PELTIER PERCEPTIONS AND “HEALING”

There exists a perception among many that as an indigenous person I should be pro Peltier, an implication that somehow as a people we are obliged to defend the indefensible based singularly on an individuals ancestry.

And it may surprise those who feel this way to know that I like others who once did support Peltier, no longer do.

Such a perception devalues our sense of values, our humanity, and the traditions we have lived by.

In the traditional sense we are not who we once were – we tolerate gangs, drug and alcohol abuse, even the physical and sexual abuse of our women and children, our communities are ravaged by crime and many chase the almighty dollar whether it is the product of casinos, marijuana cultivation, or the legalization of the most prevalent drug of all – alcohol.

In this assimilation has if not succeeded then gained a foothold and mirrors other communities throughout this country, and it is a great sadness.

Leonard Peltier is a common thug, a man who would murder, stick a gun in a woman’s face to “interrogate” her, and had a penchant for young girls.

None of this speaks to leadership, tradition, or the definition of what a warrior has always meant to us as a people.

Among the many AIM victims was a diminutive woman by the name of Annie Mae Pictou Aquash, a woman Peltier interrogated at gunpoint and later bemoaned the fact that he wasn’t able to subject her to truth serum – a man who also interrogated Minnie Two Shoes and Iris ThunderCloud.

Peltier had labeled Annie a snitch, and after the murder of two federal agents that he was a direct participant in came to see Annie as threat – someone who could testify against him.

That at least in part led to her murder – a decision made by the scum of the AIM leadership during a “tribunal” – a “tribunal” I have no doubt Peltier had a voice in.

If I am perceived as a “sellout”, “fed”, or “hater” as I and others have been called who dare to question the lies and myths surrounding Peltier and the AIM leadership I’m alright with that as I will embrace the traditions our ancestors held and do my best to live by them – that is the definition of native pride.

A traditional pride that respected and protected all women, all children, that prioritized the well being of the community and would not have tolerated gangs or the celebration of thugs.

It is time, past time, for Peltier to speak the truth as a true warrior would, to drop the pretense and lies, and in doing so promote the “healing” that will allow the nations to get on with our own lives – a healing he and his supporters have attempted to make synonymous with clemency.

I encourage the reader to view and listen to the below links in their entirety.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onfe70wKU0U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBY8tFCQHQA

AN OBVIOUS REFERENCE REDUX

I would draw the readers attention to the five thirty four mark in the below video where Minnie Two Shoes in discussing the interrogation of Annie Mae Aquash by Leonard Peltier clearly states that she and Iris ThunderCloud had been likewise interrogated “by the same people”.

The obvious reference is to Peltier, Robideau, and Butler, Annie’s antagonists.

Minnie’s statement is inclusive, though she doesn’t specify who was the lead interrogator,  but it seems reasonable to me to assume it was Peltier, who seemed to enjoy bullying women.

It is yet another example of how fraudulent the effort is to portray Peltier as something other than what he is, and that is mostly notably a proven liar, an errand boy, and a cheap thug.

I had the good fortune to meet Minnie a few times and engage in conversations with her. She was one of kind- a rapier like wit that could literally have you rolling on the floor accompanied by a depth of understanding and commitment that would rivet your attention-she was a good woman worthy of respect, a woman who cared deeply and not given to lying.

Occasionally someone will appear in what is known as blackface, a cosmetic application mimicking African Americans, a display assured to raise a hue and cry- I submit that the same hue and cry should be raised over the cosmetic makeover to portray Leonard Peltier as being a warrior or in any way representative of the beliefs of, or who the nations are.

Peltier has assumed a role, and had decades of coaching and rehearsal- it is a shabby performance at best riddled with his own miscues archived in interviews and videos across the internet and in the public domain.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pm1Ic9A4aU

https://rezinate.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/an-obvious-reference/

CLEMENCY, OR ACCOUNTABILITY FOR LEONARD PELTIER

It’s something of an axiom that if you make your own bed you have to sleep in it, and while it might not be comfortable you made it and it’s your’s.

That isn’t enough to stop us from complaining at times, but the legacy of the complaints are based on the backstory – how did we wind up where we’re at and what could have been done differently?

That’s one of the things about freedom of choice, making individual decisions, either the chickens will come home to roost or we’ll benefit in some way.

Peltier’s been in prison for decades, and there are those who would have us alternately believe he is innocent, a political prisoner, or a “hero” who was “fighting for treaty rights”.

They would also have us believe that regardless of how he is perceived in the interests of “healing” Peltier deserves clemency.

Now a case could surely be made that sleeping on a prison bunk isn’t exactly like sleeping on one of those Sealy Posturepedics, but the bunk is above ground, and the sleeper can breathe and dream, unlike Peltier’s victims.

Do I blame Peltier for wanting to be released? Not at all, but the question arises what exactly has he done to warrant clemency?

Has he accepted responsibility and exhibited remorse?

Has he made a legitimate effort to reach out to any of his or AIM’s victims?

Has he been willing in the midst of his calls for donations and a justice only the truth can bring by doing something so simple as affixing his signature to a release form regarding his parole board hearing records so his supporters can arrive at an informed opinion about whether or not he is the truthful victimized “political prisoner” he claims to be?

Has he called for the LPDOC or it’s latest incarnation the ILPDC to open the books and let people know what the amount of donations are and to what end they’ve been put?

If Peltier has done any of these things and the reader is a supporter I would appreciate it if they would point it out to me – if he has not and the reader cannot they might want to consider taking a second look.

They might want to ask themselves what kind of man interrogates and bullies women like Annie Mae Pictou Aquash and Minnie Two Shoes?

They might want to ask themselves what kind of man shoots defenseless grievously wounded men in the face at point blank range and then goes on to boast about it and in the aftermath of such boasting lobby for a woman he postured in front of to be murdered?

Clemency? On what grounds, humane? Humane as his hands drip with the blood of victims?

Humane, as he and AIM have ridden the poverty and disenfranchisement of the nations into the ground?

Humane, as he and they conducted their own war against a people who have known nothing but war in one form or another for centuries?

Humane, when the very examples they set have led to the corruption of ceremonies and tradition, to the prevalence or drugs, sexual and physical abuse, crime, and gangs in the very communities they claimed to be liberators of?

You don’t have to be Ace Ventura to look beyond the AIM/Peltier propaganda to discover the truth, it’s just a matter of whether or not you want to accept it and what kind of bed you want to lie in.

AN OBVIOUS REFERENCE

I would draw the readers attention to the five thirty four mark in the below video where Minnie Two Shoes in discussing the interrogation of Annie Mae Aquash by Leonard Peltier clearly states that she and Iris ThunderCloud had been likewise interrogated “by the same people”.

The obvious reference is to Peltier, Robideau, and Butler, Annie’s antagonists.

Minnie’s statement is inclusive, though she doesn’t specify who was the lead interrogator,  but it seems reasonable to me to assume it was Peltier, who seemed to enjoy bullying women.

It is yet another example of how fraudulent the effort is to portray Peltier as something other than what he is, and that is mostly notably a proven liar, an errand boy, and a cheap thug.

I had the good fortune to meet Minnie a few times and engage in conversations with her. She was one of kind- a rapier like wit that could literally have you rolling on the floor accompanied by a depth of understanding and commitment that would rivet your attention-she was a good woman worthy of respect, a woman who cared deeply and not given to lying.

Occasionally someone will appear in what is known as blackface, a cosmetic application mimicking African Americans, a display assured to raise a hue and cry- I submit that the same hue and cry should be raised over the cosmetic makeover to portray Leonard Peltier as being a warrior or in any way representative of the beliefs of, or who the nations are.

Peltier has assumed a role, and had decades of coaching and rehearsal- it is a shabby performance at best riddled with his own miscues archived in interviews and videos across the internet and in the public domain.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pm1Ic9A4aU

IRIS, MINNIE, AND ANNIE

Kamook Ecoffey and Paul DeMain are frequently portrayed in the same manner by AIM, that’s to expected though as they’ve both outed AIM and Peltier in their own fashion.

Russell Means co opted Bob Branscombe’s press conference in ’99 in an effort to exonerate not only himself but his entire family of any knowledge or involvement in the abduction murder of Annie Mae Pictou Aquash.

A couple of years later in 2001 Kamook approached DeMain with the rest of the story, a part of which served to validate the words of Minnie Two Shoes related to a conversation she had with Iris Thundercloud, now Iris Cleveland, at the Land of the Menominee Pow wow in ’94 or ’95 in regard to Annie and Iris going from Minneapolis to Farmington, New Mexico together in 1975 where Annie was interrogated by Peltier at gunpoint.

Bob Robideau confirmed the interrogation in a program CBS presented in 2001-forcing Peltier to admit it just as he was forced to admit his presence at the actual site where Williams and Coler lay after being ambushed and executed after Robideau outed him about that also.

Of course Peltier attempted to portray his interrogation of Annie in a friendly way, sort of a brother and sister conversation from which he came away thoroughly convinced his “love” for his “sister” wasn’t misplaced.

Interrogating women seems to have been something AIM specialized in, as Iris and Minnie had both been interrogated by none other than Means family member Theda Nelson Clark in January or February of 1975 prior to Annie’s experience.

Theda is said to have done so at the behest of Ted Means wife, Lorelie Decora Means, Madonna Thunderhawk Gilbert, Russell Means sister, and Ken Tilsen’s wife Rachel.

Interesting attribute of these AIM “warriors”- sending women to do their dirty work-maybe they thought if it hit the fan they could hide behind their skirts.

Predictably Vernon, Banks, and Peltier, along with others denied it for years-Banks clings to professing a complete ignorance about it much the same as he does everything else-but perhaps his eyes despite their furtive casting about speak to a guilt a fan of his attempted to say were mirrors of his innocence in all related matters-maybe that and the bumps on his head.

Iris and Minnie were interrogated during the takeover of the Alexian Brothers Novitiate, an event AIM was not asked to participate in and yet chose to for the media attention it would generate.

This is concurrent with the time Doug Durham was outed after a wiretap was discovered in his van and supposedly a check stub from the government.

I don’t doubt the wiretap but I think the check stub is an invention, something to add a little flavor. I don’t think Durham in his position would have been carrying around federal check stubs.

If he was then the nick name of Dumb as Dirt given to Peltier  would be appropriate for Durham as well.