 1972. My reason for this letter is 
to bring attention to the illegal, unjust 
incarceration of my fellow Sun Dancer, Leonard 
Peltier, of the Aninshinabe nation, by the US government.

I will not go into all of the legalities and 
illegalities of his case because we probably 
would not have enough paper to cover them all. 
However there are key points of his illegal 
incarceration that require no legal training or expertise to understand.

Leonard Peltier and others were illegally and 
unjustifiably attacked June 26,1975 by a 
contingent of the Federal Bureau of 
Investigations. In the act of defending 
themselves, one Native American and two FBI 
agents were killed. The Native people were on 
their own land and not seeking confrontation. The 
Native people had been building cabins and other 
buildings as well as planting gardens. They were 
working toward developing programs to alleviate 
the many social ills caused by the wrongful 
policies in place by the US government toward 
Indigenous people. Our people did not provoke 
this attack and historically it is consistent 
with this government’s policies that has at times 
driven Indigenous groups to the point of extinction.

It is our understanding that you, the receivers 
of this letter might have some power of 
intervention, or promote some form of judicial 
change in the case of Leonard Peltier and other 
political prisoners who have suffered the same fate.

Bob Robideau and Dino Butler, who went on trial 
as a result of this same altercation, were 
acquitted by reason of self-defense. Because of 
the persecution of Native people, Leonard Peltier 
was among others who had escaped to Canada. 
Otherwise, he would have been tried as a 
codefendant of the aforementioned other two men. 
Leonard was later arrested in Canada and the Us 
Government used perjured testimony that they 
forcefully manufactured from Myrtle Poor Bear, a 
Native person, to illegally extradite Leonard Peltier from Canada.

This is all a matter of court record and not some 
form of conjecture. In Leonard’s ensuing trail, 
the Us Government did everything it could to 
block Mr. Peltier access to the same level of 
justice that Robideau and Butler, received in 
their trail, where they were acquitted. The US 
government sequestered jurors and led them to 
believe their lives were in jeopardy, thus 
tainting their impartiality in relationship to 
Leonard’s case. The Us Government intimidated 
witnesses and made them fear for their lives and 
the lives of their families to illicit 
detrimental perjured testimony against Leonard 
Peltier. The US government withheld evidence that 
would have led to Leonard’s acquittal.

Prior to the trail the FBI met with the judge 
regarding Leonard’s case, which is considered 
legally inappropriate because it can and did 
prejudice the Judge towards Leonard Peltier. The 
place were Leonard was tried, Fargo ND is 
considered by Native people of the area, as well 
as other social justice groups to be a racist 
environment. It is obvious given these 
circumstances and in some ways by the FBI’s own 
admissions, via their own internal memos that 
they put the full weight of prosecution upon 
Leonard Peltier. They did not caring who paid the 
price for their own transgressions against our 
people. As in the passed, as well as now, seeking 
to exonerate themselves of the FBI’s illegal 
activities. In the totality of Indigenous versus 
non –Indigenous relations, this is not an isolated incident.

There are to date some 378 treaties ratified by 
the US Congress that are violated feloniously 
every day. There are millions of acres of land 
that are legally ours that we are denied access 
to. There are lands leases that have expire that 
this US government has failed to honor and return the land to the people.

Bob Robideau and Dino Butler who went on trial 
before Leonard Peltier were allowed to present to 
the best of their ability the many circumstances 
that led to the confrontation that day. Because 
the jury was not sequestered, because the judge 
was not visited by the FBI and because there 
witnesses were not intimidated by the FBI the 
truth for the most part was allowed to be told 
and the jury and judge were not only allowed to 
do what was just but they were allowed to right 
what was wrong in the case of these two men.
Again, Robideau &  Butler were acquitted by 
reason of self-defense. Had the judge and jury in 
Leonard’s case had access to the same level of 
information, Leonard Peltier would undoubtedly be a free man today.

Since Leonard’s incarceration all of these things 
written have been proven in court and have been 
recognized by the court as truth. Quoting one 
judge who spoke to us in seeming hollow words 
“Had these improprieties not happened, Leonard 
Peltier probably would have been acquitted.” 
However he went on further to say that he was not 
“totally convinced.” Considering the known racist 
atmosphere in North and South Dakota he may have 
been correct. I am paraphrasing a quote by judge 
Haney of the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals who 
made the aforementioned statement. He further 
mentioned the FBI was equally responsible for the death of their two agents.

In short every piece of evidence used to convict 
Leonard Peltier has been proven false in court. 
Many attorneys have advised us that in their view 
every legal appeal has been filed that would 
under normal circumstances exonerate Leonard 
Peltier in the same way his co-defendants, Dino 
Butler and Bob Robideau were exonerated in their 
trail prior to Leonard’s trial.

Under the criteria by which Mr. Butler & Robideau 
were tried, had the young Joe Stuntz, who was 
killed on that day lived and gone to trial he 
would have also been found innocent by reason of 
self-defense.  This means the FBI was at fault 
and considering the fact that Joe Stuntz was 
killed in an act of self-defense, it is 
reasonable to say the FBI is guilty of murder. 
You would be hard pressed to find where any 
Euro-American has been prosecuted for the many 
thousands of Indians deaths that have occurred at 
their hands, yet when we as a people under their 
same laws defend ourselves there is rarely justice for our people.

We as an Indigenous people have always been 
forced to fight their fight under their rules. 
And when we win in their courts they either 
change the rules or blatantly ignore their laws. 
To this date Leonard has satisfied all the 
prerequisites for parole or release under 
judicial rules that Americans are expected to 
follow. However to date -35 years after the 
Oglala Incident, Leonard Peltier remains a 
political prisoner. Attorneys have told us, as 
well as private statements by various federal 
judges behind the scenes, that Leonard’s 
continued imprisonment is of a political nature, 
and so requires a political solution.

Leonard is 65 and presently denied adequate 
healthcare and is kept in a maximum security 
facility. Scientist say our bodies completely 
replace themselves every seven years. For Leonard 
that is five cellular lifetimes ago.

Leonard is not a threat to anyone’s freedom, 
anyone’s life, anyone’s property or in any way 
that would threaten the right to life and a 
pursuit of happiness by any just people.

If you talk to our opposition, they will have 
many statements to justify their behavior. 
However in cross-examination these statements do 
not withstand the light of day. There have been 
dozens of interventions filed with the UN council 
on human rights on Leonard’s behalf. Leonard 
Peltier has been nominated for the Nobel Peace 
Prize five times; he has received numerous 
humanitarian awards. He is an accomplished, world 
renowned artist. He is a father, a grand father 
and a great grandfather and considered an elder 
by his people, the Turtle Mountain Anishinabe. 
His people from Turtle Mountain Reserve have 
filed a request with the US to have him paroled or released to their custody.

There are no justifiable reasons under the 
auspices of humanitarianism, judicial ruling or 
federal law for Leonard Peltieri to remain an 
obviously, unequivocally a political prisoner. 
This is not an isolated event or case .there are 
others political prisoners with in the US prison 
system. However, what makes Leonard’s case stand 
out above all others are the things mentioned in 
this letter which are a matter of court record 
and obvious to anyone who can look at the 
situation in an unbiased unprejudiced way, 
evidence of the illegal unjust imprisonment of Mr. Peltier.

I am not just representing personal views but the 
views, hopes and prayers of thousands of people 
worldwide who are familiar with this case. Our 
hopes and prayers are that you, in some way can 
bring relief to Leonard Pelier, his family and 
his people; and in doing so some way promote justice and peace for all people.

Thank you for your time and the work that you do. 
May we all live in harmony with the Creator, the 
Mother Earth, our fellow men, and respect our brother’s vision.

Most sincerely,
In the Spirit of doing what is right
Righting what is wrong

David Hill Choctow

Southern, Oklahoma AIM
35828 Hwy 56,
Sasakwa, Ok 74867




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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