August 1, 2009
Dear Honorable Barack H. Obama,
I am writing to you today because of my Native brother Leonard Peltier who remains behind bars of an institution that once held your people to the chains of oppression. I liken Leonard Peltier and the American Indian Movement to the moment when Frederick Douglass could not accept the treatment in which he received from his Master Covey whom’s forte consisted of his abilities to gain power through control over the slave. The white trickster, lying in wait for potential black tricksters and Lloyds ruses to keep the slaves from his garden, the tarring of the fence is to tar the heart and soul from believing that one is equal, a compatriot on the path of life. When Frederick stood up and took the throat of his master and he spoke words of grace and power, just like that of an educated white man, which stunned his Master, thus allowing Frederick Douglas to become a strong and equal individual in that particular moment of time. It’s what I write in my piece called Silence that, “Words of anger often express what is deeply rooted, and remains buried until such a time, when silence can no longer be the skin of expression.” You and I both know that the oppressive chains of silence must break free at some point in time and that is how I feel about the American Indian Movement, that it is and was originally all about, breaking free, taking that master by its throat to say I will no longer be treated in this manner.
What I have come to understand, is that we the human race have many faults but are an inherently a decent society that lacks the truth and education needed to understand the severity in which my people have and continue to endure on the reservation. During the time of Wounded Knee II the air of intimidation that the government instituted, was a continuum of Covey verse’s Frederick Douglass policies, against the Native population. A fear that was so overwhelming at times, that some would choose to sleep in abandoned vehicles despite the coldness of winter, some freezing to death so as not to take the money of a corrupt government. Dick Wilson was Tribal Chairman at the time this all took place and he too was just as complicit as the government when instituting state government terrorist campaigns against the Lakota people. Dick Wilson and his squad of goons also engaged in physical threats of violence against their people, but mostly against those of traditional beliefs that stood up against the almighty Goliath, who sought out to eliminate them in any manner they deemed appropriate. An estimated 60 murders dubbed resmurs were committed against these traditional people, that gave Dick Wilson a shoot to kill mentality fueled by the certainty of a corruptive government. The air was thick with the smell of hostility which provided a cover for Dick Wilson to try and sell the Black Hills for a few coins of justice without the consensus of the people.
I may not have grown up on a reservation but know the fearsome force of intimidation, one in which the movie Shawshank Redemption slightly touches upon and was filmed in the city in which I grew up in and found my voice, my skin of expression. The city in which became famous for all the wrong reasons was Mansfield, Ohio and the hometown of Senator Sherrod Brown who had joined together with Martin Yant in a battle against the corrupt political officials, that began around the time of Wounded Knee II. Mansfield was a place in which fear, intimidation and murder were as common as your morning cup of coffee. A city with same yet differing situations of murder and corruption.
Ballistic tests have long since proven that the gun used to kill the FBI agents was not that of Leonard Peltier. But, whom ever the individual is that made those fatal shots forever changed the lives of FBI agent’s William and Coler’s families, and so too changed the life of Leonard Peltier and his family as well. Leonard Peltier has always stated that he did not murder these agents and has always expressed his deepest sincerity to their families and that of their children, but one cannot lay claim to an act in which he did not commit.
Time has come to Free the bars of oppression that have surrounded Leonard Peltier on a daily basis for over 33 years, and silence the hold in which the FBI agency has had against Leonard and those who seek his Freedom. I firmly believe that if the FBI has to work so fervently to keep the buffalo files hidden from the public that some form of guilt must lay against them, and their omission on their part is of the highest form of gross negligence and must be brought to justice themselves, guilty of perjury on the stand of Leonard’s trail. They must step forward and admit their hand in this day of carnage and open the files in which will tell of their complicity in all of this and to free Leonard from the grips of Master Covey’s intimidation.
I will always and without hesitation speak for Leonard Peltier and other Native individuals who are wrongfully incarcerated by a governmental system that sees only the brown trickster that keeps them from the riches of their garden and may the stories of Brer Rabbit keep us from constraining the truth and that the songs sung in the cotton fields of old were of the same style of song sung on the Trail of Tears. You see, Master Covey represents the U.S. Government, always watchful of its slaves to insure that one’s job was always done according to one’s master, cornered off on small patches of land restricted by laws beset by those whose only aim was to covet the human being at it’s worst.
This case has now come to the crossroads of another American Slave called Leonard Peltier, he of all people signifies all the wrong that has been done against the Native population and by freeing him, you release the bondage of many. Maybe for the first time the Indigenous people have the freedoms in which to express in the community of facebook and myspace the atrocities that have occurred not just in our past but in our immediate moment, that have brought the brothers and sisters of all nations and dogmas together on a global stance to free our brother Leonard Peltier. Perhaps, one day in the very near future Mr. President, we too will sit together with our brother, the Frederick Douglass Humanitarian Award Winner and share that glass of freedom.
Sincerely,
Oieya
Central Florida Leonard Peltier Support Group
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