Star's I-Search Blog: 2013

Star Haislip

English II 1^st Block

Ms. McKoy

3 September, 2013

Waiting for the Backfire

Have you ever wondered what it would feel like if you had to be in prison for something you didn't do? Well, Leonard Peltier knows this feeling all too well. Mr. Peltier was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota on September 12^th, 1944 to Leo Peltier and Alvina Robideau. He dropped out of school in the ninth grade and in 1965 moved to Seattle, Washington where he became involved in Native American civil rights and joined the American Indian Movement (AIM). In 1975, Mr. Peltier arrived at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation as a member of AIM to help reduce the violence.

My personal experience with this issue is my Nana. She was involved with marches, protest, and was a Peltier supporter. My Nana died in February of 2000 and I am interested in why my Nana supported Leonard Peltier, so I decided to research more about the case. The first time I heard about Leonard Peltier was from my mom who told me a little about the case. What I know is that Leonard Peltier went to jail for a crime that he did not commit and the government is still keeping him imprisoned for (possibly) Robert Robideau’s crime.

The incident occurred on June 26, 1975 on the Pine Ridge Reservation at the Jumping Bull Compound in South Dakota. Two FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, thought they spotted Jimmy Eagle, who they had a warrant for his arrest and had been told that he was at the Jumping Bull Compound. They were told that Jimmy Eagle would be using a red and white vehicle, so when they spotted one that morning of June 26, 1975 they began to fallow it. The vehicle lead them straight into the Jumping Bull Compound which was an area on the Reservation set back from the highway, which consisted of four Indian residences and a campsite containing a dozen or so members of the American Indian Movement (AIM). Entering the Jumping Bull Compound, they were entering a hostile environment due to their encounter with the compound residence the previous day while trying to serve the warrant on Jimmy Eagle. For forty years, the residences of the Pine Ridge Reservation have been harassed and intimidated by a vigilante group called the GOONs (Guardians of the Oglala Nation). “The Wounded Knee occupation of 1973, this marked the beginning of a three-year period of political violence on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The tribal chairman hired vigilantes, self-titled as “GOONs,” to rid the reservation of AIM activity and sentiment. More than 60 traditional tribal members and AIM members were murdered and score more were assaulted. Evidence indicated GOON responsibility in the majority of crimes but despite a large FBI presence, nothing was done to stop the violence. The FBI supplied the GOONs with intelligence on AIM members and looked away as GOONs committed crimes. One former GOON member reported that the FBI supplied him with armor piercing ammunition.” (Leonard Peltier Case: Quick Facts). Between December 6, 1972 and March 27, 1977, a total of fifty-one months there were fifty-seven deaths on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Out of the fifty-seven deaths thirty-seven had no investigation; out of thirty-seven that had no investigation eighteen were killed by GOONs or BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs). Out of those fifty-seven deaths fifty-one were AIM supporters or members four where family members of AIM supporters or members, two were children and two were adults, and twenty-three of the fifty-seven were killed by GOONs or BIA.

Many times the news covered many stories of concern, but the news does not handle some issues in South Dakota. The questions remains; why haven’t the FBI and CIA taken action on the issues taken place in South Dakota? According to the note on the website siouxme.com, GOONs are thugs hired by Dickie Wilson, and paid with federal money, trained by FBI and CIA, so this might be the reason why they have turned their backs to the issues in South Dakota; they don’t want anything linking them to the problems. In the article “The Case of Leonard Peltier; The Set-up” it states that four men were initially accused of murder in the deaths of agent Williams and Coler. One of the men was supposedly Jimmy Eagle who they claimed they were coming to the camp to arrest for the alleged theft of a pair of used cowboy boots; all charges against him were dropped. The other two men, Robert Eugene Robideau and Darrelle Dean Butler, were acquitted before a jury, they were found not guilty by reason of self-defense the jury rightly concluded that the men had no way of knowing that the two FBI agents who were dressed in plain clothes and driving unmarked cars, were federal agents. When the gunfire started, these men who were already used to the reign of terror that was going on; having already lost at least 50 of their friends and relatives and their deaths remain uninvestigated to this day, returned fire as anyone would. Many Native Americans, not only Leonard Peltier, face the horror of loss; one of these losses was Edith Eagle Hawk (and her two children) who were killed in an automobile accident after being run off the road by a white vigilante, Albert Coomes who was also killed in in the accident; GOON Mark Clifford identified as having also been in Coomes car, escaped and the investigation was closed without questioning Clifford. This is just one out of a total of sixty people who died and only one was used to frame an AIM leader Richard Marshall and Russell Means also charged an acquitted.

In the article, “The RESMURS Case: The Investigation of the Murders of FBI Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams,” the bottom of page eight states that Robideau’s fingerprints was found on the inside door handle of Williams’ car. In another article, “Leonard Peltier Case Chronology,” the last date states February 17, 2009 Robert Robideau passes away at his home in Barcelona, Spain. The finger prints obviously meant that he was the only one that could have been close range to shoot FBI agents Williams and Coler, but he was found not guilty in a trial by jury. Since the FBI needed to have someone go to jail they decided to make all of the evidence point to Leonard Peltier, but the evidence against him was false such as the affidavits signed by Myrtle Poor Bear who said she was Leonard Peltier’s girlfriend and allegedly saw him shoot the agents, but the fact was that Myrtle Poor Bear had never met Leonard Peltier and was not present at the shoot-out. Soon after she recanted her statements and said that the FBI threatened her and coerced her into signing the affidavits.

Leonard Peltier suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, a heart condition and prostate cancer, and time is running out for justice. Leonard Peltier is serving someone else’s time. Since Robert Robideau has passed away that would mean the end of his sentence if he served his own time. Since Leonard Peltier is serving Robert’s time shouldn't that mean that Leonard’s time is up as well, shouldn't he be set free? Well, let’s leave that up to the people to decide whether or not he gets set free or he stays in prison and serves the rest of Robert’s time. Leonard will turn 69 on September 12^th, so you tell me should he wait longer for freedom or should he just have his freedom?

Works Cited

Burnett Ann, Meister Mark. EBSCO HOST. 21 April 2005. September 2013 <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=16794962&site=ehost-live>.

Federal Bureau of Investigations. n.d. September 2013 <http://www.fbi.gov/minneapolis/about-us/history-1/the-resmurs-case>.

Federal Bureau of Investigations. May 2000. September 2013 <http://www.fbi.gov/minneapolis/about-us/history-1/copy_of_report-for-pine-ridge-indian-reservation-south-dakota>.

Free Leonard Peltier. 25 January 2013. September 2013 <http://www.freeleonard.org/case/index.html>.

Murderpedia. 7 February 2009. September 2013 <http://www.murderpedia.org/male.P/p/Peltier-leonard-chronology.htm>.

Wicks, Mike. Amerivan Indian Cultural Support. 2005. September 2013 <http://www.aics.org/LP/index.html>.

Wikipedia. September 2013. September 2013 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Peltier>.

Star's I-Search Blog

Thursday, October 24, 2013

A Link to the AIM Web cite

Friday, October 11, 2013

Free Leonard Peltier Pictures

Letter to the Editor

Narrative Poem

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Waiting for the Backfire Essay (works cited included)