OCTOBER 12, 1994 INTERNATIONAL
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' DAY
IN SOLIDARITY TO DEMAND JUSTICE AND FREEDOM
FOR NORTH AMERICAN
POLITICAL PRISONER LEONARD PELTIER
On Oct. 12, 1994, the native students' associations and the
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee Canada are organizing a series
of public awareness events at universities all across Canada to
demand freedom for Leonard Peltier and in commemoration with 502
years of resistance by North American indigenous peoples from
colonial occupation and repression.
Oct. 12 was proclaimed by the American Indian Movement as an
international day of solidarity with indigenous peoples in protest
of Columbus, whose "discovery" of North America in 1492 initiated
the mass extermination of millions of the original peoples of
Turtle Island as the victims of a deliberate and systematic
campaign of genocide. It is in a true spirit of resistance that as
indigenous peoples we have survived today by honouring our
history; by defending and maintaining our true identity.
One sacrifice, one victim of this century's North American
goverments' campaign of terror and destruction against indigenous
peoples is Leonard Peltier, a 50-year-old Lakota-Chippewa, who had
the courage to defend his people's rights and freedoms when they
were under attack; while on the same day, corrupt tribal chairman
Dickie Wilson was selling away one-eighth of the reservation
lands. For his courage in defence of the people, he was targetted
and has endured almost 19 years of false imprisonment for the
alleged murder of two F.B.I. agents on June 26, 1975 without ever
having had the right to a fair trial. Even U.S. authorities have
admitted they do not know who shot the agents. Today the Canadian
government, in an unprecedented development, has agreed to review
his false extradition at a critical time when his request for
clemency and freedom could be decided by the President of the
United States.
Over the years, the work of the Leonard Peltier Defense
Committee in Canada has focussed on lobbying for official
endorsements along with commitments for support from organizations
and networks from across Canada and internationally. We are
asking for all people to renew their appeal to the Canadian
government to register its strong objection over the fraudulent
mishandling of the 1976 extradition. We are asking for a truthful
accounting of the extradition process that failed Leonard Peltier
along with certain actions the federal government can take to
redress this wrong. This could include reconsidering Leonard's
original request for political asylum; a request for his return to
Canada and the government's recommendation for clemency as a
strong form of international pressure.
The fact is we have been lobbying native organizations for
many years approaching various peoples' movements, including
native students in Canada who are today forced to define their
future in a country where their own families and nations are still
struggling to take control of their rights and jurisdictions.
Earlier this year at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario,
native students from across Canada gathered to assemble their own
nation-wide federation.
We asked them to commit themselves to support Leonard's
freedom which was enthusiastically received at several student
gatherings this year resulting in native students joining us from
across Canada in organizing public awareness events at
universities and colleges on Oct. 12. We are pleased to report an
estimated 15 different locations --from St. Thomas University in
Fredericton, New Brunswick to Camosun College in Victoria, B.C.
which will present a full update with petitions and latest
letter-writing campaign; information on what people can do;
documentary films; posters and speakers.
It is our hope that the aboriginal students of this country
will lobby and organize with the LPDC-Canada for a broader Indian
support effort of this historic case. Aboriginal students are a
natural link to their families and communities. We, together can
develop an effective lobbying plan that could begin by forwarding
sample resolutions and updated information which can then be
presented to their nation councils for endorsement. As we build
understanding amongst our people, this case continues to mark a
very serious violation of the rights and freedoms of all peoples.
It is our hope that we can continue to make further connections
with students in different countries.
Since 1989, our defense committee has organized four
lobbying tours of different European countries with long time
overseas support contacts. In March of 1992 at the oldest
university in the world in Bologna, Italy, a strong presentation
of Leonard's case was made to university students by our comrade
and lawyer Lew Gurwitz (who sadly after 20 years of commitment
suddenly past away on Aug. 28, 1994).
Students there agreed to be part of an international movement
to free Leonard Peltier. So we talked about this idea with
students in numerous universities as we travelled through Italy,
Germany, Switzerland, Holland and elsewhere; always building upon
the possibility of a global, co-ordinated example in demand of
Leonard's freedom from students united around the world.
Leonard Peltier's case has been presented before the United
Nations human rights sub-committees each year since 1977. His case
has been raised twice for debate and discussion in Canada's
Parliament; received official endorsement from the federal New
Democrats; and has reached the highest courts in both Canada and
the United States. It has been presented before numerous
governmental commissions on human rights in many countries;
adopted by Amnesty International as the example of a North
American political prisoner; recorded and adopted in the human
rights policy of the Canadian Labour Congress; and the subject of
numerous books, in particular, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by
Peter Matthiessen (Viking Press; 1992) and film documentaries,
including Incident at Oglala by R. Redford (1992, release).
In November 1993, representatives of the Canadian defense
committee testified and presented 18 years of documentation and
evidence of injustice to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal
Peoples, with an appeal for the commission to take a position of
lobby and support. The commission presented a letter to the
Justice Minister of Canada asking him to call for a full
ministerial review of the circumstances surrounding the original
extradition of Leonard Peltier. We thank the aboriginal commission
for its support and its immediate response which we understand
goes far beyond their mandate. We look forward to the final
outcome of the report and its findings some time in 1995. It is
this kind of effort that helps us to present this case for
official endorsement to all our aboriginal peoples.
We are presently lobbying to Jim Sinclair of the Aboriginal
Peoples Congress based in Ottawa, once again putting all the
pieces together for what we know could well be the most powerful,
unified lobby ever in demand for justice and freedom for Leonard
Peltier. We are also working in a collective, researching all of
the avenues regarding our position of lobby in Canada with the
United States Congress as numerous senators and representatives of
Congress joined together as recent as 1991 and filed a formal,
legal intervention recommending a new and fair trial.
However, Congress was never lobbied on behalf of Canada and
there are numerous actions that Canada could take now that we can
prove the United States government fabricated evidence and
presented false affidavits to a Canadian court. We would lobby
the United States Congress on the basis of these facts and with
the intent to strengthen our international lobby by simply
pointing out that if it could happen to us, it could happen to
any country; and therefore we have as a global family a human
responsibility to denounce this terrible miscarriage of justice;
find the solution and free Leonard Peltier!
We would like to send our many thanks to all the people who
continue to support this honourable struggle. We thank our
comrades and friends in Italy, Germany, Holland and elsewhere for
their tremendous, effective political lobbying. We thank Leonard's
Canadian lawyer-representative, Dianne Martin,
who will be speaking on Oct. 12 at Osgoode Hall, York University
in Toronto. Dianne will also be trying to forward questions to
Allan Rock, Canada's Minister of Justice who is giving a public
lecture on this same day at the university. Good-Luck Dianne!! We
thank Brian Wright-McLeod and many others who will be speaking in
Leonard's defense on this historic day all across this country.
We send our prayers to our brother, Leonard Peltier and all
those who have chosen to sacrifice themselves on the 11th and 12th
through a spiritual fast for justice with a vigil organized
outside Leavenworth prison in Kansas. Many thanks to the
aboriginal students and to all students in general who have taken
on the responsibility of helping us organize this important day;
thanks to Renee Shilling and representatives of the newly formed
Canadian Federation of Aboriginal Students; the Canadian
Federation of Students and CFS-Ontario; our thanks to the people
of the Turtle Island Support Group, Toronto; Roseanne Marble of
Curve Lake; Tariq Hassan-Gordon; Jen Metcalfe; and the people of
the Anti-Colonial Action Alliance, Peterborough.
We send our prayers and thanks always to the sacred Drum for
its guidance -- for the Drum has marched with the indigenous
people all through our history and holds testimony of this
historic case of injustice. So, for the drummers and singers who
continue to honour and carry on the struggle, the sacred message
of the drum to the people calls for freedom for Leonard Peltier
and justice for all.,. we thank you.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
FACT: THE PINE RIDGE INDIAN RESERVATION, SOUTH DAKOTA had the
highest murder-death rate per capita in the United States between
1973 to 1976 as a result of the F.B.I. and U.S. government's
terror and assault. It was on Pine Ridge on June 26, 1975 that
Leonard Peltier and others defended themselves in a shoot-out that
resulted in the deaths of two F.B.I. agents and an Indian man.
LEONARD PELTIER is a victim; a truly courageous and
honourable man --
a man who thought never for himself -- always doing what had to
be done for the people. No one yet has publicly proven otherwise.
With all the war games that were being perpetrated by the State
against the people at the time; when the Elders were in danger and
the People had no where to turn to put a stop to the violence,
corruption and bloodshed: they called for the American Indian
Movement to help. What kind of people in this day and age would
leave their comforts; their families and friends in order to
defend and try to ensure the safety of the old people: Well,
Leonard Peltier was one of those men.
LET US PRAY THAT WE WON'T HAVE TO WAIT 100 YEARS
BEFORE WE FINALLY HONOUR HIM.
On behalf of the LPDC-Canada, we thank you all for your time
and your courage, Frank & Anne Dreaver
A special friend who we recently lost and miss very much, once
said:
"THIS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE CASES WHERE WE ARE TRYING TO
SAY:LOOK, IT'S 18 YEARS AND MAYBE HE KILLED A COUPLE OF POLICE
AGENTS, BUT IT'S 18 YEARS.
WE'RE SAYING IT'S 18 YEARS; NOBODY EVER PROVED THAT HE
EVER KILLED ANYBODY; HE DIDN'T EVER KILL ANYBODY AND HE'S
STILL IN JAIL."
LEW GURWITZ, Nov.
1993, Toronto,
Canada
___________________________________________________________________________
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
LEONARD PELTIER DEFENSE COMMITTEE, CANADA, 43 CHANDLER DR.,
SCARBOROUGH, ONTARIO CANADA M1G 1Z1; (TEL/FAX) (416) 439-1893;
SEND E-MAIL VIA APC NETWORKS TO: lpdccfd@web.Apc.Org.
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES IN SUPPORT
OF LEONARD PELTIER ACROSS CANADA
LIST OF PARTICIPATING EVENTS AND SITES:
1. UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO at First Nations House, 6 - 9 pm
563 Spadina Ave., 3rd floor, Toronto, Ontario Featuring film
& speaker: Brian Wright-McLeod/native rights activist-
broadcaster. Sponsored by the University of Toronto Native
Student Association; lpdc-cdn. & Turtle Island Support Group.
2. OSGOODE HALL LAW SCHOOL, YORK UNIVERSITY,
Toronto, Ontario film & speaker: Prof. Dianne Martin, Cdn.
attorney for Leonard Peltier Sponsored by the aboriginal law
students and native student association/lpdc-cdn.
3. TRENT UNIVERSITY, Peterborough, Ontario and Market Hall,
downtown
Peterborough. Opening ceremonies with Rice Lake Singers, 11
am; press conference with LPDC representatives, 12 pm;
lecture/discussion with university students of Native Studies,
1:30 pm; film screening, 2 pm; theatre performance, 4:30 pm;
discussion & dinner, Peterborough native friendship centre, 6:30
pm; guest speakers: Frank & Anne Dreaver; native broadcaster, Dan
Smoke; Cheryl Barney of the Stl"atlimx nation, B.C., 8 pm; dance
with Reggae Cowboys, 9 -1 am. Sponsored by The Anti-Colonial
Action Alliance; with the assistance of native students.
4. UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO, London, Ontario
film & speaker; sponsored by first nations student
association/lpdc--cdn.
5. UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY, Calgary, Alberta
film & speaker; sponsored by the native student association;
LPDC-cdn.
6. UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS, Fredericton, New Brunswick
film & speaker: Gkisedtanamoogk of the WABANAKI NATION
Sponsored by the native students association/lpdc-cdn.
7. UNIVERSITY OF REGINA, Regina, Saskatchewan
film & speaker: sponsored by the native students
assoc/lpdc-cdn.
8. ALGOMA UNIVERSITY, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
9. CAMOSUN COLLEGE, Victoria, B.C.; Camosun College Student
Society/native
students
10. CARLETON UNIVERSITY, Ottawa, Ontario; Carleton University
Students'
Association
11. CANADORE/NIPPISSING COLLEGE, North Bay, Ontario;
Canadore/Nippissing
Native Assoc.
12. LAKEHEAD UNIVERSITY, Thunder Bay, Ontario; Lakehead Native
Students'
Association
13. MALASPINA UNIVERSITY, Nanaimo, B.C.; Malaspina University
College
Student Union
14. SASKATCHEWAN INDIAN FEDERATED COLLEGE, Regina, Saskatchewan
15. MOUNT ROYAL COLLEGE, Calgary, Alberta
16. CONFEDERATION COLLEGE; Oshki Anishnaabeg Student Association
For more information, contact the LPDC-Canada at 416-439-1893
(tel/fax) ore-mail at lpdccfd@web.apc.org.