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HAVE YOU THOUGHT OF LEONARD PELTIER LATELY?
By Harvey Arden; compiled and edited by George Bowe Blitch,
HYT Publishing, 2004
Initially, I considered this a curious title for a book about American
Indian Movement (AIM) leader and North America's most prominent
aboriginal political prisoner, now in his 29th year as "a
houseguest in Hell" in Leavenworth Penitentiary, for, in
Peltier's own words, "the crime of being an Indian". But
it becomes readily clear that Arden is not presenting a book
"about" Leonard Peltier or one that details the case for his
innocence.
Arden, a former journalist with National Geographic, whose long-time
activism in support of Leonard Peltier led to his work as editor of
Peltier's Prison Writings: My Life is my Sun Dance (St. Martin's
Griffin, New York, 2000), describes Have You Thought of Leonard Peltier
Lately? as "the artifacts of an ongoing struggle for one man's
freedom and for the self respect of us all".
While this "living memoir" focuses on the quest for Peltier's
freedom, Arden sees this as "a key to freedom for tens of thousands
of others in our runaway American 'prison industrial complex'". He
links his involvement with indigenous issues to his Jewish roots-- the
Jewish Holocaust and the 500 year Holocaust "against American
Indian Peoples" involved in both cases the struggle "to
survive as a people". "[M]y liberation", he
explains, "is bound up with theirs...and with Leonard's".
This is very much a companion piece to Prison Writings with
contributions by Peltier (including a number of his paintings), memorial
pieces and messages about and by key aboriginal leaders and Elders whose
lives and struggles have intertwined with his, a review of the
circumstances leading to the deaths of two FBI agents on Pine Ridge in
1975 and the subsequent FBI COINTELPRO operation framing Peltier for the
murders and an often passionate account of the intervening years since
his conviction. This includes a segment on the hopes,
first raised by, and then brutally dashed by Bill Clinton in 2000 around
presidential clemency for Peltier. Clinton "has the spine of
a chocolate éclair", says Arden, proving it by succumbing to FBI
pressure and "intimidation, pure and simple", releasing
"that string of sleazy felons" and leaving Peltier imprisoned.
Have You Thought of Leonard Peltier Lately? touches upon Peltier's
flight to Canada and deportation to the U.S. in 1976 based on perjured
testimony cooked up by the FBI and the failure of the Federal
Justice Department to investigate. However, this book's pastiche
covering the intervening years doesn't dwell on the work by aboriginal
activists and Peltier supporters here to uncover and publicize the
disgraceful role of the Canadian state in dismissing the evidence of
Peltiers' innocence and FBI malfeasance during the deportation hearings.
For Canadian readers of Arden's book, an added dimension to the
"artifacts" of this struggle can be found in paying tribute to
the continuing work of the Leonard Peltier Defence Committee Canada (LPDCC)
and the coalition it continues to build under the leadership of the
indefatigable First Nations activists Anne and Frank Dreaver.
Despite the disappointment of Clinton's clemency denial, LPDC Canada has
moved on to develop new strategies. I'm most familiar with the
work Anne Dreaver has carried on to nurture a solidarity relationship
within the labour movement, but the coalition brings together many
activists from other sectors.
Front and centre is a planned political lobby that will pressure the
Federal Government to look at the 30-year record of injustice in
Peltier's case and extend an olive branch to aboriginal people by
issuing a diplomatic and humanitarian appeal to the U.S. to release
Leonard Peltier now. This record covers both countries, notes Anne
Dreaver, "and in the United States includes government admissions
that there is no evidence against Leonard to warrant his
conviction".
Moving the Federal Government in this direction will be no easy task,
because "there is an impossible conflict of interest and bias in
the Department of Justice, since they also represent the United States
government...and have from the beginning". Success
for the 2005 Freedom Campaign will depend greatly on mobilizing the
coalition LPDCC has worked to build. It is encouraging that the
Ontario Federation of Labour has joined with the LPDCC to launch the
campaign at a widely publicized "Benefit for Freedom" on March
4, 2005 in Toronto.
From Leavenworth, Leonard Peltier ends his moving Forward to Arden's
book with this challenge: "I'm still here. Now what are we going to
do about it?". The LPDCC deserves the active support of all
of us as it mobilizes its response.
For further information on this book see the companion website
www.haveyouthought.com.
Evert Hoogers
CUPW National Union Representative
This review was originally written for "Briarpatch," and will
run simultaneously. (March 2005 issue)
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