[Ppnews] Leonards statement before transfer

Political Prisoner News ppnews at freedomarchives.org
Tue Jan 13 13:31:38 EST 2009


X-Replyto: contact at whoisleonardpeltier.info
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:16:02 -0800 (PST)


Dictated by phone January 12, 2009

Greetings my relatives, friends and/or captors

To my relatives and friends, I want to especially 
thank you for your generosity in this season of 
giving they call Christmas.  And I want you to 
know I’m mindful of the reason for the season as 
they say, for Jesus himself was a political 
prisoner.  He stood up against the warmongers the 
exploiters of his people and he was imprisoned 
and hung out to dry, likewise so many other 
people who have stood up against those who would 
exploit the lives and resources of people around 
the world. I don’t claim to be of any 
significance on their level, I am but one man of 
many who have stood up against exploiters that 
would use force to inflict their value system upon a weaker people.

I am in the process right now of being 
transferred; I had hoped to be transferred to a 
facility on the Turtle Mountain Reservation while 
I dealt with other legal issues regarding my 
imprisonment.  However my captors have once again 
triumphed in their continuing efforts to break 
me.  They have sent me even farther away from my 
traditional homeland.  I hear them and others 
continually talk about justice. One of the 
bureaucrats in North Dakota when becoming aware 
of my efforts to be transferred to Turtle 
Mountain spoke up and said he believed justice is 
being served in my continued imprisonment.  I 
sincerely hope good people will take note of this 
person, Senator Byron Dorgan, on the Senate 
Committee for Indian Affairs.  It is quite 
obvious that he has no knowledge of true Indian 
History, no knowledge of my case, and is only a 
lackey for those who wish to keep us always subject to their
version of what justice is.  They have at times 
called me a thug and a cold blooded murderer, but 
I know historically they called Geronimo a cold 
blooded murderer and savage, they called Crazy 
Horse a cold blooded murderer and savage, they 
called Captain Jack of the Modocs a cold blooded 
murderer and savage, they called Black Hawk of 
the Sauk a cold blooded murderer and savage, they 
called Tecumseh a cold blooded murderer and 
savage, they called Sitting Bull a cold blooded 
murderer and savage and the list goes on and on.

The one thing all these men have in common is 
they were all imprisoned or killed by this 
government; they were all patriots in their own 
land, trying to stop the illegal immoral taking 
of their people’s land and resources.  They 
didn’t call the men who murdered our people at 
Wounded Knee thugs and savages, they didn’t call 
the snipers who shot Frank Clearwater at Wounded 
Knee in 73 a murderer, they didn’t call the ones 
who shot Buddy Lamont a cold blooded murderer, 
they didn’t call the ones who shot Joe Stuntz a 
cold blooded murderer, they didn’t call the 
sniper who shot that young woman and baby in 1992 
at Ruby Ridge Idaho in a cold blooded murder, 
they didn’t call the ones who burned the men, 
women and children to death at Waco, Texas in 
1993 in cold blooded murderers.  I assume cold 
blooded means you have no sense of right or wrong 
or something of that nature when you take a 
life.  And if that is so, then this country is 
full of cold blooded murderers and thugs because 
by proxy they have killed thousands of innocent 
men women and children in Iraq and most recently 
in Afghanistan, I’ve seen them on TV.  I’ve seen 
the pictures of children’s bodies piled on top of 
each other.  And right now the US funds Israel’s 
war machine as they kill hundreds of innocent men, women and children.

Einstein once said, “All things are relative” and 
“For every action there is a reaction.”  In the 
traditional way our people teach the same.  In 
all the major religions around the world it is 
taught the same way before Einstein ever drew a 
breath.  Every person in America who allows this 
injustice to continue without voicing any 
opposition is a party to murder on some 
level.  Someone once said and it is a truism, 
“All that is needed for evil to prevail is good 
men to say nothing.” And if Einstein is correct 
and Jesus is correct then you reap what you sow, 
and Buddha is correct who said there are karmic 
laws that must repay or be repaid for whatever 
you do then this nation had better start paying 
attention. It is financially at this point 
bankrupt.  It is spiritually and morally bankrupt.

I’m sure this letter won’t buy me any favored 
treatment.  Actually I don’t know that anything 
ever has.  They had a plot to kill me once that 
didn’t work.  They have denied me medical 
treatment that I need.  I have arthritis in my 
knees.  I have a semi dysfunctional jaw from lack 
of medical treatment.  I have 80% loss of vision 
in one eye.  And I have other internal organ 
infirmities that need medical treatment.  But 
though I have trouble walking I will stand and 
voice my objection to the cold blooded 
mistreatment of indigenous people in this land 
and others.  I will speak out always against the 
cold blooded atrocities that are caused directly 
by military weapons and/or political policies 
that cause people to take their own lives as in 
my country and other countries around the 
world.  And though my vision may be failing me 
somewhat I can still read the writing on the wall.

Though this country is in great financial peril 
money - is not the cure. There are some writings 
today that this country will be destroyed by 
fire, well let me tell you, or should I say, 
reiterate the words of my elders and others; the 
fires are burning now, right now today all over 
the world the fires are burning.  There will be 
natural devastation upon devastation coming to 
this country that has used the land and resources 
of my people to pollute and destroy the natural 
order of life. You reap what you sow.  And as my 
people say everything that goes around comes 
around.  As Einstein said, “For every action there is a reaction.”

I may live a hundred years or I may die tomorrow; 
but I will always have concern and sorrow for 
those innocent people that lose their lives.  It 
is such a great tragedy that even some of those 
who pull the triggers and attack others have been 
convinced they are doing the right thing for some 
bureaucrat with little or no understanding of 
life that espouses some rhetoric about justice being served.

If I sound angry or hurt or disappointed or a 
multitude of other emotions you would probably be 
correct.  I remember once upon a time, in my 
naïve belief that sooner or later I would be free 
and justice would be served. In my case after 33 
years of illegal imprisonment justice will never 
be served, it will be up to the Creator to bring 
about a reaction that may in some future time 
balance the scales.  But for me and the others 
like me, whether they are among other prisoners 
in the US prison system or dead in the streets of 
Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza Strip or South America or 
some reservation road or some ghetto street, 
justice is not being served at this time.

If there is anything further I could say that 
would affect you in some way it would be to 
encourage you to take a few minutes out of your 
life and quietly sit and reflect and maybe just 
maybe you can hear the mothers crying for their 
lost children and the men crying for their lost 
wives and daughters and the grandfathers crying 
for their lost sons and I could say more but 
perhaps you may have grown tired of my 
commentary.  Thank you for your time, thank you 
for reading this, and don’t let evil triumph.  Say something.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse and all the others 
who gave their lives that future generations 
might enjoy some time together on this beautiful mother earth,


Mitakuye Oyasin (All My Relations)

Leonard Peltier

PS.  I also want to take this opportunity to 
whole heartedly thank all those who wrote the 
prison on my behalf recently seeking my transfer 
to Turtle Mountain facility in North Dakota.  Thank you.




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415 863-9977

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