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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1989)
'stibke Signals ju$''lM'' ;e6 PELTIER UPDATE Leonard Peltier, who is now serving two consecutive life sentences in the U.S. prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, fled to Canada following a firefight between Indians and law enforcement officials on the Pine Ridge Indian Reserva tion (So.Dakota) on June 26, 1975. The shootout at Oglala, in which two FBI agents and an Indian man were killed, marked another bloody chapter in an ongoing, violent political struggle between the U.S. - backed tribal govern ment and dissidents seeking an end to alleged corruption and authoritarian rule on the reservation. Eluding a paramilitary search of the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations, Peltier, who had come to Pine Ridge at the request of besieged Lakota elders, made his way to Canada. On February 6, 1976, Peltier was arrested near Hinton, Alberta by agents of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). He was subsequently impris oned at a maximum security prison in British Columbia while awaiting an extradition hearing. At the extradition in Vancouver, which ran from May 3 28, 1976, U.S. authorities presented evidence to back their contention the Peltier was subject to extradition. To demonstrate Peltier's culpability in the shooting of the FBI agents at Oglala, the U.S. presented affidavits from Myrtle Poor Bear, an Indian woman from Pine Ridge. The Poor Bear depositions stated that she was Peltier's girlfriend, that she was present during the shootout at the Jumping Bull Ranch, and the she witnessed Peltier shot one of the FBI agents. Myrtle Poor Bear subsequently testified at Leonard Peltier's murder trial in Fargo, N. Dakota -- as a witness for the defense. On the witness stand, but while the jury was excused, Poor Bear recanted her statements and stated that she lived in fear of the FBI agents who repeatedly threat ened her while she was in their custody during March and April of 1976. Further, a third Poor Bear affidavit was later revealed which is inconsistent with the two documents presented to Canadian authorities. In the third affidavit Poor Bear allegedly deposed that she was not present at the Oglala shootout. Leonard Peltier stated during an interview with this writer at the U. S. Prison at Marion, Illinois in December of 1981: "The first time I saw Myrtle Poor Bear was at my trial (in Fargo) when she walked into the courtroom. Shehad come to our side... It's a known fact that the affidavits were fabricated. Myrtle and I have never known each other." U. S. government attorneys who prosecuted Peltier now acknowledge that Poor Bear was never a credible witness to anything involving the shooting of the FBI agents. In regard to the fabrication of Myrtle Poor Bear's state ments, Judge Donald Ross of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit stated, "What happened in such a way that it gives some credence to the claim of the Indian people that the United States is willing to resort to any tactic in order to bring somebody back to the United States from Canada. And if they are willing to do that, they must be willing to fabricate other evidence. And it's no wonder that they are unhappy and disbelieve the things that happened in our courts when things like this happen." Leonard Peltier's appeals have wound their way through the U.S. court system for over a decade, and the U.S. Supreme Court has twice declined to review the case. Despite the record of myriad and egregious abuses of the criminaljustice system in this matter, truejustice for Peltier in the U.S. Courts has been foreclosed. Thus, Peltier and his supporters are currently attempting to petition Cana dian authorities to recognize the fraud perpetrated in 1976 and have Peltier returned to Canada. " Mr. Speaker, 10 years ago Leonard Peltier was extra dited from Canada on the basis of information provided by the UnitedStates Government. The U.S. has now admitted that the information was false. This constitutes a treaty fraud between our nations, and should we sleep on this case we can surely expect a repetition in the future... Leonard Peltier is an OjibwayLakota Indian who sought political asylum in Canada. For 10 years he has been held in U.S. prisons serving two consecutive life sentences for crimes it now appears he did not commit... The least we can do is a House of commons is call for a new and fair trial. As a nation we should also call for the return of Leonard Peltier. He was fraudulently extradited." - Mr. Jim Fulton (Skecna), from a debate in the Canadian House of Commons STANFORD AGREES TO RETURN THE REMAINS OF NATIVE AMERICANS The Washington Post STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford University has agreed to return the skeletal remains of about 525 Indians to their descendants in a small northern California tribe. The unusual action is expected to send shock waves through the nation's scientific museums and universities. Anthropologists, archaeologists and Native American leaders have been engaged in bitter debate about how to handle remains held by hundreds of U.S. institutions. Many describe the agreement, announced this week, as the first of its kind by a major university and say the number of bones involved probably is the largest surrendered by a research center. The agreement, by which Stanford can try persuading the tribe to waive its right to a few of the skulls and other bones for research, is expected to increase pressure on museums such as the Smithsonian Institution, which holds remains of an estimated 18,000 Native Americans. "I feel Stanford is doing what is long overdue," said Rosemary Cambra, a representative of the Ohlone Costanoan people who negotiated the agreement. The tribe is backing several bills in Congress that would require return of what, according to some estimates, are as many as 600,000 Indian remains nationwide. Officials at the Smithsonian, which has returned a few remains, said they understand Indians' strong feelings on the issue but think that such agreements could do great harm. "From a scientific standpoint, it's a very bad move," Donald Ortncr, the chairman of the Smithsonian anthro pology department, said. , Medical research, much of it designed to help Indians, requires large numbers of bones, he said. Courtesy of the Statesman Journal PUYALLUP LAND CLAIM UP TO BUSH SEATTLE (AP) - The Puyallup Indian land claims settlement won unanimous Senate approval Wednesday and was sent to President Bush to be signed into law, Sens. Brock Adams and Slade Gorton reported. In statements issued from their offices in Washington, D.C., Adams, D-Wash., and Gorton, R-Wash., said the deal would be a springboard for economic development and cooperation between Indians and non-Indians in the Tacoma area. Both praised Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, and Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., as key archi tects of the congressional action. The $161.5 million settlement, aproved by the Puyal lups in a tribal vote Aug. 27, includes a federal share of $77.2 million. That funding is subject to the money being included in the budget bill on which Congress votes this fall. State, local and private contributions to the package were approved earlier. In the settlement, the Puyallups agreed to withdraw their claims to much of the port and downtown areas of Tacomaand other areas in Pierce County in exchange for cas payments and money for job training, housing improvement, econcomic development, fisheries enhancement, health care, education and other pro grams. " The agreement will serve as a catalyst for future cooperation between the Indian and non-Indian commu nity," Gorton said. "It is a statement by the people of Tacoma that they want to work together as neighbors for the economic, growth of there community," Adams said. -Courtesy of the Yakima Nation Review LITTLE DONE TO PREVENT SEXUAL ABUSE PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The failure of Congress to extend reporting requirements to reservations allows American Indian children less protection from sexual abuse than non-Indian children, a lawyer told a conference in Portland. Slow government response to sexual abuse allegations made by tribes has given sex offenders a green light to abuse children on reservations, Steven Heeley told representa tives to the 7th annual National American Indian Confer ence on Child Abuse and Neglect on May 23. Heeley, minority staff counsel for the Senate Select Committee in Indian Affairs, is a member of the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona. He cited a case in which he said a known sex offender allegedly molested hundreds of children on a northwestern Apache reservation for eight years before he was sentenced to seven years in prison for child molestation. "A person can go for five, eight or 15 years molesting children when, in some cases, his sexual history is known to his supervisors," Heeley said. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is responsible for reservation schools, and Indian Health Services have been insensitive and unresponsive to such reports, Sen. John McCain, vice chairman of the committee, said in a state ment, which Heeley read to the conference. The commit tee is investigating sex abuse on reservations is drafting legislation, he said. "There is the problem of underfunding," said Heeley. "These programs perceive victims of child abuse as biting off another responsibility, so the struggle has been over who is going to be responsible for Indian victims of child abuse. -Courtesy of the Show-Ban News V
