Transcripts For CSPAN2 Inside 20240704

Once again, happy to represent the georgetownud state of amerin Law Student Association as copresident. A big thank you to the speakers today for coming out. Personally, i am and anna rolled member of the tribe from south dakota but originally from minnesota minnesota to the birthplace of thee American Indian movement and its my honor today to welcome you all. All, thank you for filling out the various requirements and policies and everything. But most importantly, to the three speakers today, we have sharon leonard, author of the book i will, which covers the early history of the American Indian movement and dorothy, the former tribal judge for the United Nations and also features prominently in the book and last but not least kevin sharp, former Federal District court judge and leonards attorney. Without further ado, thank you for coming out and i will pass it on to the panelists. [applause] i want to say thank you. Ana deeply grateful that you are here and youve given your time and combination of stories. In 1997, i talked to leonard for the first time. He had a cherokee friend that introduced us. It was telephone of course. It went on for quite a while almost a yearto before i was abe to meet with him. The experience for me started like this. My husbandne also an attorney ce home one day and said i heard a story about someone who was called leonard, thats what id written down. That is how little i knew. I like to keep that piece of paper. He immediately said do you know leonard and i said youve heard of him . He said iu dont think he graduated from law o school in america and you are not aware of the case. I thought that was interesting. He said if you want to get people to listen to the story, find a law school anywhere in america and you will get people to listen. So, we picked Georgetown University law school back in that day. We came in, Peter Matheson came and in the spirit of crazy horse, a wonderful buck. And a minister of justice came all the way from canada. Harvey who was the editor of prison writing also important. It was a wonderful panel a long timeen ago and a lot happened. I was told you will need a senator too get in. Its not likely to happen. Oddly enough with the way the rules are sometimes they allowed a prison powwow that someone organized and they said no one can come in. Interestingly i didnt qualify for that list. I qualified to go into the powwow. I remember going to the underground of the structure and being told most of the time the visitors never see past the front door but because it was going on in a gymnasium, you could hear the drama all through theto tunnels and it was very powerful, very moving, very important. I remember we were told dontre ask anyone how long theyve been here. Dont ask them what they are here for. You wont like the answer. The drums started, and a young man he looked young enough to be my son started quivering and shaking the minute he heard the drums. I couldnt help being a mom i said are you here for very long and he answered i get out in six months but i i didnt think i would be able toou make it. That kind of changed everything. I thought this is very important. A so the work went on for quite a while. There were phone calls back and forth. I got to know leonard pretty well that way. He had to live. Differently. Y. How was your day he would to say the same, how was your day, what went on, what are you cooking for dinner, how are the kids, that kind of conversation. We noticed, jim and i, my husband, not only being an attorney, he worked with doctors in the area, emory university, he noticed when he visited leonard he was even eating awkwardly. He mentioneded migraines from ts condition. People worked on trying to get him a proper surgery to correct it. There was a doctor saying if he could come to him he would give him the correct surgery and again many people worked on this for a period of years to accomplish it. We went to congressman john lewis for help. A local representative got us in. The congressman said hes not really from my district but there was ath granddaughter that was living with this cherokee family and noted the exception. This was important. He could come up with all kinds of testimonies were given people saying it shouldnt linger so he wrote the appropriate letter and called us in and a couple of weeks and decided i have a letter to read you. It said he didnt have any medical issues and didnt complain of having any end of ae motion wasnt correct so i remembered his mouth was kind of dumbfounded like how do you get misinformation to a congressman in my room or he patted him on many like its okay im going to go see for myself. Im going to take some other congressman with me. Overnight, leonard was flown to the clinic and the surgery was performed and it put us on a whole other plane of this is important and its not easy and its going to take some time and a lot of people working tirelessly on it. I started collecting stories that focused on his childhood mainly, what was interesting to me. The humanity that could get lost when its a big case because its about saving his life. Its about the rules, its hard toie get in. At one point he was working on prison writings and i commented about. He hadnt complained to me and at that point he said theyve been putting me down there since i was 9yearsold. How bad can it be. I said how where is there a solitary when youre 9yearsold and i realized later he was talking about boarding school for the first time and we started going from there all the way through his life struggles andst many stories. The trial stories were some of my favorite because you could tell people had come from all over the country and canada to be there. They filled the roads. There was a rusted out schoolbus. They got out with shirts and a basket and even the judge let them changed their closing to said what can you do. People, obligated. Then there was an altar put on the lawn that the police came up and said youve got to move that and leonard didnt want to move it. Hed already prepared it. They had a permit. They said but you will hurt the grass. That always stood out to me. Like wow. The greatest environmentalist in the world, they are going to hurt the grass. Theymo started and moved it arod with the lawn and had people up under this 200pound road and complied. It wase de quite an awesome sid. Peter rasmussen attended and later talked about how he decided to write his book with some of the things he heard of their and that were shared with him. It was an extraordinary story. Again, always a Human Element that when i met dorothy that eight, nine years ago i said you know, i am interested in all the days that happened before things began to escalate. I want to know the humanity thats the families and the people that love and droll to this. I interviewed 15 members of the American Movement over that period of 20 years, Ethel Pearson and canada stands out. Then leonard started a saying he got to meet dorothy. Uawhile. I did . He actually introduced us. A reminder that if he is in the story so much, its leonards fault, he thought of it. And hes been wonderful. With that, i would like to pass over to the dorothy and say she survived. She said something recently to me when we wrote a symposium to fight heroism on the reservation thats always been a passion of hers. There was a screening at the symposium and a beautiful girl that said she survived heroin for 18 months and became a counselor helping others. It looked like it was still very hard for her. She leaned over to me and said shess a survivor. Why is she up on the screen, why isnt she here with us and in our circle. She survived it. Shes the only person i want to listen to if theres a survivor in the room and i thought i was going to have to introduce dorothy soon and i wanted to say dorothy survived the milwaukee road ghettos and the American Indian movement and went to wounded knee and a pickup truck in the philippian winter in 1973, but she didnt just survive. Her granddaughter reminded me, just a car, she said she thrived. So much happened with of those occupations and attention that was brought that still is making a difference today. So the survivor and the driver, dorothy. I am dorothy from the milwaukee chapter and i think one of the reasons that we started the movement in milwaukee we agreed to carry on i remember one weekend when they came and met with my husband and they were talking about the movement. Ve all my life i think ive been, i wasnt culturally raised. I was born on the united reservations and of course back to wisconsin without an episcopal priest so we were not into culture, we didnt bring any of that with us and i talked to sharon about it and i said theres something in our dna that knows we are different. I wanto to do something different. I wanted to be who i was meant to be and not go to churches or anything like that. I wanted to be made of, everything that went with it. When i moved to milwaukee i was 18yearsold and i met, i moved and met her and we started in American Movement chapter and started as a movement for Society Whats called the alcohol and drug abuse because i felt like in order to raise a family and survive, we had to be sober. I never drink in my life, never got into that and a kind ofid surprised myself that i didnt get into it because everybody in our community data. It seemed like that was the only entertainment or whatever it was on the entertainment. Bars and churches. So, when the guys came i said i thought it wass a really good thing. Lets go after the culture. We need to join a movement thats going to step up and demand that way be who we are because we arent even fighting the schools that are having a fight during the desegregation of the time so what the communities would do is count and i remember the big meeting with a lot of the officials you are not going to dictate to us what the numbers are so i was often involved in that type of struggle to keep up with the culture and when we started the program we met some people from southri dakota. Her plan to dc and patterson who was nixons assistant on the native affairs he met with them and somehow for some reason he took a liking and agreed to help us so we had the land turned over to her and put the signs up that it was now a native reservation so there was an Indian School moved down to their that my sister and i started and we also made a Halfway House for people that were recoveringbo and we boarded it off and more people would come down on the weekend and we wouldd have seats and it was right on a lakefront, real nice lakefront property. I know the natives were not appreciative of us, but that was our land, that was and still is our land. I considered all of our land. No matter where anybody walks on mother earth, if it is the eastt or west, south, north in the United States, they are walking on the bones of our people. This is ours, so no matter where anybody goes and tries to say this is whatever land, that still belongs to the red peoplem and i think we need to remember that. The other thing i want to say is people extend to other countries, canada, mexico, in the southern countries. We never considered borders. We welcomed each other and i think theres another thing about us that i was explaining to sharon i have noted this adoptive brother that moved in with me and my family in milwaukee when herb was in prison for his involvement with wounded me and that struggle and he said sometimes i think you know, our family here, he said more than my people back home he said they are trying hard to get the front lines back into the ceremonies, whatever it takes. He said i notice i can walk down the street and it seems its different to me because i see t the white people going and they keep their head down or they look in another direction. They dont look at each other or each other. They dont acknowledge each other. He said indian people will cross the street if they see another one and shake their hand and a say its good to see you. We are all in this together and i appreciated that and its like i was saying i felt as much as the location that happened to us i said thats one good thing the government did for us is created that Relocation Program because if theres different tribes into different areas and we bonded with each other, we found each other and were able to gather with each other and thats how that movement is made up of all kinds of different people, different nations coming together but m as a movement you had one mind, one in spirit. We look out for each other and i think thats really good. Thats what i love about it is the cultural part. Many times we would go home and that they would essay a movement is t nothing but. But it took them to move the country and to get people off their knees and assert fighting because since then we have the welfare act that i understand we are fighting again. I remember fighting for families the welfare. I remember fighting some social workers because they wanted to take a baby reported to social services, from almost 13yearsold, a 13yearold adoptive native girl kicked out because she wanted to recognize her heritage and she was adopted by a family in indiana. They called me and they said she wants to be drunk and things like that and once a year we go thto pauwels, isnt that enough. I fold badly and i said i guess it was nice when she was a baby and she starts drinking on her own you dont want to put up with it. You dont want her around. If it was your own blood daughter would you put it in the streets, i dont think you would but with this girl they did. So i find this girl and she was drunk and that bb was in a little basket and hadnt been taken cared of. I took her home and got her cleaned up because they said they were coming to get her. Shthey said that they arent taking this baby anywhere. He sai you know, weve got our own children to take care of, dont get too attached because we are not keeping her. I let him think what they wanted but when the social workers came i asked what they wanted and had the baby with me they said we came to get her and i said no youre not goingwh to take her anywhere. Shes here because of your system a 13yearold you took how many years ago. It was a white and black social worker. If thats what you believe, you do that but you are not taking a native baby. He came out and said whats going on and i said the social workers think they are taking this baby and i told them to get out he said you hurt her, get out. So we had her three years and they said what about her mother. I said we will take her and we invited her to come and live with us. You are just like one of ours, youre just a young girl and she ylchanged her lifestyle, she got herself together and got her baby. He said we dont have a paper to take care of our babies. We dont need that piece of paper. Be whatever you have to be for her, if you have to be her mom or aunt or grandma, whatever it is to take care of that baby the creator is going to bless you because that bb is innocent and you are doing the best you can forwh her. Dont rely on that white mans paper. Someday the mom might come back and really wanted that baby and they will have that bond again, so i didnt. I told her i wouldnt adopt her, i would take care of her as long as she wanted but when she wanted to be the mom, so she did and i was happy with that. So its always been for the culture and the traditional way of life. Thats what we have. I moved back to my reservation in 1982. Weodn had the first lodge on the reservation and i can remember people insa the community saying what are youou guys doing with a sweat lodge in your backyard and ii said maybe you dont, but whn you do. We put the first tp of on the reservation and it still is there in my backyard. We have a meeting almost every weekend. Theres always something going on and im really thankful for this way of o life and gratefulo the American Indian movement and the guides that were Strong Enough to stand up and say we are not taking this anymore. We are going to stand up for treaty rights and all that because i remember some of the tribal chairman accusing these guys in leadership saying when youar go to these cases, and i remember her telling w his brotr at the time we follow the tribal chairman of the time. Its all over the treaties we pick them up and weve got portable dryers we, dry them off and honor them. I remember what a big impact started to have. Maybe you had a Something Else you also want to talk about. Its a rugged way to get here but its a beautiful way of life. We had a lot of the leadership come from milwaukee at the coast guard station to help us and there was the Community School and worked with me for a while when we had the Alcohol Program and i know the guy is the thought that they were big bad boys and then they put up a gem, a ring and told the younger guys how to defend themselves and box in a boxing ring in our center and everything in there. We had the culture and we had beadwork and things like that. We have someone come in and teach the language and kids that came in after school and would come in and i always cooked for them and then we started ordering meals so they could come in and have a place to be warm and have food to eat. The one particular incident i remember is there was a big blizzard and the streets were shutting down, the buses were not running anymore in milwaukee because the streets were so bad so one of the counselors tookhe them home and dropped them off at home and he saw us coming back and if they didnt make it there before they beat them back but whenre they came back they were carrying ad little baby wh them and they said they were told they wanted to come in so we said if we were that place in the storm thats what we needed to be. And that is what we were. We tried to take care of the young people. We were especially interested in the youth because we wanted to get to them before alcohol or anybody else did and now we are on that same path trying to deal with heroin and all of the things that come with that on the reservation because it is devastating our people. Ive had two grandchildren that died of an overdose in the past two years. In the past two weeks like know enough to deaths of young people from heroin overdoses so we have been trying to work hard because my goal was to try to get a bigger house because we would like to build a Community Around where we can have the teepees and the dancing and everything that we want for our young people to learn from and even have someone teaching the languages and doing all of it because a lot of these people that are addicts are coming back into the community and back with the same friends that they left with and its only a matter of time they are falling back into thend same way of life. I understand how broad it is they have to leave their friends behind, the socalled friends to cut all those tires, whether its family or whoeverer it is. Theyve got to let go of it until they can get their head clean. So from the people that work in the field, i understand it takes at least two years to get their rain back to thinking they can be happy again because they are itlooking at the hyatt that they got. They are looking at the chasing that high and they are not going to find it. We have to keep them clean for at least two years before their brain recovers from the damage that was done to it so that is the goal into the path that we are, gone. Thank you. That is wonderful to listen to you tell that story. Thbrings back some memories of some of the things we were able to learn of the united reservation. Dorothy had some tribunals. One was the childrens tribunal and the adult with boarding School Survivors that came and gave their testimonies. It is a powerful moment when leonard wrote in his testimony and the minute dorothy read it was dennis banks of course, john thomas, the minute that the testimony was read that leonard wrote, dennis banks jumped up and took the microphone and started telling his and something occurred to me for the first time that particular day. I want to say that was 2013. Although leadership had seen boarding schools. Even the same boarding schools and then it was even mentioned from some of wilsons family that hed gone to boarding school. I started thinking this historical trauma is waving through with relocation and termination. Another interesting dynamic was it was under termination and then came to help in milwaukee. Theyhe were under termination. He went out to his and to live in thewe portland area and they were under termination. Its not an imagined threat. I cant imagine Walking Around hearing they want to terminate us. They dont want us to have our cultural identity in their case and how that would affect everything. That is lifelong. And i would try to explain to my friends and family i see a portrait of abe lincoln and i think the hero, the emancipator, and you feel all warm and fuzzy. You hear a story about the mankato i know that we heard this story as well yesterday. Its like you dont see that the hero. You see a mass hanging. And where was the constitution when that was going on. You hear eisenhower talk about Relocation Programs. Started most of the assimilation programs and had made the statement by the end of my administration the only indian you will see is in a museum. And yet like you say, you turn it into a positive by relocating the nations in one place and the voices could rise up in the movement became that voice. So the mechanic in seattle, i are familiar you with the article that was in the Seattle Times that opens with leonard, the businessman, because the article is about a young reporter interviewing this young businessman and Business Owner that has opened up and held his Mechanic Shop and is doing really well. Hes prospering. At the palace was on a union line with 2500 men and had a great job in a home with dorothy and a beautiful family. They are not just hanging out. Its like they put a lot of wonderful situations on the sid and took on a great risk because they believed in that protection of cultural identity worldwide and. I just want to mention about terminating the tribes that that was going to happen under nixon and all the tribes. And because of the friendship that her group developed with patterson i remember he was sitting in his office here in dc talking about something and he asked him if i can do one thing for you right now, what would you want me to do for you and he said i want you to re group the termination. Theyve gone from one of the richest colonies, the richest reservations in the state of wisconsin to being the poorest colony. They are poor. He said you need to and that and turn that around. And within six months, they ended that termination andur thy returned the reservation status with tribal status back to the nominee reservation. Not too manyy people know about that, but i can remember i was pregnant with geronimo and we were walking the streets protesting for people that were selling off the nominee reservationn. Selling land to people who were coming by the lake lots and they put an end to that and now i understand that theyve given the landowners that are sitting on the land i think they hid leases into said that they were ending all of the leases and that there were not going t to renew them so this ws going to be back to the nominee land. So not the nominee territory. I was very happy to hear that but also that they stopped terminating other reservations. And with the land return and oklahoma, that was great to hear about, but i think the first, we talked about this, the first land return is when they returned to the coast guard station and put it in our name. Herb had to find a tribe to take ownership of the land so it could be in travel status. We went to all the tribes in wisconsin asking them to take ownership of, take the title for the land down there and nobody wanted to do it so finally the last track they went to was the pottawatomie to ask if they would take a chance at that and theyey did and the rest is history. They are billionaires and i think that theres a big article on the milwaukee papers about it talking about how it was a, what do they call it, turned it into a gold mine. Occupation became command of the articleg also said somethig about it was very important what a difference when theres an advocate with an activist and in that case there was a peaceful understanding, support, a lot went into it and a lot of hard work went into it to develop these schools thriving on 17 acres, beautiful, but the advocate and the activists working together, that went on until of course wounded knee and other things that began to escalate and we know the policies that can escalate all of a sudden the reversals start to happen. When you dont have the advocate it can go the other way. So i thought it was a unique story. What happened in milwaukee is still progressing to this day, still thriving to this day. And land act, beautiful words and that was the outcome. Im sore there are people who dont understand how all of thet disconnected. Why was the coast guard station mail milwaukee important, and how was that related to alcatraz or wounded knee and ultimately how is that related to the takeover of the building because all of those things to my understanding, and i know theres a lot of people here who have lived this and who know it, but ive been learning this over the last several years. How are all of those related, what was important about the coast guard station . It wasnt just picked out of the blue. There was a reason for it a and how was it related to all of the other takeovers . Or attempted. There was a treaty used with it that its a good thing the United States government dont have the treaties were understand them because we used a treaty that passed above land westpi of the mississippi that y abandoned federal land reverts back to the tribal ownership. Thats where its supposed to go to the coast guard station was abandoned by the coast guard station and so we took it over and is that we are using the 1860 data treaty because that is coming back and we are reclaiming it and that is what we did. There was so i picked it up and said this is an American Indian movement and he said i hope she doesnt know anybody overseas. [laughter] with of the treaties that we have, the land is supposed to be returned to us instead of sold off and i see they are selling lynational parks. This is upsetting to me because those are supposed to go back to tribes. They would take it for their own using to say the land is to the state band i dont know what they are turning it into, but its nothing some of us want back. The miracle about what you wanted, it hadnt happened yet. This was something that had been advocated every time the United States would abandon one of these locations that they had taken and then it wasnt being returnedet. How did you get the idea in your head that somehow this was the place to make a stand . What was it about the coast guard that had abandoned and build this new facility, what was it that made you and or herb decide that this is the place and we have a chance for just we want to make a statement and you never thought he would pull this off . We knew we were going to pul it off just it was if we were going to pull it off or not alive. Its a beautiful spot and location. Its right on the lakefront. There are highrises across the street from it. Thats why i said the people that live in the neighborhood probably were not happy that we took it over, but it was all to make a statement because i was talkinguf about some of the stuf and we were talking about how we were forced into be situation at that time we had to do something to get attention, to get National Attention and it wasnt easy to plan because you never knew if you were going to come out of it alive or not. We never knew. Some of our people, a lot of our people didnt come out alive, but we thought it was worth fighting for. We were trying to get something so the younger generations wouldnt have to go through the fight that we went through, they wouldnt have to be forced into boarding schools or relocation or anything like that. We wanted them to remember this is our homeland, this is the motherhood that we were trying to take care of. No matter where you look or how far you see, it is Indian Country. Sorry again im going to jump in because i havent met dorothy. Ive heard of her and read about her in the book, so i know some of the stories, but what you said there was we didnt know if we were going to come out alive. And you had children. What is it about this movement were where you were at that time that made you say in spite of what may happen to me and what that may mean for our kids, what made you do this . I read somewhere, and im not the oneth who said it but i remember reading if you need help finding something worth dying for, then what are you living for. I was talking about this the other night when you meet a native people and they are not traditional people, they are not culturalst or in their native state of mind, theres a look they have in their eyes. Eayou are looking at he did in e end not there. And i would rather die fighting for all of my kids to have a look in their eye that they know who they are, they know inside who they are, where they are going and where they came from. We are in a fight together. And thats i preach that to my kids and my grandkids all the time, ceremonies, ceremonies, that is the only way youre going to survive and that mother earth is going to survive if we start taking care of it and be the caretakers that we need to be. 100 , take care of our water. We are willing to fight and die for the water. Ig and youve seen the fight that has come because of it, trying to pollute the water and do all that kind of stuff, but what i like to say is its like the ndveins of the mother ruth, it goes all over the water my children drink on the reservation is going to be the same water that everybody elses children is going to end up drinking so if youre going to pollute my water, youre doing it toti your own children come into your generations that are coming. We cant afford to do it. At some point then that leads you to say im willing to ignore the dangers and sly and on with what the American Indian movement is saying and what they are about, but the movement is about or that is what the movement is about is saving our culture and traditions, saving our people. Getting them to know who they are so they dont have to use alcohol to try to forget everything that happened to them or use drugs to try to be happy. The traditional would do the same thing for you. We have a saying that we dont have a religion, we have a way of life. We live it every single day. We want oure children to look past about. This is a way of life and its not a joke. Ive got to ask you a question. And i think dorothy answered that question i was about to ask because we saw but what is it that will lead you to want to write this book and how did you pick these four people to leave their lives together and tell the story . Im asked that and i always have the same answer. Milwaukee picked milwaukee because i was looking for a place and characters that could ulpull together and was many stories as we could cram into was i think of as a bedtime story. I often tell people it is a little book, but there is a big story. Theres so many others that people can contribute to that moment. But it kind of came out of the tribunal need interactive and having vicki amazing opportunity of getting to listen to movement of people that havent seen each other for many years, getting together and talk and share and have their own stories. So, those for merge because they were closed. I remember so many times, dorothy, because i was modest about it. All of there sudden theres thee cars pulling up and theres this smell. Leonard was there and this is one ace few times how can yo have. Because of the milwaukee story and this profile moment of people in washington helping, there were a list is made of people to kind of be on the lookout for and falls information went out and hes picked up and its years later before a trial comes to milwaukee. Leonard already sent an improvement at the time that exonerates him, but its too late. Theyve been able to put a pattern together and the security guards that were part of the building occupation. It all started and i told her im interested in all the years and the days that led up to the bad days and the humanities and stories. How do you reverse something that was a 400 year plan and 50 year plan and she said the same way they took it away from us and pointed to the share money, we are going to get it back the way they took it away and i thought wow and she believed it. Then you start seeing evidence of thiss Rolling Thunder of the renaissance and all these voices coming out of wounded knee. Rema black, go back to the lompoc trial where everyone gathered because definitely got the sense the voices were being heard at these trials and on these Supreme Court vigils, steps and tribunals. And roberta black said if we could only find an honest judge, a good judge and lay leonards case out on the table in front of them, hed free Leonard Peltier. I dont think it was necessarily the way she envisioned it, but a good judge came along and has a story that can pull a lot together connect a lot of dots. So i now get to introduce you anyway. Thats judge kevin sharp, who has a story of his own about well, i hope i had to i had to step down and not be a judge in order to get involved in this about. Part of my involvement comes in after all of this. After leonards life as a child on the reservation, after hes taken from his grandmother and returned to boarding school even after he spent three years there sometimes in his own solitary confinement as stated dennis banks and dick wilson who wasth the leader of the goon squad ani of the events that lead up to this fight in 1975 and all one of the things that hit me learning about that piece of it is that they all came out of this with their own trauma and i include wilson in that. He took his in a direction that was dangerous and detrimental to his own people. But i think that that happened because of what happened to him as a child, and you cant discounted that. Its all of those things and sharon talked about it in the anewspaper article, leonard waa guy trying to help his people. Thats it. He was a guy trying to help out. He moved to seattle as part of the fishing rights protest, but there was nothing, there was no violence happening. This was just a guy trying to hold his people leaned part of what he does while hes there is he is a mechanic. He is learned to trade and he starts this shop and they start helping the women that are trying to get out of abusive relationships and help others in the community with the drug andd alcohol problems and that leads him into this movement. But coming into this movement its a movement, not in organization, coming into it you become t a target and a target f intel pro. The program, whatever you want to call it, within the fbi that is running counterintelligence against ourd own people. These individuals become part of the. So thats how he ends up on this path june 26, 1975. He is there to help his people. Youveth got the squad. I didnt name them that, they named themselves but. They are now working with the government and of the fbi and Government Entities that want things the traditionals have that want the leases and land and want to keep the Training Facilities thats on the reservation. Leonard then runs headfirst to try to protect the traditionals. Thereve been over a threeyear period, 60 plus deaths in and around that area of people who are either aimed members or supporters. They are not investigated, no one is tried for that. In fact theres one woman who had multiple stab wounds in her back. Autopsy ruled the cause of death a suicide. Thats how ridiculous it was. Nobody cared because in one sense, to me, and i came from this out the outside, there was this element of vietnam and all of this happens just months at the end of vietnam, that is when we are talking about, but it reminds me of vietnam because you drop kids into an area with guns around people they see if not less than human, less of themselves and the traditionals ask the government initially f r help. Our people are being murdered. We need your help and they are not getting that. They dont realize that right off the bat that this is part of the plan. They think you are here to help us and they dont get the help. What we learn is they dont get that help because the government, the Law Enforcement is working with the squad providing them with ammunition, intelligence. They are working to ensure that group keeps the traditional native stone. So c they called in and say we need your help. Thats what they are doing there at that time. Thats why they are on pine ridge. In june of 1975. So, the places a power kick. In an area that have a handful of agents suddenly has hundreds of agents heavily armed. If something is going to happen, and i say this that it happens to be june 26, 1975 but what happens there that day is inevitable. The day may not be, but when your government treats your own citizens that way, the native nativeamericans that live in tha in that way, theres going to be an explosion. If somebody is going to get killed. Its just a matter of time, and they knew it. Everyoneam knew. Therek is an author that wrotea book called sandros hands and he had come out of the army or the navy rather, nab vet and the Naval Intelligence then he went to work as a teacher. He tried to warn them youve got to back off and get control of your people or its going to explode, and it did. Its 1975 they end up to agents pulled up onto pine ridge. Theyve radioed we dont have recordings because they didnt do that in 1975 but the radio and that they are trailing a red pickup truck that fits the description of a vehicle owned by a man named jimmy eagle who is wanted for stealing a pair of cowboy boots. I question whether or not they even have jurisdiction over that but lets assume they do have jurisdiction. They are in unmarked cars and plain clothes. One of them is even wearing moccasins. They dont look like the pictures of the young men in suits and ties. So when they pull into the pine ridge reservation, trouble starts. Theres a red pickup truck and so a firefight happens. Three people are killed, the two agents and a young man i believe hes 21, 22yearsold. I apologize to those of you that are 21 or 22. Theyve got to prosecute someone. Leonard makes his way into canada. They end up in minutes surrounded by the hundred plus agents and they escape. A group of others were able to escape. You know, they are able to make their way out. Now they are taken into custody. Theyve been indicted for the murder of two agents. Leonard makes his way to canada and the canadians wont extradite him because theres no proof that he shot these two agents. So leonard is in canada while imthe government tries to get hm back. The case is given to a judge named mcmanus. Mcmanus decides nothing wrong with this decision that hes going to do go ahead and try to, hes goingo to try both learne, they will do is to separately and then they will wait and see what happens. Ultimately, the jury that hears the case decides that they are not guilty by reason of soft offense. So theyve got one person left and theyve got to get him back so the story is about the hundreds of years that led up to it and its about the decades after. It was a series of mistakes that led to people dying, but its everything before and after that happened. I came to this case as one who knew nothing about it. I had been a federal judge and have always been on the bench appointed by president obama ann have only been on the bench for six years. I ran headfirst into what are known as mandatory minimum sentences. Thats where congress decides the judges are incapable of doing their o jobs, which is the most important and they will tell you how to sentence people. What i saw was this sentencing to white and stepped down. Those that have nothing to do with the crimes that have been committed or the individuals, you are sentencing the individual. And. They are way more harsh than the circumstances into the individuals should be sentenced. So i ended up with three individuals one of whom was loaned to the 23yearsold, life in prison for a nonviolent drug offense. Im not going to continue to do this because to become a federal judge, you are investigated by the fbi, you are vetted by the white house, by the department of justice, you are investigated in the senate and the fbi will come of the senate has its own fbi agents attached and then the ada will do its own check of you. But the judgment and the temperament to be a judge to make the most important decision that a judge has to make which is those decisions that affect someones liberty. So we go through all of this and voted unanimously confirmed by the Republicancontrolled Senate this guy knows what hes doing and when it comes time to make the most important decision you are going to sentence these kids to life and thats where im out. I turned around and started helping on his clemency application. I dont know how much ofs that was me or Kim Kardashian. [laughter] she hears about this case and then starts to help. She gets off a meeting with President Trump and so its President Trump, jared, Kim Kardashian all in the oval office talking about these clemency issues. That then becomes a story. I said one of the things that happened, im walking out with Kim Kardashian and one of the secret Service Agents that works there protecting gets a friend of his to hold his weapon while he takes a pitcher with Kim Kardashian. Pick that weapon back up, youre here to protect us. I but that becomes a story not that theres a judge with the Kim Kardashian is there. That story gets read by willie nelsons exwife and she says somebody send that guy leonard sparling and see if he can help with clemency so when i get that file or those files, i dont know anything about leonard the American Indian movement. Ive heard a little bit about it. I barely know anything about the treatment and interaction between the United States government and the native americans because unless you go out searching for the information, youve got about 15 minutes of a sanitized story of the trail of tears and only the cherokee version. I haveis no preconceived notionf how this ought to turn out, why it happened. I have just started reading. I get some articles to get a general sense of what this is about and the opinions of the court of appeals to find out what are the issues that came in and then i started reading the transcripts. Im reading this as a former federal judge whos only been off the bench for two years, maybe less than two years so as i read this, my thoughts are my godd how are we still talking this case. I start to see wait a minute how did you get leonard back from canada because you have no evidence. They did that by lying and getting a woman to sign multiple affidavits saying i was there i saw him do it but ultimately that wasoo there proof. She wasnt there that day, didnt know anything about those events except for what she had heard later. She never even met leonard until one day in court tha was the first time shed ever seen him and when asked why did you sign the affidavit if itit wasnt tre she said because was threatened and intimidated by the fbi. Ifto i didnt sign the affidavit they were going to take my child away from me. Was that an idle threat, no not if you knowf anything about the history of the governments ability to take native children so it wasnt an idle threat. Youd better be afraid and you sign this affidavit but the whole thing obviously is going to fall apart after leonards return. Now the return to the United States has the u. S. Attorney or the assistant u. S. Attorney told the court leader theres not one scintilla of truth in this. Now his explanation because the Canadian Court wants to know why this false affidavit was filed and the explanation is because the fbi controllers did this. We didnt know anything about it. Heres where my being a federal judge comes in. I said i know thats not how this works. I know that u. S. Attorneys dont take affidavits from fbi agents and just file them. Thats not what happens. So i believe that the u. S. Attorney was in on this and on that the entire time. But now youve got to convict, youve got him back. There is no remedy. Return it to canada because we lied to you. So thats where youve now got and thats what you want. But they dont want is the judge to try this case because they allow the evidence of fbi misconduct,s he allowed in evidence what was known as the reign of terror. When he allows that evidence as one of the jurors that acquitted he said we were more afraid of the fbi then we were of anyone associated with the American Indian movement. It gave a reason when members of the squad were involved in this. They are going to protect themselves into its why they were there and no one should expect anything other than that. When judge mcmanus lets that in and has a fair trial, Robert Butler acquitted so the case is transferred to fargo. Ive looked for thatns order tht transfers the case and i cant find it and i dont feel bad about not finding it and my research because judge mcmanus wasnt aware of it either. I saw an interview with him before he died when he was asked how did that happen and he said i dont know the case was taken and transferred. The other thing is theres an fbi teletype that shows that the fbi and the u. S. Attorney met withge the judge about this cas, yet another reason judge benson showed them to sit case. He then says the fbi is not on trial, leonard is on the trial. We are not going to hear about any of the reason somebody might be to protect themselves. And so all of that evidence is kept out. Now at some point the fbi finds a shell casing, not the first time they examined the scene ,not the second time they examined the scene, but later they find a showcase and they put on the stand the ballistics expert who says we didnt do this test up to be the best ballistics test that we have a shell casing and we did a shell casing to stand that comes from the weapon thatat leonard had ad thats the case. Its a shell casing. Now theyve also got Norman Patrick is alive and was one of them 15yearsold threatened and intimidated to justify that they saw things that they did not see. They had recanted all of that in the first trial. So when they took the stand in the second trial that judge benson prevented them from having been intimidated to Say Something that was a lie previously. F so again to keep out any evidence of misconduct that ive spoken to norman who is still alive and said reminiscent of george floyd that norman told me one of the agents took his knee and put it into his neck letting him know that youre going to testify the way we need you to testify. But to his credit, he recanted the testimony in the first trial, kept it out of the second trial that he had been forced to say these things. So we are back to the one piece of evidence that theyve got, shell casings. Now the jury is shown the autopsy photos thats got nothing to do with who pulled the trigger with its meant to inflame the jury. The judge is told by the fbi about threats that had been made, alleged threats by members of the American Indian movement in a way to brighten the jury and let them know these are dangerous people. So that displays the jurys thinking. But one of the most incredible things that i saw, i start reading the transcript and i get to day number two of this thing. Eits a transcript of everythig that everybody says from beginning to end, gavel to gavel like its court tv, we are going to see it all and on day number two, three women show up and nothing to doo with this case, but theyve got a piece of paper, knock on the door, we would like to talk to the judge. Theyve got a piece of paper that theyve all signed and had notarized and it says we know one of your jurors, shes a friend of ours and we work with her, Blue Cross Blue Shield and she told us in the cafeteria one day that she may be selected to sit on this jury and shes prejudice against indians. That is their words, this is your jury. And they come in, the judge calls them income and each one comes up to testify under oath to tell the court what happened and they all tell the same story. We are in the cafeteria, she tells us i may be harder if this trial and these guys that killed these agents, and im prejudice. When the women are excused, the court calls in that sugar and she takes the stand and we are going to ask personal questions. And you think she would say no, they misunderstood me, or i never said that. But instead she i says yeah, i said that. Its true. You think well, we are done. You are excused. But instead the court says commanded in the amount of time im telling the story is about the amount of time that it took in the court that day the courts as well, you know, this is a really important case. Do you think you can set the prejudice society and to be fair and she says yes. And i brought a piece of the transcript because it is hard to remember exactly what leonards lawyers say. But then leonard says, not leonard but his lawyer says i would like to put a limited number of questions to the jury. The court says you may. And heres his question. And i have to read it because its so bad. Do you understand that you will have to make a very serious and conscious effort to make sure the opinion you have doesnt in any way come into play in the case because of the seriousness of the consequences if she says i do and he says we are satisfied . D . I didnt even understand that question. [laughter]e and if he meant what he said, hes asking will you go back to the jury room and be prejudice. Im sure that isnt what he meant to ask. And im guessing shes answering the question she thought he should have asked but thats nou what happened and that is the question and he said we are satisfied, your honor and thats it and she stays on. And as i am reading that, i turned to the back and said surely somewhere this woman has been excused. I get to the back and verdict takes guilty and there is something called the polling of the jury. You ask each one is this your verdict and they get to the trigger and she says yes. And im thinking what could be more ineffective than that. Its a sixth amendment violation about as clear as it comes that he didnt get a fair and impartial jury. That alone should have given him a new trial accept there is more. What we learned later after hes convicted on the casing and thes expert says i wish we could have done a test that would have been great but they did a firing pin test and guess what it showed. It wasnt his weapon. He didnt shoot the agents and they knew it. The test was done before the trial and they knew it. So upon appeal, people ask me how do you know leonard is not guilty. I t said dont ask me. You can ask the prosecutor because they will tell you. The assistant u. S. Attorney who tried the case and again these are from the transcripts they tell the court of appeals our evidence was sketchy. Even with computers and appeal now that the ballistics test has come out, theres a we know and they knew he wasnt the principal shooters of the theory is now this isnt aiding and abetting. Thats the theory. He helped the codefendants shoot for agent. Thats interesting because the codefendants were acquitted based on selfdefense. So who did he aided and abetted . First he says the evidence that. The judge asks if it is aiding and abetting, hooted he aided and abetted. The assistant u. S. Attorney says i dont know. Maybe himself. You didnt have to go to law school to know that that isnt possible. You cannot aided and abetted yourself, but the court lets it go. And ive heard of other enemies who said at the same thing. I dont know. Maybe himself. And hes also said, the prosecutors also said we dont know who shot the agents. And he said we do know that theree were only three people there. If thats true and aiding and abetting is your theory because we know it wasnt leonard who aushot them, then it has to be butler if they are telling us they are the only three people there and they were acquitted based on selfdefense. So where is the crime that he aided and abetted. At then if you are still not clear as to what the prosecution thinks of this case in a later interview the same assistant u. S. Attorney says we did not prove that leonard shot anybody, andne we knew we didnt prove i. So, what are we doing here 27 years later . Why are we here talking about whether clemency ought to be granted leonard . If ramsey clerk couldnt get this done i dont know how we are going to do this. Ramsey clerk said thisis is not whether he ought to be granted clemency, he never should have been in in the first place. Ask the assistant u. S. Attorney that prosecuted the case, we didnt prove it and we know we didnt prove it. Maybe hema aided and abetted himself. Maybe he aided and abetted those based on some threats now and leonards case because the theory was he was the principalt shooter. The judge didnt lead into the codependence had been acquitted based on self events. It was part of the evidence that was kept out. If your theory is aiding and abetting and your evidence shows there were only three people there and the two of them have been acquitted, then how do you convict leonard, it cannot be done, yet here we are. Now, im not the first, i hope that im the last two have to represent leonard in a clemency position. Whats different except for the bias juror, i dont have anything else to the story. Everyone has known this. The number of people that i run into the to say i grew up with this story. If you are from that area of the country or if you are native american, these are not new stories to you. So why do i think that leonard is going to be granted clemency . Because the thing that has changed is the audience. This is a president who listens to native american voices. There is an audience, a constituent. I call them an audience but its the constituents of the rest of the country who dont live in Indian Country or have not grown up in a native American Culture who are now starting to understand what happened or are now starting to understand that what happened in june of 1975 requires context. The native American Communities know this and i had heard about it and i had heard this slogan before. Kill the indian, save the man but i thought this was something from the 1800s. I didnt realize the schools were going into the 1950s and 60s and i think the last ones of the error of schools still existed in the 1980s. What, 96 . Okay. Now its even worse. 1996. The American Public is hearing this and they see the body count. Like vietnam again. Youre watching the news and you hear about a body count and now we are starting to hear those things in the schools and what is the body count at this one and we are horrified. For the first time the average american is starting to hear this story and waking up to that tragedy. We are starting to understand what dorothy was talking about, about the importance of water and water rights and why you dont want to run a pipeline through these lands. The Standing Rocks of the world that seem to have nothing to do with Leonard Peltier cert suddenly opens upp the door to his story and thats why think thinks this constituency that existed before but that is important to the president is one that can help free leonard because the story of leonard is not just about leonard. When i opened up that first line i thought this was a story about a guy who had been wrongfully convicted and it was but then the onion started peeling back and what happened was easy for me to understand whyhy it happed wasr, this three and a half year fouryear journey. Everybody else is starting to learn that. And thats why i think now theres an audience to hear this and now that theres a constituency that knows the story and can say to the president of the United States its time to end this. For the native American Communities and not just the native American Communities that for ourselves and for the fbi. They need for this to end but they cant move beyond the hoover weight thats around their neck until this is over. You cant really understand that healing that hess take place if we dont work on this wound. And thats how we will be able to move and start healing in a much larger way. Must you can stop the bleeding hell never be old to heal those wounds unless we have real honest conversations about all of this. Hell never be able to heal those ones wounds and will never be old to have the kinds of relationships with each other that the individuals in this country need to have. So thats why leonards case is we want winter to be able to go home to the Turtle Mountain band of chippewa for example. They are expecting him. But we also need to get this done so we can heal the nation. And i cant overstate the importance of sending leonard home to do that partly starting the journey. So this case keeps me up at night and it gets me worked up. And im the new guy too. How would i feel if i lived with thisea story for 59 years insted of four. This needs to end and i feel that it will. So thank you for listening to me. [applause] im going backk to you sharon. I think at o the quote leonad gave recently that was part of a book called. 120 or 122 painters but a big latte of work that tells the story that i believe echo pearson gave been at the name in canada which means he who draws the people to him. I thought that was fascinating because ive met so many different people from all over the world. All uniquely different and yet this was in their hearts. It brought them to this story to this place and it became their story. Y. I love that quote where he says yes my life was stolen from me but not because it helps my people. Thats a brave beautiful thing to say. I want to close on that. The only thing i want to say is thanks for being here representing leonard because of this is the fifth time we have come across him as honest and willing to take the case to the limit. Ive seen a lot of people come and go and i think some of them i saw back and let them leavenworth when i visited leonard. I think they are worth more to these people inside them outside because its like a vending machine where people make money off of his name. Whatever they can tack his name on leonard doesnt get the money. They can only have 300 in the commissary in a month and a lot of people have benefited from jumping on the bandwagon and from the movement we have tlearned that. We are trying prevent some of that from happening and its just impossible because they are a lot ofn people that for whatever reason they come to him and to end up using him and it gets very disturbing because leonard is desperate. He tries to hold on people say he takes them at their word and wsallows them an end and he gets taken advantage of them i feel really bad about it. I talked to him a couple of days ago and he was feeling really bad with his health and i was saying at one point he was crying. I said you left me when i said my back was hurting my back was acting up and now you know what it feels like it needs that e but there was no medical care at that point he nowhere to go for the kind of relief and i feel bad. I just hope that this is the time. Im hoping everybody that hears thisis case does it for his benefit and to try r to help thm get out and not just the way to use him and abuse him. Im just hoping we can all put our prayers and our minds together to be of one mind and do the right thing. Im hoping that everybody we all know one of the reasons he is in there is because if he gets out he has a voice to and he likes to talk about resources that are being stolen and businesses are being ripped off an indian children arere being abused and whatever. I think a lot of the stories have become out. We tried to bring it out and i think thats what the amos always been. We have tried to get out to the public to educate people. It isnt what the government wants for us but what we want for our own people and we need to start listening to some of that. Its time. Itss really time. I hope he gets to come out and enjoy a little bit of his life here. Now would be a perfect time for questions from the audience. [inaudible] [inaudible conversations] thee do we have the microphone . [inaudible] c can you hear me okay . Is a working . Hi. My name is brooke and sharon knows me. Sorry about the boys. Anyway i thought it might be nice to hear a voice from the past now. Forgive my brain fog. I have a letter that i found around christmastime by dennis banks andgh i thought it would e interesting. Its not long but it includes leonard and anyway ive got a certification and a copy and it was before was typed where he served to fight it and mailed it to president obama. It was back in may, may 31, 2016. Of course emailed the original but but this is his copy. He says dear president barack obama to write this letter from selma alabama. A very Historic Towns with two significant meanings the cradle of confederacy and the workplace of yesterday our group of 40 plus people calling for the end of drug abuse and Domestic Violence walked over to edmund bridge and the Edmund Pettis bridge. As we walked across that bridge to montgomery to two boys demand for a right people had walked across the bridge and to date troopers sheriffs and deputies were viciously attacked by the bn guards and beaten with nightsticks. Two weeks later dr. Martin was the key that led to 300 walkers across that bridge protected by the United States and Alabama National guard. On august 51965 president johnson signed the act into law. Unfair worry 27th, 1973 another action not noticed by many to place in south dakotas. When the American Indian movement acted with the ogallala Human Rights Organization reasserted their rights to control their destiny on their nations territory. On january 1, 1974 russell needs and leaders descended into sch and were arrested and charged. After nine and a half months a federal judge citing governmental misconduct dismissed all the chargesss against them. And this is where his notes change. I never understood by the federal government feared us. We were not lawyers. We were not doctors, we were architects. We are just indian guys who wanted more for the next generation. We were the soldiers. We have nothing to offer but our liberty and our selves. And so we offered both freely, hoping the next generation would be doctors and lawyers and architects. Leonard was one of the soldiers. I write inspired by the courageous acts of president johnson and federal judge fred nichols. The history of Leonard Peltiers case. Today i humbly ask you to release Leonard Peltier from federal custody. He has been held for over 40 years in this help is now failing him. Should you fail to release him you will feel all of us as im positive he will die. Mr. President please do not fail us again. Release peltier. 40 is long enough. We will thank you for reading that because it reminds me that judge nichols dismissed those charges because of the governments misconduct. It was the same kind of misconduct that happened in leonards case and it also reminds me that judge heaney who heard leonards appeal call for clemency and anyone who was at the rally yesterday and you may have heard about this, James Reynolds who is the former United States attorney who helped prosecute leonard and this theynd are for the appealsn the habeas decision also came out in strong support for clemency for leonard and the 10th circuit talking about leonard and one of the opinion said theres no question that witnesses were intimidated and exculpatory evidence was hidden. Leonards case is so full of misconduct and layered with reasons to grant clemency even if you arent going to set the agendas and dennis letter hits on all that. He did it himself. I found the mailing with it but i wanted to remind everybody here last week at the second to the ninth in a think a lot of people remember that was a 50 Year Anniversary of the occupation of the cia. It wased the first televised indian battle of this war we have been in and thats why policy and termination changed so quickly because it was the first time nonsaw guns pointed at them. It was the first televised battle of this war. 50 years ago. Thank you. We all know leonard healthier is innocent and 47 years is more than enough. I thank you sheron and in my first telephone call from prison i h told him im so sorry that your life was stolen first in boarding school and then 47 years in prison. I was so surprised with his answer and it just shows his humanity. He said but not because my people benefited from it a lot of attention was drawn towards my people and many changes were made. Now we are all here and we want to no, especially those students, what can we do to add to all of our lives this additional value of helping guinean getting Leonard Peltier home. The most important thing you can do is not leave here and say what a tragedy and not think about it again. You cant watch this program and then change the channel or go to Something Else. You half to take a action. The president needs to know that you care about not just leonard. About these issues. Your members of congress and representatives and yourrs senators need to know that you care about this because they have the ability to influence. If you walk away and turn the channel then you havent done anything in nothing has changed and nothing will change. But thats one of the things thats so important thatan i noticed as they are rehashing the midterm in the election and the number of, the largest voting block was 18 to 29yearold demographic. And that group may say what is this had to to do with me . This was 1975 decades before i waswa born. History has everything to do with you. It has everything to do with you because we cant free leonard if nothing can change and then its destined to repeat itself. And it can happen to you. It can happen to your friends and a government that is unchecked and that is the worst. So you have to make your voice heard. This is as important issue as water rights and important issue as Climate Change because if the government can do this without being called to task for it than what have you got . Its back to dorothys statement, if you are just going to go this doesnt matter to me then nothing will change. If you are free to make that statement then nothing will change. Dorothy stepped up because this is an about me this is about the next generation and the next generation and the next. Is enough. Let the president know what to think about it and let your members of Congress Know what you think about it. So thank you for that. Youve got to write them the menu got to let them know. You can email, you can call, you can write letters. I text every day. Im sure President Biden is not checking his phone for Text Messages that somebody is checking so every day i sent my text response back to the white house that says free Leonard Peltier. Todays the day to free Leonard Peltier. Leonard peltier matters and people care and they get the text and you go on to the web site and you say the same thing. Whatever you do dont remain silent. Silence is the worst thing that can happen. Thankk you to the speakers today for sharing their stories and some of the things that i heard i heard for the first time. Im also reminded in 1975 just prior to a wall of the Senate Select committee was investigating the cia and nsa the fbi and the u. S. Military and its role in surveilling and surpassingss social movements in the United States. And tore it up or reason they didntdn investigate the u. S. Military or the fbis role in suppressing in surveilling the American Indian movement. We know now what the foia documents and the freedom of information act two months prior to the chute out at agualla there was an internal memorandum issued by the fbi that says something to the effect is the paramilitary operation of special agents in Indian Country. Prior to 1973 there were only two fbi agents in the state of south dakota assigned to police Indian Country in the entire state. During wounded knee there were a few hundred deployed and after wounded knee there were 37 fbi field agents and we saw an increase in crime, murders as it was p pointed out that the primy function of the fbi as i understand it in the country historicallyan and today is to investigate. We now know through this internal memorandum that was also serving a paramilitary function and judge sharply mentioned this is something wen can attribute to the hoover era. We also know that Standing Rock the fbi was at deploying similar tactics but but this time using corporate counterinsurgency and using private Security Intelligence and informers against the American Indian movement during that time period. Not only that people that they were investigating were some of the children of members that have been investigated by the fbi using informants and where the children of the girl then Indian Affairs office and federal policing in surveillance force. Id like to ask beyond clemency for Leonard Peltier which i think everyone in this room id agree with perhaps the fbi agents that are here. By now maybe they do. James reynolds changed his mind. Beyond that does there need to be a full accounting, beyond just Leonard Peltiers case in and the role that the fbi and depression surveillance of indigenousl social movements fm then to the president . To the president . At short answer is yes. I dont know except for historical reasons if you take an investigation back to the early 1970s and bring it forward for her starker recent it would be interesting but i think we have got to do it now. You talk about Standing Rock, absolutely. That needs to be investigated. The Church Committee was on the verge of opening this thing wide open and you know the Civil Rights Commission had looked into this but then the shooting occurs and its now a hot political topic and they drop it and its never been picked up again. Absolutely. The governments role in continuing to run counterintelligence and this activity on anyone they consider to be subversive has got to be investigated. Its one of those two that people need to know that it happened and if they do and i think we saw some of that in the midterms hearing them say enough is enough not just for leonard for all of this. Its so reminiscent of what you describe. Its so reminiscent and what happened in the 1970s and continues to happen. Its got to be investigated. How far back does it go, i dont know. Theres only so much time in there so many investigations you can start in d want this thing to go on for years except salute leap. What is happening today and lets expand it but i think youre absolutelyte right. And youve got an audience in this country thats willing to entertain that idea. Now we know that goes on. I was a kid in memphis and we had different issues but its a different world out there so now i know whats happening elsewhere in the country and thats needs to be looked into and its got to be stopped. Otherwise the kind of the state are we running . I dont know. Yes sir. It and was going to say typically we have the up and have the offense slot until 630 a clock but we have the room until 7 00 and seems like a bunch of folks want to ask questions and then we havewe a couple here that have party asked me so if you want to continue the q a session until seven id be more than happy to do so. But i think this gentleman in the back and this gentleman here and that woman in the back and this gentleman here and that one right there. Thats perfectly fine. I know you have been dashed if you can remember that order that would be a most impressive. It drives me and the disappointing part is that we are scratching the surface of the story. There are so many pieces to this that we dont even have time to talk about. I have a legal question for the judge. When leonard was extradited from canada the government would not extradite him unless the u. S. To be penalty off the table so now leonard has been imprisoned all of these years and he is approaching 80, 78. Could you explain what the old prisoner rule is and why leonard keeps falling through the cracks and he was not given the death penalty. It looks like you will die in prison. He got a de facto death sentence absolutely so prior to 1987 federal prisoners were eligible for parole. He is eligible for parole. If you look at the structure of the department of justice and thee criminal side its on the criminal side the u. S. Attorney the fbi that bureau prisons. They report to the same chain of command up to the Deputy Attorney general. He gets really difficult particularly where theres misinformation about what this case is about to get him through the parole system in a parole system that because it only applies to 1500 at the older prisons. It doesnt have full complement on the parole commission. There are two and there should be five. So it is a way of getting around her obligations. We are going to execute him. We areng certainly going to let him die and thats what has happened. Eligible for parole in 2024 getting to the point of this even make it there and given what has happened before as we learned in thee investigation by these working groups on arbitrary there was a parole hearing officer recommended parole. Back in 09 and this is how adverse they are to granting parole. This gentleman recommends parole and his draft the court memo is pulled and a new hearing officer is put in place and changing the recommendations. In the process of doing that is reported by the working group h says leonard may have done it and peltier may not have done it but someone has done it. He didnt do it but some guy did so parole denied. If that was that of any other ethnicity they would be up in arms. He didnt do it that someone had to do it. What in the hell are you talking about that kind of mentality is pervasive and allowed. I dont have a lot of confidence that he would survive that long and even if they did that he would get a fairs parole. Everyone has known for decades as a prosecutor said we dont know the killed the agents and their evidence was sketchy. We didnt prove it and they knew we didnt didnt prove that an app that doesnt get you parole but dont know what will. This is politics. Thats what it is. I wish i had a more satisfactory answer for you. Yes sir. I am from new mexico and thank you for the panel and the service. Really what judge sharpe said was he believes in the opportunityan and need to change and yet we know of what the history of america has revealed. But its really what keeps leonard in prison and thats why hes a political prisoner. If a persuasion to the fbi the keeps him in prison. So really the question for judge sharpe is this kind of attitude in this kind of power in a certain political sector had a change that and how do you overcome that with Leonard Peltier . The question that was asked earlier what can we do . The fbi has influence. But that influences weighed against the influence of other constituents of the president and it is a different world. It used to be that what you had was a native American Community that was advocating for the release of leonard and a few folks outside of that community. It was not a stronger influential enough group but that has changed. You can look around and its not going to be enough for the native American Community. Look at where it is today as opposed to where it was 20 years ago. This is a community that has political influence. Is that enough . I think it is that evenf if its not you can add to it the other groups in this country that have woken to whats happening. I think this group of constituents has as much if not more than the fbi has. I am optimistic. I thinken this president cares d understands that thishi is not justst about what one agency decides and particularly where we no that narrative that has been put out there over the last decade just isnt true and it falls apart when you look at it. And i dont even know how they argue that. But they do. I dont know how they do that. When they still want to say no, no contact your own prosecutors say we empirically knew but i think all of that together has changed the landscape. I wanted to mention the National Conference of the american over 560 liters unanimously called for his freedom so when that voice like dorothy said its united together they became so much stronger because he led with those leaders and its a and its a new day maybe not a new day but a new chance. So i wanted to mention that. I pray and we that you are right. Let me add to this the fact those prayers are important. It changes hearts and minds is prayer. I think it makes a difference and you cant stop doing that. So important in this process. Hi everybody. Im from the cheyenne and survivor of the 1975 firefight. Me and my brother were there and he was 11 years old and i was 14. I just want tow let you know thy didnt care if we were children. They shot at everybody and im glad that people now realize that this has happened and no more covering up for the fbi and im glad that people believed our story because theres a point where they thought that we were just making it up. And i think lives they should be honored for that for a long time because there were a lot of people there that survived because they were not scared to stand against the oppressor in this genocide has continued. Our grandparents have been killed and jailed, murdered way back to sitting horse. They all went to prison just for being lakota or whatever they are from. We are still here here and we continue to fight for leonard and we appreciate all your support and its just really thankful that we have judge sharpe and dorothy that have come up and helped with our fight. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] my name is Lisa Bellinger and im the director of the American Indian movement internationalan governing council and our cruz walked from minneapolis minnesota for leonard with a our prayer and thinking about gene and what she just said and also remembering putting his life on thend line and giving the ultime sacrifice. I just want to come back to your comment earlier about what happened prior to that day and what o was the temperature of tt part of the country and thinking back then and tying that to what matthew said here that the cointel practices that colintelpro practices of the fbi and the secret service and the cia and such. Prior to that firefighting we were looking in fighting at the extraction industry. There was exploratory and there was intent so when you think about what was happening duringg that time period is toto think about what nick talked about here about the diversion and the infiltration and the embedded in the American Indian movement to deliberately came into create diversion and distraction. That has happened. If younk think about that dayiv thats a classic distraction and diversionai tactic going in and sending those plainclothes guys in there. Its not just a single incident for the American Indian movement and our people. Its not a historical event either. Although in 1980 or 79 he came to d. C. To the citizens repeated trials on the Citizens Review Commission of the fbi and i sat there and i listen to these not only our aim leaders talk about diversion and a tactics against their people but also i listen to the panthers and aa prp and the new republic of georgia and the nation of and all of these other races talking about the same things that were happening within their social justice movement. So when talking about i support you and would work anyway that we can to look at those historical projects that have been talked about here but also just encouraging to think about that as another way to look at the whole state, but that was the diversion tactic. And the implants didnt quit. If you were there today at the white house lawn we have the guy show up andle had did a complete distraction diversion in our prayer gathering. G. Its not over. When we announce that we were going to walk across the country for Leonard Peltier immediately, immediately we had infiltrators they came into minneapolis. We had helicopters and i saw the helicopter patrol. So its not historical it continues he knows that wee need people that have the power to stand upp and to say we need to know whats going on and why. Why is that there . Thank you. [applause] and another piece of that the court said related to leonards case that they need to take responsibility for their role for what happened there. Thank you all three of you so much for what you said and sharing and telling the story and dorothy for living it in judge sharpe for changing what i know is the storyrd of leonard. To those who are asking what we canth do most of the people here have already been doing it and continue and its great but for those of you who want to know what we do the social media, youre all in social media a few young people in their saliva tweeting going on but you can also tell your friends and come together. I want you to see a movie. I watched a video. Its very impactful and its the story of the trial and the oppression of people and their history. Incredible. The biography in the spirit of horse so that you can tell others aboutut it and its important that its on cspan. The fbi right now is intervening constantly. Tl people said recently maybe they are kind of giving up. They are not. They are intervening where people try to send a letter to the editor and they go and call the newspaper. Theres as wellknown journalit from Huffington Post Jennifer Bendery who wrote a letter to the federal parole board or Something Like that asking whats happening with leonards case. The fda the fbi found out and they intervened and wrote a letter and said you dont really know whats going on. I wonder if there should be more of a Public Campaign and political exposure of what they are doing right now. I wonder judge what you think about that. Im sorry, go ahead. It just seems necessary. Thats what we heard earlier that there needs to be the best occasion it interesting that Jennifer Bendery riding for the Huffington Post as the question and the fbi responded. Her question to them was what is the status of this clemency decision . The fbi that responded and they said heres why he is guilty and isou sedition should be denied. If you want to know the status a you need to talk to them. It why were you responding to that . The response was filled with misinformation and i dont say that lightly. It was a story that even the u. S. Attorneys office abandon 35 years ago. Thats not the version of the story that the government tells anymore. That two what does the doj look like and they are look like and they are all on the side look like in their own sites are look like and they are all on the side of the reporting but the bigger story two was the one that was talked about earlier. What is the federal government doing to infiltrate and run lecounterintelligence against their own people . E . And with domestic guess he got to do that. Im talking about people who just have an opinion that you disagree with. The jagger hooper, these folks need to be watched in the Martin Luther kings of the world. They need to be watched, they are unamerican. They ample. Not because they are. Because they are dissenters. Its in that long list of things. And the clemency for Leonard Peltier. [applause] i think we have one more quick comment before rai close. We will and with a little song. I want to thank your speakers once again before we break. Thank you guys so much are taking the time to do this and especially being on the spot lights along with many bright lights and we appreciated and thank you for everyone that showed up to this event in the wonderful questions we receive along the way and really just everyone being so engaged with this. It really is a pleasure. We have one more comment and the song and thanks again. Thank you guys so much everyone but just a very quick comment. I want to tell you folks who dont know about it theres an amazing podcast called leonard a political for those who couldnt come to the event tonight in d. C. So leonard politicall prisoner and thats a lot of people that you heard tonight and around the room will be in now podcast so please listen and there is action through the podcast as well. [inaudible] is important that we sing our songs. Its important that we move forward. Ro [inaudible] o