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11-24-05
Aho my relations,
I again write to you on this day of mourning as I approach the
end of 30 years of deprived freedom.I am here to appease a vengeful government that has come onto
our lands, committed genocide and continues to rob us of our history and culture while giving away
our land, murdering, and torturing our people. I am held here because of the corruption of two countries
(Canada and the United States) which illegally extradited me, and which led to an illegal conviction and
imprisonment.
Despite the incessant claims of this being a country of laws and an
example to the world of justice, freedom, and democracy, it is obvious that this Government protects
whoever it wants, and imprisons and kills whoever it wants.
My imprisonment is one key example of what lengths this
Government will go to in order to achieve its goal of repressing indigenous dissent. The United States
Government continually seeks to imprison all indigenous peoples on our land. The US Government has been increasing its oppressive and
tyrannical tactics. All peoples rights are being eroded and fears are heightened as a tool to keep the war
machine alive and increase the destruction of Mother Earth. Innocent people are dying, not only in this country, but all
over the world in the name of democracy and freedom. My elders before me said, and I tell you now, The earth does not
belong to us, we belong to the earth. And I want to say, this earth belongs to Tunkashala, the creator
of all that is. There has already started atime of great cleansing upon the earth and this Government has
begun to crumble.
The fabric of the constitution is soiled and torn.
We as human beings can give thanks or mourn, but if all that happens is
no more than lip service, very little will happen to correct things. In the traditions of
my native people we barely had words of thanks. It was something that was shown by action of giving or doing. We
all breath the same air, are made of the same earth, and drink of the same water.
We are all more relative than we sometimes acknowledge.
We need to do more than just what is right. We need to join together and
right what is wrong.
It is time we all unite to stop the madness threatening the
whole planet, and stand together with those who go beyond words and deliver on the promise of freedom and
justice, and against those guided by greed, arrogance, and prejudice.
Stay true, work in unity, confront the traitors, dont be afraid,
and dont let our struggle die.
And finally, I mourn the loss of so many of our relatives over
the past year
and especially my brother Steve Robideau.
I appreciate you each and every one.
Now, please organize and set out to correct the wrongs so that this day
of mourning will become a relic of the past.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
Mitakuye Oyasin
1-22-06
MESSAGE TO OUR YOUTH
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This year will mark more than three decades of my unjust imprisonment. Behind bars I have aged from a youth myself, into an elder. As an elder I have become increasingly encouraged by the potential and promise of indigenous youth from all First Nations. Today indigenous youth have greater opportunities than possibly ever before in our peoples history. However, these opportunities were not attained without sacrifice. They arose from great struggle. They came from ordinary men and women; your relatives who made extraordinary sacrifices. These warriors’ struggle to ensure a better future for generations to come can never be taken for granted.
I am especially pleased to hear of the rising numbers of indigenous youth who are graduating from high school and entering institutions of higher learning; universities, colleges, and technical schools. Other youth are taking advantage of social programs that will assist them in each of their respective futures. These are all opportunities that as a youth I could have only dreamed of. Yet, even though we have made much progress and advances for our people we still have a long path ahead to attain justice for First Nations.
I strongly believe that the first step on that path is to always be conscious of our people’s history. Irregardless of what nation we belong to we have shared a combined history of struggle against a more than 500-year long genocide. It has been a genocide focused not only on the death of our relatives, but of our spirituality, culture, and language. All will be lost if we do not honor our ancestors by learning about their sacrifice so that the people may live. We must never forget our ways, our traditions, and our wisdom.
Each one of you must acknowledge your capacity and ability to bring about positive changes for our people. This is done not only by bettering yourself, but by helping your brothers and sisters who have wondered off the Red Road. I am deeply pained by the numbers of youth who have prematurely lost their life to gang violence and suicide. It is just as troubling to hear of those who continue to suffer from drug and alcohol abuse. I ask you to bring your brothers and sisters who need guidance and medicine to our ceremonies. It is our spirituality that has always sustained us as a people.
Throughout history there have been countless attempts to rob us as a people; our lands, our history, our language, and our culture. However, they have never been able to take our future from us. The future belongs to the Creator only and it is the Creator who gives it to the youth. As a youth it is your responsibility to honor all your relations, our Mother Earth, and the Creator by committing yourself to the struggle for a future of justice and a better tomorrow for all peoples.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
2-3-06 Danzhó Leonard Peltier Defense Committee,
my heart is with you and, at most, with Leonard.
Please forward this letter to him.
Danzhó Leonard,
Please never give up. Times will change and hope is around.
Thank you, Leonard, for being strong and keep standing.
Thank you for connecting so many people and hearts.
I today, ask a lot of friends and relatives to send a prayer not only to you and your friends, but also to all the others who are
being offended
because off their skin, tribe, native, religion, opinion, sex or any
other attribute.
Tonight 2 good friends off mine have their birthday party. But we also will
find a moment to send a prayer especially for you and to you, that you may
have the opportunity to have a birthday party in free yourself.
With love and great respect
Matthias W. Kamp IV.
iyánéé
Kautzbrunnenweg 42
D-55276 Oppenheim
Germany
A Gathering Of Thoughts
By: keith rabin
© June 26th, 2006
taken
from the IPF newsletter
To honor those lost and the
continued fight for Leonard Peltier's Freedom.
Understand the heart beat of Unci Maka
By feeling the drums beat, through the
earth
The sacred songs we sang, we sang and prayed
To the 4 directions in the circle, was strength.
We walked across this sacred ground
In honor of Jun Little, Joe Kills Right Stuntz
We prayed for Anna Mae, we prayed for Leonard Peltier
Prayed for Those lost before and those yet to be found
So many tears come to the people of the
Lakota Oyate
These 31 years are close to the heart of many
My sister in the Indian way told her heart
We all gathered to give of ourselves this day
Many came, for many more reasons than I
Under the arbor in honor of Calvin Jumping Bull
We talked of Leonard Peltier and his life
Life it self, held us together in all our colors
Again in Oglala in the heat of the day
The march began along hwy 18, it was another honor
Each step for a man locked away for being Indian
Locked away for defending his people
I walked over the culvert giving many
freedom
I watched the bird nation in the draw Leonard escaped thru
I saw the path to freedom is not easy, being Indian
I noticed the lessening of each years gathering
But I did not notice Leonard Peltier
himself with us
This is why I come each year, to see Leonard in Oglala
Oh the day of freedom will be bittersweet with tears
The memorial cakes and the time lost, we stand to go again .......
in peace
keith
8-14-06
Leonard Peltier's Commemoration
Statement
for Ireland Hunger Strike, of 1981
Again I must say 'my relatives' because we are all related
in one way or another by natural design of the Creator and by our common
concerns for the earth and freedom. I have to acknowledge that another
year has passed since my illegal imprisonment; thirty years have gone by
while I remain illegally incarcerated.
It seems that this year is one for reflection. Relatives from struggles
around the world are stopping to reflect on the lives of friends,
comrades, and loved ones who are now gone. During the past thirty years I
have seen many people leave my life and journey to the spirit world. I
have learned from the many people that have come into my life the true
meaning of friendship and solidarity. With that, I must salute and address
my friends, brothers and comrades in Ireland. I especially want to express
my condolences to the families of the Hunger Strikers from a
quarter-century ago. I want to send my warmest greetings to my friend
Gerry Adams. I also want to salute each of my friends throughout Ireland
that have supported me for so many years. I pray that you will continue to
lend me your support and consider me your friend.
At this time, my friends and relatives in Ireland are suffering loss, but
also celebrating the memories of those from their communities who have now
gone to the spirit world. Twenty five years ago you lost ten young men in
the prime of their lives. Men who would have been starting families or
graduating from university if they'd been born into a more just society
suffered in the most inhumane way possible. When Bobby Sands died on May
5th, 1981, millions of people from around the world joined their voices
together to condemn the British government that allowed him to parish. I
joined my voice to theirs. I fasted in solidarity with the Hunger Strikers
for forty days during that dreadful year. Fasting is something that I have
done many times, when I was a free man, while participating in our sacred
Sun Dance. The sufferings of our relations in Ireland are pains that we as
Indian people know all too well. Our suffering, our fasting and our
struggling links us together with a common bond. That is why I say to you,
there in Ireland, you are my relatives. As your relative, let me join my
thoughts, tears, and prayers with yours as you commemorate your fallen,
especially those who died on Hunger Strike in 1981. My family and your
families, my pain and your pains, my peoples struggle and the struggles of
your people are all connected. we truly are all related. Thirty-one years
ago the Lakota elders asked for help and protection from the GOON squad
that was terrorizing the Lakota Nation. I, along with many others,
responded to that call. I simply responded to a call to help others
protect our lands, culture and traditions. I ask that you not loose focus
on the real issue, which is that people suffering extreme hardships need
not be. Even today we see children, women and elders being murdered in
Pine Ridge and Belfast, on Big Mountain in Navajo country and in Basque
country in Spain. and all in the name of justice. From Chiapas to El
Salvador and all around this Mother Earth lands are being taken, cultures
are being robbed of their languages, and the extermination of traditions
are occurring on a daily basis.
I must share with you that, as the years have passed, every day I hear
routinely the sounds of my cell door opening in the morning and closing at
night. Yet, I have not forgotten what I was asked to do when I was asked
to respond to the call our Elders sent- a cry for help. Now I once again
must call on you for your help. I ask you to join your voices and efforts
with mine. A young Cheyenne man by the name of Dave Bailey is our Leonard
Peltier Defense Committee representative for Ireland and England. I ask
that you help him in his efforts to highlight my case, and search for
solutions in that part of the world that will eventually mean I never
again have to hear the sounds of cell doors opening and closing. I ask you
to do all you can to support his efforts, my efforts, and the efforts of
all Indian people. I humbly thank you for the warmth, hospitality, and
support that you have shown our people over the years when they have come
into your community. As you commemorate your fallen and your dead,
remember that our suffering is linked to yours. We mourn with you and pray
for you. as relatives.
Mitakuye Oyasin (We are all related)
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse
Leonard Peltier
8-28-07
Dear
Brother Leonard,
This
elder woman, ten years your senior, has but one thing to say tonight!
(Actually two things to say)... Bless you Leonard, and
Love to you!
We
shall write soon as possible to tell you of fall colors beginning here in
Washington State!
Sincerely,
Grandmother
Nadra Bluewater Mountain
9-4-07
Then,
...dearest kind sir
Brother Leonard,
Grandmother wonders?
Do you enjoy hearing about nature? Do you enjoy, not knowing the
person writing, if person blathers on and on about the scenes
around them. If that person carefully explains of the clouds in
sky, where, which direction, how high what kind? Or the trees
and other creations of Earth Mother and Great Mystery?
Grandmother doesn't
write, she feels, of things that may interest a beautiful man wrongly
imprisoned for countless years! Have spent time reading about
you, Leonard sir, and for the life of me, still wonder what
possibly may this lady tell a man, a brother, about something which
interests him? We shall think on this further to see what in the
world we might write that would give you a chuckle, a smile ...a good
feeling within? Is there that some one thing of interest for
you? We continue thinking brother Leonard... we
continue contemplating! We can't say good about the government,
therefore say nothing. We cannot say good about The president,
therefore we say nothing. Its a late to bed night this night...
and need to have this young person in heart into her bed!
Good Night "Sir" Leonard!
 
[Gma.
Nadra Bluewater Mountain]
(( above 2 messages were taken from my msn-Group 'Many Smokes ))
9-5-07
To
my relations and friends
Leonards
birthday comes again to find him locked out from his natural world.
Please
take a moment to remember him and all of the native population shut away
form the natural world.
To
disconnect from the natural world would be like to take any school age child
and remove the computer and tv from their life.
Please
remember Leonard in your heart.
If for no other reason then he is a human being and part of my life
and as your friend I ask this of you if
you feel you can in a good way...
Pilamaya
In
Peace
keith
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Leonard's birthday is --as you surely
know-- on September 12th !
Birthday cards should be send to:
Leonard Peltier #89637-132
USP Lewisburg
P.O. Box 1000
Lewisburg, PA 17837
9- 6-07
The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee kindly requests that you please forward this annoucement in its entirety, please do not modify, edit, remove or add to this annoucement. Please refer to Note Section, after Leonard Peltiers' message for Leonard's address and additional information.
Respectfully,
Toni Zeidan-Co-director LPDC
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A Message from Leonard Peltier:
Greetings My Relatives,
You know I was just thinking there should be a degree one could receive for having expertise on doing prison time. I think I would be called Professor Peltier, PhD. with 30 years tenure. A friend of mine said once, PhD where he is from stands for post hole digger. I think I would at this time, embrace being a post hole digger, although I don't relish the thought of fencing anything in after being fenced in myself for 30 + years.
On being imprisoned, I want to touch on that subject a bit. There are some who have voiced their opinion in one way or another, that I should give up after all these years of trying to win my freedom. Aside from the oppressors who put me here, some of them are people who were at times, part of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee; others, on the fringes. My answer, to put it in a simple, colloquial phrase, that anyone can understand, .it ain't gonna happen! There are many reasons, both physical and mental, spiritual and social. The number one reason is that there aren't any women in here. That should cover the social. Eh!
Another reason, is that the struggle is not just about me. It's about life on earth, the struggle to survive, the onslaught of destructive technology, wealth mongering, by those who see the common man as nothing more than expendable beings to further their personal quest for power and affluence. I am here because, as a common man, along with other common men, I chose to try to stop the exploitation of my people. I know the Creator sent other common men at other times and other places and to other races to do the same. I am honored to be among common men. I know they tried to cause us to separate from alliances by color, religion, and geographic locale but our struggle is the same. It's against people taking more than they need. In my culture it is taught that you should not take more than you need. In Christianity, Buddhism, and Zen, as well as most other spiritual teachings, it is taught that gluttony is a sin. Violation of this teaching is the reason for global warming, and the reason for world wars, including the war in Iraq at this time.
Because of people who always seek to take more than they need, my people have suffered greatly. They are the poorest of the poor yet most still cling to the original teachings. They have fought for several generations for the exploitation of our land, illegal occupation of our land, unjust treatment in the U.S. judicial system, and most of all, government lies and liars that have led the American people to believe all this exploitation and violation of treaties is in their best interest. I watch TV from time to time, and I notice there are those who try to make the wars like a war between religions. I tell you my relatives, it is only a ruse to get young men to die for those who crave wealth and power over the common man.
If the many denominations of religions would stand together as one against the violation that jeopardizes life itself, it would make a major difference throughout the world. Today, more than any other time in history, you are either part of the problem or part of the solution. I may, by now, have written more than you care to read. But, from where I sit myself, it's the best I can do. The Defense Committee that bears my name struggles to help enlighten people of events and needs of people in jeopardy. I don't use the word struggle lightly. Aside from trying to raise money for attorneys and office expenses, etc., we raise money for food and clothing for needy people on reservations in urban areas. In my world, the poor are common. I am honored to be one of them, to represent them from time to time, though it be from afar. We as Native People look to the Creator's greatest manifestation for teachings, Mother Earth and her system of nature, along with personal visions, from time to time. In that, we see grass though encased in concrete, pushing its way through the cracks. We see the trees and water break down the structures of man that imprison them. We see everywhere, all life trying to follow the original instruction given by the Creator. If I were a blade of grass, I would grow out of here. If I were water, I would flow away from here. If I were a ray of light, I would bounce off these walls and be gone. However, I am not and unless I, at some future time, receive my freedom that was unjustly taken in the same manner as was the freedom of so many Native People before me. I can only leave here through my paintings, written words, and some other forms of communication that are sometimes available. I am in my 60's now. If I end up spending all my days here, and my last breath rides on the wind, and the moisture of my body flows to the sea, and the elements of my being make the grass grow and the trees flourish, make no mistake they can kill my body but they can't kill me. I am a common man.
The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee will continue working on my behalf and towards my freedom unless you the supporters tell me to close down the Defense Committee. Having said all this, I wish to ask you, if you can in any way help us, meaning the Defense Committee, send any donation to :
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
3800 N. Mesa A2
El Paso, Texas 79902
Pease do so, it is a common cause. If my case stands as it is, no common person has real freedom. Only the illusion until you have something the oppressors want. Back to being a post hole digger.. I'd rather be a free post hole digger than Professor Leonard Peltier, PhD.
May the Creator bless you with all you need.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, who never gave up
All my relations,
Leonard Peltier
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Note: Sept 12, is Leonard Peltier's birthday. Supporters wishing to send Leonard a Birthday Card, we suggest that you send the birthday cards and letters NOW, thus allowing sufficient time for mail delivery.
Leonard Peltier's address:
Leonard Peltier #89637-132
USP Lewisburg PA
PO Box 1000
Lewisburg PA 17837
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Leonard Peltier Defense Committe
Email: info@leonardpeltier.net
Website: http://www.leonardpeltier.net/
Phone- 570-524-0749
International Peltier Forum
email: ipforum@skynet.be
IPF WEBSITE: http://users.skynet.be/kola/index.htm
ONLINE PETITION FOR EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY
http://users.skynet.be/kola/lppet.htm
4-25-08
Could Peltier Be Freed in
December?
By Kevin Abourezk
To this day, when I think of a good place, I
think of that muddy creek meandering through cottonwoods and scrub grass.
In the summers, when the blistering sun dried to
a crisp brown the grass on the slope leading to the creek, my cousins and I
would race each other down to the creek. There, we'd take off our shoes and
jump into the brown water. We'd swim for a while and then get bored and throw
mud at each other.
We never knew the history of that place on the
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Not really. We knew shots had been fired there
once. That two men, white men, government men, had died in the shootout. We
could see the bullet holes in the white stucco of a house left standing on the
land.
It wasn't until many years later, as a college
student, that I learned the bloody history of the Jumping Bull ranch, the
haven of my childhood.
I had heard Leonard Peltier's name as a child.
He was a warrior. A man who had sacrificed himself for the people. Who sat in
a jail cell for a crime he did not commit.
In college, I learned others knew his name as
well. Archbishop Desmond Tutu knew him and believed he should be freed.
Amnesty International called him a political prisoner.
To John Trudell, the explanation for Peltier's
imprisonment is simple.
"The government could never allow the truth
to come out," the former American Indian Movement chairman said recently
in an interview. "Peltier's imprisonment ... is about the government
using the conviction of Peltier as a cover-up."
Trudell believes the FBI inserted an operative
into AIM's ranks and that the operative was responsible for starting the June
26, 1975, shootout on the Jumping Bull ranch near Oglala, S.D., that led to
the deaths of two FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ron Williams, and AIM member Joe
Stuntz.
The FBI deliberately attacked the AIM camp at
the ranch, expecting reinforcements from a nearbly BIA swat team, Trudell
said.
"But the BIA swat team didn't come,"
he said. "So the plan went wrong. That's why I think they lean this heavy
on Leonard because they don't ever want to explain what happened there."
Of course, others take a different view of that
tragic day's events.
The FBI has long maintained Coler and Williams
were chasing a dangerous robber named Jimmy Eagle onto the ranch when they
came under fire from Peltier and other AIM members. The department believes
its two agents were killed execution-style by an assault rifle-wielding
Peltier.
What's certain is this three men died at the
Jumping Bull ranch that day.
And a fourth, a 63-year-old Anishinabe-Lakota
man has spent the past 32 years and 86 days behind bars.
But in just a few months, Peltier will get a
rare opportunity for freedom.
For the first time in 15 years, Peltier will get
a full hearing before the U.S. Parole Commission in December. However, Friends
of Peltier believes his hearing is more likely to occur in early 2009 because
of the commission's schedule for parole reviews that it plans to hold at the
United States Pentitentiary in Lewisburg, Penn., where Peltier is currently
imprisoned.
The hearing will lead to a full reassessment of
Peltier's case, according to Friends of Peltier.
Of course, other avenues of release exist for
Peltier, including a possible presidential pardon by exiting President George
W. Bush at the end of the year.
What does Trudell think of the chances of Bush
freeing Peltier?
"Every step of the way, they broke their
own laws so I don't see them letting him out as an act of goodness because
they've shown no acts of goodness the whole time through."
Regardless of whether Peltier is freed, there's
one thing I know for certain: My memories of the place where his road to
imprisonment began will never be the same.
I can never return to that meandering creek
where I spent sweltering summers playing in the muddy water, blissfully
ignorant of history, without thinking of the four men who lost their lives and
freedom that terrible day.
____
Kevin Abourezk, Oglala Lakota, is a reporter and editor at the
Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star. He is a reznet assignment editor and teaches
reporting at the Freedom Forum's American Indian Journalism Institute.
5-26-08
... on
behalf of the LPDOC --- and a Message from Leonard - dated May
18th
you'll
find HERE !
6-26-08
Statement from Leonard Peltier at the Oglala Commemoration.
Greetings my relatives,
I say relatives because you are all my family. I am honored, greatly honored today that you would listen to my words and come together in this way so that our future
generations' will not forget what happened here in this land.
You can't imagine how much I miss walking on the bare earth. Or brushing against a tree branch or hearing birds in the morning or seeing an antelope or deer cross my path. I have been here in federal prison for 32 years; if you could imagine being in your own home stuck in one room for one year without leaving it, multiply that by 32 and you might have some idea of how imprisonment plays on your feelings. I really get tired sometimes living here in this cell, this prison. Yet at times I feel really good because for some reason I know that there are those out there who have prayed for me in some way. And it helps me because there are moments when a peaceful feeling will wash over me in my solitude.
I try to keep up with world events like the war in Iraq, where those people are going through the same thing our Indian people went through and over the same things. The US wants their resources and they have divided those people against each other. Those children over there and families for generations will still feel the effects of that onslaught of destruction.
When I look at our own peoples situation I see a people who have not recovered from the destruction put upon them in the past. Today, the greater society of America doesn't want to accept us for who we are because we will always stand as a reminder of the immoral wrongs that they do and have done all over the world, all in the name of technology and progress. Our people have told them from the very beginning about the consequences of mistreatment of individuals and mistreatment of Mother Earth. There are history books that quote our chief headmen and medicine people cautioning them about there destruction of the earth and nature.
We know the first concentration camps America ever had held Indian prisoners. The first biological warfare was used on our people with poisonous blankets. The first atomic bomb dropped was dropped on Indian land in Nevada. Today there are abandoned uranium quarries in Navajo country that cause genetic defects on a lot of their people. When you look into the past, America has used us Indians as their social experiment. They tried to destroy us with boarding schools, relocation, and even the first slavery practice was with American people. However Indian people would fight or commit suicide than to become slaves, and so they imported Africans.
Forgive me if I am repeating things you already know, but I just wanted to bring these things up because these are the reasons behind the Wounded Knee takeover in 73 happened and the shootout at Oglala happened. Our people were not just taking a stand against this government for themselves; they in essence represented Indian people all across the Americas. Our resistance wasn't to kill anyone; our resistance was to remain alive while we let the world know what had been and what was being done to us, the Indigenous people.
I know for a fact from communication all around the world, that we Indian people inspired many other indigenous people to stand up and defend themselves because of our actions. I have gotten letters from all over the world where people said
"if the native Americans can stand up to people like that being in the belly of the beast, surely we can do likewise in some
way."
I recognize that my being here isn't all about me; my continued imprisonment in essence serves as a warning to others willing to stand up for their people.
The US has violated their own constitution they violated the treaties we had with them, they violated all kinds of moralities to bring about my conviction. The average non Indian American either doesn't know or couldn't care less. As long as they can keep their high standard of living our struggles mean nothing to them. Most recently other nations have raised the issues of Americas mistreatment of the people in the concentration camp in Guantanamo; issues of lack of a fair trial, issues of physical, mental abuse and of sanctioned torture of prisoners. I want to also mention that our people were the first to be tortured by this government and we were the first to be victims of scalping by the Europeans. The colonizers were paying for our men, woman and
children's scalps.
I may sound angry in what I am saying, but all this goes back to why we are here today. We must not forget what has happened in the past but we must also find a way to heal from those things that have happened and be stronger in the future. We need to heal our families; we need to heal our
family's structures so that what happened to our people in the past can't happen to us again. For several generations our children were shipped off to boarding schools which destroyed their understanding of family and family responsibilities, and you think of the statistics today facing this, they don't have to kill us anymore with guns, our children and adults both are killing themselves.
Again, like I said before we have not healed from the destruction that was put upon us, I know each one of us can be better than what we are, it takes effort, it takes getting back to our ceremonies, it takes getting back to our respect for one another, the earth, the Creator and our respect for our
brothers' and sisters' vision. It takes men being men and being strong fathers and uncles and grandfathers and brothers, not just as a matter of birth but as a matter of responsible behavior. It also takes our women to stand as the strong mothers they were meant to be and the sisters, grandmothers and aunties.
We need to repair ourselves and not wait for some grant from the government to tell us or guide us in our recovery. We need to take that responsibility ourselves and mend the sacred hoop.
Again I want to say as I have said many times in the past, though my body is locked into this cell, my heart and soul is with you today. In closing I would like to acknowledge the great loss of my brother Floyd Westerman, a tireless advocate for Indigenous rights.
I'm sure that he as well as many others, who like him devoted their time and energies to better the conditions our people face, are here with us today in spirit. We have no guarantees of the time of our own passing but until that time or my time I will miss them greatly as I miss you my family. Be kind to one another, and remember my words; for I have spoken to you from my heart of hearts. And you will always be in my prayers.
In the spirit of Crazy Horse and every Indian man or person that stood for their people,
Doksha
Leonard Peltier
# 89637-132
USP Lewisburg
US Penitentiary
P.O. Box 1000
Lewisburg, PA 17837-1000
7-22-08
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