Slowly and gradually Vietnam released to us, the POW’s, either as walking, talking gaunt human beings or fragments of body parts in body bags. The direct result of invasion by a country driven by a lunatic policy of communist containment, against a foe committed to victory. Remember, Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Cong were fighting as "patriots" to save their country. Remember George Washington? Yep...labeled a traitor by the British Crown. He was not fighting to save his country...he was out to overthrow the Brits and establish a new one. There is a difference. Ho was a patriot...Washington was a Bolshevik. One mans patriot is another mans revolutionary.
In the American classroom, history books fill us with the placenta of patriotism to define America and it's sense of democracy..today I wonder it the social studies books will mention Guantanamo and waterboarding where many foreign nationals are incarcerated without trial and denied any constitutional rights of trial. This country imprisons medical marijuana users for something fast becoming legalized in states, but the Feds overstep their bounds tracking down users of bongs and the businesses that cater to them in legal states...states rights are not recognized in the United States. Washington DC is god almighty and not a very nice god at all...one who spends more tax dollars on prisons built yearly and less money on VA hospitals or homeless shelters. It is not a government of the people, don't kid yourself. We already have the patriot act..what more do you need to know..until it's too late...
The American Indian has been the victim of government persecution and genocide throughout anglo expansion of Manifest Destiny, and in fact, the American reservation system was the model Adolph Hitler admired and put into use, albeit modified, while setting up his extermination camps throughout Europe. We deplored that action. We also deplored the fact that Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for years in South Africa for advocating equality and freedom for his people. We were outraged at this travesty...but as they say, whoever THEY are, let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
We have our own national embarrassment in the incarceration hit parade. We have Leonard Peltier, activist for Native rights who stood up gun for gun against the FBI 39 years ago and still imprisoned. Each successive president has ignored national and international public pleas for clemency, a pardon and release of America's POW. Not only are American's getting more vocal over the issue, but so are activists in other countries. Two groups spearheading the battle for his release are AIM (American Indian Movement) and Amnesty International. While Peltier was a target of the federal government, the feds are now themselves in the crosshairs of a growing and very vocal movement to free Peltier. You might say....locked and loaded and ready to take AIM!
Activist Peltier born on September 12, 1944 is the Nelson Mandela of the American Indian Movement. In 1977 he was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for first degree murder in the shooting deaths of two FBI agents during the government attack on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the bicentennial year of 1975. He is being held as a POW as far as I am concerned in the Coleman Fed Pen in Florida. Unlike Disney World, a federal pen is hardly the hap, hap, happiest place on earth. Peltiers case and the controversy that surrounds it has involved a very vocal support base around the world, including the watchdog advocates, Amnesty International.
Peltier's roots are in North Dakota where he was born in 1944. When his parents divorced when Peltier was only 4 years old and his sister moved in with their grandparents on the Turtle Mountain Reservation near Belcourt, North Dakota. He attended a boarding school run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in North Dakota but then transferred to high school in Florida but dropped out in 9th grade and returned to Turtle Mountain to live with his father.
As the dawning of the age of aquarius began its rise in the protest laden Sixties, Peltier moved to Seattle and eventually got into the auto body repair business in the land of the Space Needle. The Sixties hypodermic needle of activism was infectious and Peltier became involved in numerous causes for Indian civil rights where he was introduced and joined the American Indian Movement (AIM) the SDS of the Native American Movement.
The Sixties began to fade and as the 70's began to spin like a berserk disco ball out of orbit, there was trouble and tension at Pine Ridge in South Dakota. Two factions composed of the traditionalists and backers of elected tribal chairman Richard Wilson came to a head. Seems Wilson in his Third Reichian aspirations had formed a small militia called the Guardians of the Oglala Nation, yep, GOON who specialized in quelling the opposition of political foes. Protests were staged, but they couldn't get no satisfaction, so Aim and the Lakota armed themselves and took over Wounded Knee in February of 1973. This led to a 71 day siege by Federal agents of the US government goonsquads, the FBI.
Previously, Peltier was arrested and incarcerated in jail in Milwaukee on a charge of attempted murder. He got bailed out and immediately tossed his hat into the protest ring and joined with others outside the fed building in the city that beer made famous. Soon he was on his way on the Yellow Brick Road of activism to Pine Ridge when the siege ended.
As the bicentennial year of 1975 arrived to celebrate America's "independence" Peltier went to Pine Ridge as a full fledged AIM member in an effort to stem the violence. He was now a fugitive at the time and a warrant was issued from Milwaukee for his capture. This time he was accused of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution for an attempted murder of an off duty Milwaukee cop, of which he was later acquitted.
On June 26, 1975, with nothing better to investigate, two FBI agents, Jack Coler and ron Williams were on the reservation at Pine Ridge searching for Jimmy Eagle wanted for questioning regarding an assault and robbery of local ranch hands which resulted in the theft of a pair of cowboy boots! As the sun began it's noontime ascent, the two cops were driving along in two separate unmarked vehicles in hot pursuit of a red pick up truck matching the description of Jimmy Eagles vehicle. If he could be detained, the FBI would have secured the pair of cowboy boots and probably gotten a "what the fuck" award for heroism and bravery beyond the call of duty, on a level of those lauded in the capture of Bonnie and Clyde.
As the pursuit proceeded the two agents soon came under heavy fire from rifles firing from the pursued truck, so the two agents were unable to return fire from their .38's. Why, I have no idea. Fire at me and I'll find a way to fire back. I guess those .38 specials weren't so special after all. Mayday calls were issued and as another agent arrived he too was subject to intense fire. The rest of the afternoon was spent by law enforcement waiting for reinforcements. It was Custer’s last stand all over again.
Around 2:30 that afternoon, law dogs shot Joe Stuntz, a member of AIM, who managed to elude capture after he was wounded. The FBI claimed he had taken part in the shoot-out. By 4:30 that afternoon, it emerged that the two FBI agents originally in the chase, Coler and Williams were indeed shot dead and their bodies were removed from their vehicles. By 6:30 the dinner show got underway and the FBI fired tear gas into the Jumping Bull houses on the reservation, where they did find Stuntz's body where he had died of subsequent wounds. According to FBI reports he was found wearing Colers green FBI jacket which they claimed he had stolen from the agents car off of his dead body. Lets see, they found the two dead agents at 2:30, plenty of time to remove Colers jacket themselves and place it on the deceased AIM member and claim he was wearing it when they found him. Coincidence? I think not. Lets face it, cops have been known to plant evidence to convict or in this case justify and unjustifiable homicide where the victim was not clearly identified as the perpetrator. Remember those police riots in Chicago in '68 where violence was instigated by undercover police agents to give Chicago's "finest" the opportunity to unleash the ninth gate of unconstitutional hell.
Amidst all the confusion of this case..one thing remains clear cops who kill unarmed citizens get a slap on the wrist..Leonard Peltier is a POW of the American government… Leonard Peltier should be freed at once… To find out what you can do contact The American Indian Movement at http://aimovement.org Amnesty International www.amnesty.org and Google “Free Leonard Peltier” and lost of defense committees will show up...use your voice now and take AIM at the American Government!