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class="body-content">Friend -- <br>
<p><span>Greetings my Relatives, Friends and
Supporters</span></p>
<p><span>As I have said so many times in the past
I am deeply and
truly honored that you remember me on this day
and I am honored to
have my words read to you today. I think this
commemoration day
should be about the lives of all our people
who in some way lived and
died for us.</span></p>
<p><span>By the time of the Oglala shoot-out there
had already been
some 60 something of our Native people
killed. These people are the
ones we are commemorating here today. I
always especially remember
Joe Stunz, who was a mentor to some of the
younger boys in the
community. </span></p>
<p><span>Of all the things I want us to remember
today and everyday, I
want us to remember
who </span><span><strong>WE </strong></span><span>are,
I want us to
remember where WE came from, I want us to
remember our ancestors that
we are so proud of , and I want us to live in
such a way that our
children and our children’s-children will look
back at us and be proud
of who </span><span><strong><em>they</em></strong></span><span> are
because
of what
we </span><span><strong><em>were</em></strong></span><span>. </span></p>
<p><span>I want to see a day where our people do
not have to depend on
any other source than ourselves. </span></p>
<p><span>I want to see a day where our people
aren’t suffering from
the bitter cold in the winter months. </span></p>
<p><span>A day where our people are not suffering
from mal-nutrition
and improper medical care.</span></p>
<p><span>I want to see fires burning inside well
built homes that are
not unstable and falling apart.</span></p>
<p><span>I want to see a day where alcoholism and
drug abuse is not
rampant throughout Indian country. </span></p>
<p><span>There are so many other things I could
mention that need to
change, and I will tell you for a fact
they </span><span><strong>won’t </strong></span><span>start
changing
until </span><span><strong>WE</strong></span><span> change
them. </span></p>
<p><span>We must look back to our traditions. We
must look back to our
own cultures and the teachings of our elders
who taught us that the
greatest gift the creator gave us was our
bodies in good health and
the Earth around us. We must remember from
our traditions, that it is
our responsibility to take care of our bodies
and health and the
bodies and health of our children,</span></p>
<p><span>Our traditions also taught us to be the
caretakers of all the
nature around us. </span></p>
<p><span>There is an old saying back when the
Buffalo were almost
totally done away with, I think there were
only about 25 or so left,
in the U.S., the saying was that when the
Buffalo come back, the
American Indian would also come back. Well,
the
Buffalo <em>are</em> back, they are not what
they were, but they are
thriving. WE are also coming back, and we are
not what we were yet,
but we will be. </span></p>
<p><span>I know things have changed, as they
always do and we must
rise to meet those challenges. Everything in
life is based on some
challenge and we have faced challenge after
challenge and we are still
here. I want to encourage all of you from the
depths of my soul and
with my deepest prayers; to set up programs
for our children that
would teach them the survival skills that it
will take to meet the
challenges of today and tomorrow. To find
ways to protect and restore
our Earth.</span></p>
<p><span>As a man I encourage you men out there to
step up stronger
than you have been, more determined than you
have been, more
consistent and persevering than you have been,</span>and
do all you
can to make this a better place for all people.
</p>
<p><span>Our enemies are many, but most of it has
to do with money.
People, at times, love money more than the
Creator, or the gifts the
creator gave us. Our people will be
approached even more in the
coming future to sell off our lands and our
resources and we must do
what we can to protect them for our children
and the coming
generations.</span></p>
<p><span>We must also at every opportunity remind
the Gov’t of the
agreements and treaties they have made with
our people. We should
also remind them at every opportunity that the
Black Hills are still
ours, and the lease is up. We should also
remind them, at every
opportunity that we are part of the treaty
they call the constitution
and that we should be respected and given
every equal right under that
agreement. One thing in particular that the
constitution says, is
that you will receive a trial with a jury of
your peers and yet every
indian that is arrested and tried in federal
court is
tried <em>off </em>the reservation, there is
no jury of our peers.
</span></p>
<p><span>That is just one point, there are many.</span></p>
<p><span>I know for a fact that our people have it
within their blood,
history and understandings, to win out over
this time of trial that
our people have been going through for a
couple hundred years
now.</span></p>
<p><span>If we want things to be different we are
going to have to DO
them different. </span></p>
<p><span>When I think about our young people and
elders who commit
suicide I am full of sorrow. When I hear about
what is happening to
Mother Earth, I weep with anguish. </span></p>
<p><span>These things won’t change until we take
responsibility for
making that change ourselves. These
corporations are not embarrassed
at all by hurting us. They always find some
legal, moral or religious
reason to justify stealing from us. We as a
people must take
responsibility, rise to the challenge and
teach our children to be
able to face that challenge. We need to get
back to eating the foods
that our bodies are designed for, the
ceremonies that our hearts and
spirits are designed for, and the love and
caring for one another that
we are ALL designed for.</span></p>
<p><span>A wise elder once said you cannot live
with one foot in a
White mans canoe and one in an Indians canoe,
you have to choose one
or the other. He said that in relation to
perhaps culture, but when
we look at the destruction of the air and the
water and the soil and
the dangerous possibilities that face all
mankind that are taking
place right now, we are all in the same boat. </span></p>
<p><span>I always remember Floyd Red Crow
Westerman once said, that
the flowers are not all the same color… the
birds don’t all sing the
same song but together, they make a beautiful
forest. I know for a
fact there are people of other races and other
colors that feel the
same way we do, and when we meet them, we
need to join together to
stop this common destruction that
faces </span><span><strong>all</strong></span><span> mankind.
There
can be no diversity of life on an Earth that
cannot sustain
life. </span></p>
<p><span>I was and am a common man just like you,
but in all of this,
I came to realize that each of us carries
within him the spirit of our
people and wherever we go, whether we like it
or not, we represent
our people. Since I was hauled off to
boarding school it has been the
same fight, If I would just admit that this
Government is always
right and never wrong, and if our people would
back off from the
position of remaining who we are and stop
clinging to our cultures, to
assimilate, etc, etc…. but in my heart of
hearts and in the core of my
being I have always remembered what so many of
our people have lived
and died for, I have remembered that they
died for the right to
remain on their own land where the creator put
us. They lived and died
for the right to practice our religion that
was given to us. They
lived and died to be able to keep their
children among them and not be
taken off to some boarding school. They lived
and died for
the <strong><em>right to be Indian</em></strong>,
by OUR standards not
theirs. I have done my best to live up to that
all my days</span></p>
<p><span>I am tired, and at kind of at a loss for
words now, and I am
sure you are all sitting in the hot sun about
ready for some cool
water and a breeze, but in closing I want to
say that</span></p>
<p><span><em>I miss you. </em></span></p>
<p><span><em>I long to be with you.</em></span></p>
<p><span><em>I long to have the sun shining on me
without the shadow
of bars or chain link fencing in the way. </em></span></p>
<p><span><em>I long to see an eagle circling the
Sundance
grounds.</em></span></p>
<p><span><em>I long for the touch and hugs of
close friends and loved
ones.</em> </span></p>
<p><span><em>I long for life as a free man</em>. </span></p>
<p><span>I will never give up, on who we are. I
encourage you to stay
strong and be a good representative of our
people wherever you go. Be
an encouragement and a source of strength for
those in
need. </span></p>
<p><span>Wherever they put me, or keep me, or lock
me away,- rest
assured that my heart and prayers are always
with you </span></p>
<p><span>Forever in the Spirit of Crazy Horse</span></p>
<p><span>Your Relative,</span></p>
<p><span>Leonard Peltier</span></p>
<p><span>Mitakuye Oyasin</span></p>
<br>
Leonard Peltier<br>
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Leonard Peltier Freedom Campaign · 255 Primera
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