Free Leonard Peltier

I owe a great deal to Leonard Peltier. At the formative age of 15, it was learning about his imprisonment that really sparked my questioning of Amerian society and all its injustices, thoughout history up into the present day. I remember bringing a petition to my junior high and gathering a few paltry signatues. The petition didn’t go anywhere - I can’t even remember what I did with it - but Peltier’s struggle has continued to inspire me to fight for a better world.

 

 

Eight years later, he’s still not free. Now in his 31st year of imprisonment, he still serves - in Ward Churchill’s words - “as a symbol of the arbitrary ability of the federal government of the United States to repress the legitimate aspirations to liberation of indigenous peoples within its claimed boundaries.” Peltier never chose to be that symbol, but he’s carried it with amazing diginity and resolve.

 

On February 10th, people gathered in Tacoma, WA for the Annual Northwest Leonard Peltier March and Rally, now in its 14th year. I made it to the march the past two years, but I was regrettably short-sighted this year and failed to get off work. Photos of this year’s rally can be found here and here.

 

What follows below is a report on the march by Arthur Miller, sent around by e-mail and posted on Seattle Indymedia. An inspiring figure himself, Miller’s a long-time anarchist who has worked in solidarity with Native struggles for most of his lifetime, and has played a key role in organizing the Northwest Freedom for Peltier marches throughout their history.

 

Miller’s report touches on several key issues, particularly the shameful absence of the white left at the march, their ignorance of Peltier’s case and of Native issues in general. He also reports of police harassment of Native people, something that liberal peace activists never seem to have to contend with…