The Velvet Hammer

Happy Birthday Leonard!
(As if you can be happy wrongly imprisoned...)

Leonard is my Elder Brother. I am a little Lakota. I cannot prove it. My family tried to deny it. The Lakota/Nakota/Dakota are NOT Sioux. "Sioux" is a word in a non-Lakota language and it means "enemy." No one in their right mind would call themselves that. Only Pogo, that honest animal!

Sept 12th - tomorrow is Leonard Peltier's birthday. He is an innocent man imprisoned. He shares his birthday with BOTH of my great nieces (I have two), Grace and Emily.

Please send Leonard a birthday card, His address is: Leonard Peltier #89637-132 , USP Lewisburg PA , PO Box 1000 , Lewisburg PA 17837 - Phone (570) 524-0749

You can contact the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee at Email: info@leonardpeltier.net or visit their website: http://www.leonardpeltier.net/
The International Peltier Forum website is: http://users.skynet.be/kola/index.htm
Please sign the online petition for Executive Clemency: http://users.skynet.be/kola/lppet.htm I have signed this petition.

Kindly note how his defense is best from Europe. Ahem!

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A Message from Leonard Peltier

Greetings My Relatives,

You know I was just thinking there should be a degree one could receive for having expertise on doing prison time. I think I would be called Professor Peltier, PhD. with 30 years tenure. A friend of mine said once, PhD where he is from stands for post hole digger. I think I would at this time, embrace being a post hole digger, although I don't relish the thought of fencing anything in after being fenced in myself for 30 + years.

[More:]

On being imprisoned, I want to touch on that subject a bit. There are some who have voiced their opinion in one way or another, that I should give up after all these years of trying to win my freedom. Aside from the oppressors who put me here, some of them are people who were at times, part of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee; others, on the fringes. My answer, to put it in a simple, colloquial phrase, that anyone can understand, .it ain't gonna happen! There are many reasons, both physical and mental, spiritual and social. The number one reason is that there aren't any women in here. That should cover the social. Eh!

Another reason, is that the struggle is not just about me. It's about life on earth, the struggle to survive, the onslaught of destructive technology, wealth mongering, by those who see the common man as nothing more than expendable beings to further their personal quest for power and affluence. I am here because, as a common man, along with other common men, I chose to try to stop the exploitation of my people. I know the Creator sent other common men at other times and other places and to other races to do the same. I am honored to be among common men. I know they tried to cause us to separate from alliances by color, religion, and geographic locale but our struggle is the same. It's against people taking more than they need. In my culture it is taught that you should not take more than you need. In Christianity, Buddhism, and Zen, as well as most other spiritual teachings, it is taught that gluttony is a sin. Violation of this teaching is the reason for global warming, and the reason for world wars, including the war in Iraq at this time. Because of people who always seek to take more than they need, my people have suffered greatly. They are the poorest of the poor yet most still cling to the original teachings. They have fought for several generations for the exploitation of our land, illegal occupation of our land, unjust treatment in the U.S. judicial system, and most of all, government lies and liars that have led the American people to believe all this exploitation and violation of treaties is in their best interest. I watch TV from time to time, and I notice there are those who try to make the wars like a war between religions. I tell you my relatives, it is only a ruse to get young men to die for those who crave wealth and power over the common man.

If the many denominations of religions would stand together as one against the violation that jeopardizes life itself, it would make a major difference throughout the world. Today, more than any other time in history, you are either part of the problem or part of the solution. I may, by now, have written more than you care to read. But, from where I sit myself, it's the best I can do. The Defense Committee that bears my name struggles to help enlighten people of events and needs of people in jeopardy. I don't use the word struggle lightly. Aside from trying to raise money for attorneys and office expenses, etc., we raise money for food and clothing for needy people on reservations in urban areas. In my world, the poor are common. I am honored to be one of them, to represent them from time to time, though it be from afar. We as Native People look to the Creator's greatest manifestation for teachings, Mother Earth and her system of nature, along with personal visions, from time to time. In that, we see grass though encased in concrete, pushing its way through the cracks. We see the trees and water break down the structures of man that imprison them. We see everywhere, all life trying to follow the original instruction given by the Creator. If I were a blade of grass, I would grow out of here. If I were water, I would flow away from here. If I were a ray of light, I would bounce off these walls and be gone. However, I am not and unless I, at some future time, receive my freedom that was unjustly taken in the same manner as was the freedom of so many Native People before me. I can only leave here through my paintings, written words, and some other forms of communication that are sometimes available. I am in my 60's now. If I end up spending all my days here, and my last breath rides on the wind, and the moisture of my body flows to the sea, and the elements of my being make the grass grow and the trees flourish, make no mistake they can kill my body but they can't kill me. I am a common man.

The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee will continue working on my behalf and towards my freedom unless you the supporters tell me to close down the Defense Committee. Having said all this, I wish to ask you, if you can in any way help us, meaning the Defense Committee, send any donation to : Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, 3800 N. Mesa, A2 ,El Paso, Texas 79902

Please do so, it is a common cause. If my case stands as it is, no common person has real freedom. Only the illusion until you have something the oppressors want. Back to being a post hole digger.. I'd rather be a free post hole digger than Professor Leonard Peltier, PhD.
May the Creator bless you with all you need.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, who never gave up

All my relations,

Leonard Peltier

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Here is the poem that I wrote for Leonard and Annie Mae. This has been published in First People's magazines and online. Feel free to share not for profit. If it is for profit, write me and if I like your group, it's still free. Otherwise I retain copyright. I have a corrected version that I can't find - dang network! If I relocate it, I will post. You see, I am artistic and therefor dyslexic. I struggle with spelling and some minor logics becuase my brain steps to the side and around, kind of hard to explain. Anyway I thought his last name was Pel-tea-yay! - French but it is actually pronounced Pel-Tear. Kindly forgive this innocent goof and when I find the right poem - and I will - I will post it.

Here is the wrong one:
(Still it is perfect for my feeling for them. They areboth good tributes to loved ones.)

Two Eagles Flew

Long ago and far away
There was a peace, there was a day
When all the village people knew
That all was right, two eagles flew:

The fierce , proud eagle Peltier...
The soft, strong eagle, Anna Mae...
And while they flew no curse was heard
For each was such a sacred bird.

And then one day the thunder rang
No bird would call and no bird sang
For hunters came with arrows dark
No hoot of owl, no song of lark.

The hunter's arrows swiftly flew
Her beak went up, her heart pierced through
She fell in spirals to the ground
And feathers scattered all around...

The people felt this death and said
O no! Can Anna Mae be dead?
They looked for her but where was she?
O where, o where can this bird be?

And so the hunter sought her brother,
And would not settle for another.
They netted him in the eagle's aerie
Though his heart was sad and he was wary.

They chained him, put him in a cage,
They bound his beak, but not his rage
For his was the sky and the people too...
He missed the days when Anna Mae flew...

And so he sits until this day,
As time and life both slip away.
The people know, they found her feathers:
That all the people belong together.

They laid her gently in the ground
With sacred smoke and sacred sound
They call together night and day
For the freedom now of Peltier.

5/99

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There were 500 Treaties made between the Righteous Redman and the Forked-Tongued (Lying) White Man. Every single treaty broken. This country was founded on genocide and fraud, fraud, fraud! O heck, this is normal US government, isn't it, dears? They said

"As long as the grass grows and the river flows..."

And blah blah blah blah. Snore me!

They meant no single word.

And next time you watch Wizard of Oz, just remember that the writer, L. Frank Baum recommended genocide of all First Peoples. Rotten bastard.

http://www.northern.edu/hastingw/baumedts.htm

The Wounded Knee Editorial

The peculiar policy of the government in employing so weak and vacillating a person as General Miles to look after the uneasy Indians, has resulted in a terrible loss of blood to our soldiers, and a battle which, at its best, is a disgrace to the war department. There has been plenty of time for prompt and decisive measures, the employment of which would have prevented this disaster.
The Pioneer has before declared that our only safety depends upon the total extirmination [sic] of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth. In this lies future safety for our settlers and the soldiers who are under incompetent commands. Otherwise, we may expect future years to be as full of trouble with the redskins as those have been in the past.

On the other hand....

You can visit a website to visit the current First Nations* heroes and martyrs. Leonard and Annie Mae are there:

http://siouxme.com/lodge/leaders.html
("Siouxme" - don'tcha LOVE it????)

There used to be thousands of tribes across this green (then) country. Now they are few. They are poor. They are fenced in. And this government still won't give THEM freedom. Shoot, they ARE the First Fathers and Mothers of this country. You just can't fix stupid. Or mean. (Nod to Ron White, a great comedian whom I adore next to Lewis Black.)

p.s. Leonard is an awesome artist.

Buy his art.

p.p.s. For your listening enjoyment of the american way: Cows With Guns by Dana Lyons

http://www.cowswithguns.com/cowpilation_album.htm

I am getting a cow with a gun now.

And Leonard? I love you so much. Please survive. Thrive and survive and we are going to get you out to see your family. We wiull never forget you. Not me nor my people, anyway.

Huge hugs!