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<font size=3>contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info<br>
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:04:27 -0800 (PST)<br><br>
The Red Nation Film Festival has chosen Leonard Peltier to receive its
first annual Humanitarian Award for his lifelong commitment to indigenous
and human rights, as well as his leadership in efforts to alleviate
poverty and domestic abuse among Native peoples. As a political prisoner
for nearly 34 years, Peltier has helped focus world attention on
government repression of Native resistance throughout the Americas, while
the United States continues to make an example out of him of the
consequences of seeking freedom. Unable to accept the award in person,
Leonard wrote the following acceptance speech for award:<br><br>
"I am very humbled to have been honored with the first-ever Red
Nation Humanitarian Award. I wish the Red Nation Film Festival success in
all its endeavors, as I believe your event benefits Indian people
everywhere. With your continued support, I hope that I will one day have
the freedom to thank you in person. <br><br>
Film is a powerful medium with the potential to help change one's
consciousness, which can in turn change the world. Film can transport the
viewers to places and situations they might never encounter, from the
mountains and jungles of Peru and Bolivia, to the prison cells of Abu
Ghraib and Lewisburg, the federal penitentiary where I am held in limbo
as they transform the facility into a special site for problematic
prisoners. Although I have been what they call a model prisoner, I am
still here because I was jumped and beaten by other inmates when I
was transferred to another prison. I am here in spite of the fact that I
was an ideal candidate for parole by any objective standard free of
politics. But because of my beliefs, and the FBI's fears of exposure of
their crimes against the people of Pine Ridge and the American Indian
Movement, the federal government is determined to see to it that I die in
prison. So here I sit in a 3 foot by 6 foot cell. <br><br>
The fact that you are here today at a Native film festival shows how far
we have come from the days when Hollywood Indians were portrayed by white
actors as one-dimensional savages standing in the way of
civilization. The fact that we are today not only acting in films
but also directing and producing shows how far we have in the last forty
years since the American Indian Movement arose from the ashes of the
Termination Era and demanded political sovereignty and cultural respect .
<br><br>
But how far have we really come? We are still subject on the reservations
to the jurisdiction of the colonial police force known as the FBI, an
agency which ignores serious crimes such as sexual assault while
persecuting those who would stand up for true sovereignty and human
rights. On other reservations, state police play the same role, though
their jurisdiction is a legacy of the discredited termination era.
Last week, President Obama held what was billed as a historic summit
meeting with hundreds of tribal officials in attendance, but what was
really accomplished? My defense committee sent faxes to more than 500
reservation chairman asking them to speak out on my behalf on this unique
occasion. A few said they would, but when the opportunity presented
itself they were too polite to speak out to a president who spoke of
dissolving tribes in his inauguration speech. <br><br>
It is the same in movies. While we now have realistic films dealing with
poverty, alcoholism, and related social problems on the rez, how many
deal with the root cause—colonial oppression which extinguishes hope for
the future? I ask you filmmakers to use this powerful medium to help
create visions for the future and to put our many problems in an accurate
context. I plead with you, if you can't get me out of prison and I am
destined to die here, to make my sacrifice worth it in terms of creating
a more sustainable future for our children and future generations.
"<br>
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,<br>
Leonard Peltier "<br><br>
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