[Reprinted without permission from the National Catholic Reporter,
May 24, 1991]
CINCINNATI - In the Spirit of Crazy Horse is a one-sided book, according
to Tim Giago, founder and publisher of the Lakota Times. "It has a lot
of errors in it and outright lies," he said. Although he is glad that the
courts upheld author Peter Matthiesen's First Amendment rights - after an
eight-year battle - Giago is not rejoicing over the book's new release
May 21.
Published by Viking Press, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse details U.S.-Sioux
relations. It focuses in particular on the militant activities of the
American Indian Movement in the 1970s and calls for a new trial of Leonard
Peltier, who was convicted of killing two FBI agents in Oglala, S.D., in 1975.
The book was pulled from the shelves of stores and libraries after FBI agents
and a former governor of South Dakota, William Janklow, sued for libel.
"The FBI agents written about maliciously by Matthiessen, felt they had been
slandered, and I fully respect their right to bring lawsuit," said Giago. "But
under the First Amendment, Matthiessen's rights also had to be protected."
Bill Janklow "was never a friend of mine," Giago said. "I criticized him
often in my paper." But the former governor, who had been convicted in absentia
in an Indian court of raping a Lakota woman, "was totally cleared of this
charge by U.S. marshals, the Bureau of Indian Affairs police and the FBI,"
said Giago. "But none of this is mentioned in the book. Janklow certainly
had a right to sue."
Giago said he would "support very strongly" a new trial for Peltier if "any
impropriety" took place in the original one. But he resents the "tendencies
of ultraliberal people to make Leonard Peltier into a hero, a saint."
Giago's research showed that Peltier "had a record of petty crime as long
as my arm." Comparison of Peltier to Crazy Horse are not only ludicrous,
said Giago, but "were an absolute embarrassment" to David Long, Crazy Horse's
great-grandson, who is now deceased.
While Peltier was still at large after the FBI agents were killed, "a lot
of people on the Pine Ridge Reservation went through hell," Giago said. "Many
of us felt like hunted animals. We couldn't go anywhere without our cars
being stopped at roadblocks, without being subjected to harassment." As a
result, many people on the reservation were angry at Peltier and had little
sympathy for him, according to Giago.
"The biggest fault I find with the book is that the author only talked with
members of the American Indian Movement," he says. "Matthiessen never once
went out and interviewed the people against whom AIM made many allegations
and libelous charges."
Deb Gagnon