"I believe in the good in humankind. I believe that the good can prevail, but only with great effort. And that effort is ours, each of ours, yours and mine.
We must be prepared for the danger that will surely come our way. Critics will attack us, try to distance us from each other and mock our sincerity. But if we are strong in our beliefs, we can reverse their assaults and grow even stronger in our commitments to Mother Earth, our struggles, and our future generations of children.
Never cease in the fight for peace, justice, and equality for all people. Be 
persistent in all that you do and don't allow anyone to sway you from you 
conscience.
Sitting Bull said, "As individual fingers we can easily be broken, but all 
together we make a mighty fist."
The struggle is ours to win or lose."

Leonard Peltier
"Prison Writings...My Life Is My Sun Dance"
 
 

To Marc Steiner
From Harvey Arden
On behalf of Leonard Peltier

December 23, 2000
Dear Marc;
I have just returned to Germany from a visit on Thursday to Auschwitz in southwest Poland, where the Nazis slaughtered a million and half of my Jewish brethren, killing each of them with a special vengeance for the crime of being innocent;the same crime for which Leonard Peltier has been imprisoned this past quarter century.  The day was appropriately bleak, the sky a grimy white, the air sulphurous with the fumes of Soviet-era factories that even today make Poland's air almost unbreatheable.  As I walked through the barracks where the innocents were tortured and murdered with such malignant glee during that Holocaust of the human spirit, I felt Leonard walking with me,and I pondered the ways of men toward their fellow men. 
 I wondered, What is the use of prayer?  For most of those who died here 
prayed with the most intense passion and profound belief  every morning, noon and evening of their lives.  I pondered what is the use of Justice, when it is so selectively dispensed by the Unjust? 
I asked myself what is the use of Love, when those who love their families and friends and country, as the Nazis did, have such hatred in their hearts as to obliterate the very meaning of Love.  As I walked through those ghost-filled barracks, I thought not only of these hallowed ones, but of my brother Leonard, languishing in his 5-by-9-foot cell at Leavenworth, and also of President Clinton, who now holds Leonard's fate in his hands, and, yes, of the FBI agents Ron Williams and Jack Coler;whose portraits sat above my desk for three years as I edited Leonard's book.  I thought of the thousands of FBI agents who today put their lives on the line to protect every one of us, yet wish to see an innocent man die in prison for standing up for the rights of his People,  I thought of all the Holocaust-deniers, who would have it that no Holocaust ever occurred, just as the FBI pretends the Reign of Terror it instigated at Pine Ridge in the 1970's never occurred, I think now of Mr. Janklow, a man who has played Goebbels to the Indian People for more than generation, sitting in the Oval Office even as I was visiting Aushwitz and doing his best to convince our unknowing President to deny clemency to Leonard Peltier,and I wonder, what is the use of Truth, when it can be so violated as to obliterate all Truth?

Marc, you ask me what I can say that could be passed on to convince President Clinton to give our brother Leonard clemency,  Ask him, please, to give a half-hour audience to me and Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th-Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Pipe of the Great Sioux Nation, so that we may deliver a message on behalf of the tens of millions of people around the world who plead for Leonard's freedom, who see Leonard's freedom as The Sign that Democracy and Justice and Love and Prayer still have a meaning in America.  I want to read to Mr. Clinton from Leonard's book PRISON WRITINGS MY LIFE IS MY SUN DANCE.  I welcome the presence of President-elect Bush and Mr. Cheney and Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Reno and Mr. Freeh and any others the President cares to have on hand, even Mr. Janklow;for he, too, I know, loves his family and his friends and his country, and his soul, too, is redeemable, as are all of ours.  Tell Mr. Clinton I also ask to have Leonard Peltier standing beside me in the Oval Office as I read his words;words Leonard would read himself if his locked jaw would allow him to.

I ask no more than that, make no plea beyond that.  The decision is President Clinton's.

Marc, I hope you can get this message to the President.  May Spirit guide it on its way.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse and Leonard Peltier,

              /Harvey Arden
 

PRISON WRITINGS MY LIFE IS MY SUNDANCE by LEONARD PELTIER  is available at the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee

American Indian tribe sends town residents holiday promise not to take land
          NORTH STONINGTON, Conn. (AP) The Paucatuck Eastern Pequot tribe has surprised its neighbors with a unique holiday greeting and promise.
The American Indian tribe this week sent a letter enclosed in a Christmas card to 15,000 residents in North Stonington, Preston and Ledyard that included ''a holiday promise'' not to ''take'' any individual's property if it wins federal recognition...READ THE ARTICLE...

Navajo court interpreters bridge language and culture
AZCentral
SALT LAKE CITY - For Navajo defendants charged with felonies, Salt Lake City's imposing federal courthouse can seem like a strange land - where everyone speaks in a strange tongue.
That's because it is....READ THE ARTICLE...

BETTY REID: Stampede fails to halt Navajo holiday spirit 
(ARIZONA) -- Up here in Navajo land, the sheep nearly sidetracked Ed and Roberta Begay's come-one, come-all annual Christmas party, hosted at their home south of the historic Tuba City Trading Post on a bend of Navajo Boulevard in the midst of frame houses, trailers, sagging hogans, and livestock pens. ..READ THE ARTICLE...

Lakota service forges, fortifies spiritual bonds
By MELANIE BRANDERT 
Argus Leader
George Eagleman brought the smoking incense pot inside the church and waved its smoke in front of parishioners with a long feather.
Some Lakotans would wave the smoke toward them with their hands, desiring the burning flat cedar and prairie sage in the pot to cleanse their soul...READ THE ARTICLE...
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BLM FIRE MANAGEMENT: Shoshones  upset over planned burn
Tribe says thousands of acres of pinyon pine would be lost
By KEITH ROGERS REVIEW-JOURNAL
The Bureau of Land Management calls it a fire management plan.
But the Western Shoshone National Council calls it incineration of their native land. Incineration that over the next 20 years could destroy thousands of acres of pinyon pine -- a traditional food source that goes back thousands of years. ..READ THE ARTICLE...
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Begaye plays Santa in Hopi contested region
 Jim Maniaci
 Dine' Bureau
 WINDOW ROCK — Christmas will be a little bit better for nearly a dozen Navajo families living in Cactus Valley-Red Willow Springs stretch of the Moencopi Wash. 
    The families signed 75-year leases with the Hopi Tribe so they could stay on the soil where their umbilical cords are buried in a remote 20-mile stretch of the major wash on the north side of the expanded Hopi Reservation. ..READ THE ARTICLE...

TODAY IN HISTORY December 25  {EXCERPTED FROMOn This Date In North American Indian History By Phil Konstantin} 1780: John Sevier, and additional troops from Virginia, burn the CHEROKEE town of Chota, Tennessee, and several nearby villages.  1868: Brevet Lt.Col.A.W.Evans, and his troops, have moved from Fort Bascom,in western New Mexico, along the Canadian River, to the headwaters of the Red River. Here he discovers a band of "hostile" COMANCHEs. Today, he will attack, and according to his report, kill 25, capture and burn the village, and destroy a large amount of the Indians supplies. The Indians are followers of Horse Back.    1890 ARGUS LEADER PHOTO GALLERY Related News:  Big Foot Ride: Riders remember, honor culture on trek's longest day Big Foot Ride: Journey returns history to family  Big Foot Ride: 'This might be the last ride' Big Foot Ride: Young Lakota riders draw strength from history THIS WEEK'S COMPLETE LISTING HERE...

PELTIER COVERAGE a railroad job is a railroad job -  once the destination has been predetermined, the process becomes one  of simply laying down the tracks so that the train can get to the  predetermined place it was meant to go ..Interlochen..a Peltier supporter LIST OF 62 GRANTED CLEMENCY Peltier not among pardons   http://web.northscape.com/ AP  WASHINGTON -- President Clinton was making decisions on Friday about granting clemency to some of the scores of convicted Americans seeking presidential pardons or lighter punishment, but did not mention American Indian activist Leonard Peltier, convicted 25 years ago in North Dakota for killing two FBI agents. ... ...A spokesman said the president was expected to make more clemency announcements before Jan. 20.   READ THE ARTICLE...   Clinton To Act on Clemency Requests, Peltier backers wait, hope for presidential pardon PA Attorney General Fisher Urges President Clinton to Deny ClemencyTo Convicted     LPDC Web site updates LPDC Web Site Update..Dec 22 http://www.freepeltier.org/ The following audio clips recorded from the "NYC Leonard Peltier Walk and Rally for Freedom" are available from the main page of the LPDC web site: Jennifer Harbury, Peltier Attorney and Human Rights Activist [6:32] http://www.freepeltier.org/jenniferharbury.mp3 Ramsey Clark, Former U.S. Attorney General [5:55] http://www.freepeltier.org/ramseyclark.mp3   Dec 19 Current and Past Supporters of Clemency for Leonard Peltier Click here for complete listing in PDF format {translated for the PDF challenged here} Letter from Congressman Don Edwards, Former FBI Agent PDF Format Letter from NCAI PDF Format Letter signed by World Renowned Human Rights Leaders PDF format {translated for the PDF challenged here} Go to More Support Statements SUGGESTED TALKING POINTS -=<+>=-ARTICLES-=<+>=- Clemency for Peltier Likely to Fail..Dec 21  By ERIC LICHTBLAU,  Times Staff Writer   Pleas: Clinton is leaning toward rejecting a pardon for the killer of two FBI agents, officials say. Case underscores the rift between the president and Freeh. READ THE STORY... URGENT NOTICE: FROM THE LPDC Letter to the Editor/Peltier..Catherine Davids Dec 20 Ottawa Sun - Editorial - Clemency Dec 19 FBI marching same as Uniformed Soldiers protesting  Reconciliation with Viet Nam...Interlochen  Dec 18 The FBI [active and retired] in truth marched in opposition to the  War on American Indians coming to an end with the release of one the POW's, Leonard. Since when do the "soldiers" dictate to  the "leaders"? READ THE ARTICLE... Clemency: Letter.....urgent..Bonnie Winona Dec 18 Extradition based on false evidence, Peltier inquiry says  PREVIOUS ARTICLES

WATCH FOR NEWS FROM THE LEONARD PELTIER RALLIES!! WHITE HOUSE PRAYER VIGIL DEC 19...mike mc,Scott Tippets PRAGUE COVERAGE...DEC 17 Bushka PERSONAL OBSERVATION DEC 15 ... antoinette

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FRONT PAGE DEC 24, 2000
Poacher Guilty; Abandons Religion Defense,
READ THE ARTICLE..

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