Report on the 14th Annual NW Peltier March

Some good photos of the rally were posted on Seattle Indymedia, the article has some information wrong.

http://www.seattle.indymedia.org/en/2007/02/257659.shtml

The weather was nice good to us this year. At the start of the march Elder Keith Johnson (Keith has been a long time supporter and has been at most of our Annual Marches since 1994, he is now moving to Denver. We will miss him and we wish to thank him, it has been an honor to know him) opened things up and then Robert Robideau, Co-Director of the LPDC and Co-Defendant spoke some words to the marchers and after that the drum group Red Thunder from Bellecourt North Dakota, Turtle Mountain Anishanabe reservation did an honor song. Then Tom McCarthy spoke a little bit about the giant puppets that would be a part of the march.

Then with the security team in place and local drummers leading the march, over 400 people marched for justice for Leonard Peltier.

At the courthouse our MC Matilaja opened the rally up. Tom Davis from Bellecourt, North Dakota, Turtle Mountain Anishanabe reservation did the spiritual opening. Then a honor song from drum group Red Thunder from Bellecourt North Dakota, Turtle Mountain Anishanabe reservation. Then Robert Robideau spoke:

Some of what Robert Robideau, Co-Director of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee: had to say.

“People are dying around you because of police brutality, because of the ... hunger for oil by the Bush administration. We have to wake up and we have to teach each other how to communicate to wake others up. This is our responsibility to each other as human beings.

Leonard Peltier represents the injustice this country has done against native people. And has continued to do. We need to teach each other the reality of these injustices... Leonard Peltier, who has served 31 years in prison for an alleged offense of killing two FBI agents. The United States government has admitted in open court they do not know who killed these agents. That is not the reality of what this is all about. This is about the need for the United States government to cover up their own actions against native people during that period of time which we call the reign of terror.

[It was a time] when the United States government, a colonial police force, entered our lands and were responsible for over 60 homicides and 300 assaults. And were responsible again [for] the... taking away of more land. One eighth of the Pine Ridge reservation was handled over to the government during this same time.

We have a right to defend our land. We have a right to defend our freedoms, whatever they may be. Do not allow them [the United States government] to criminalize your rights“.

Next to speak was David Duenas, Puyallup and son of Roque Duenas. Then long time Native struggle’s veteran Chuck Conway. Then Fred Charles a member of the Lower Elwha band of S'Klallams from up near Port Angeles spoke about Joe Stuntz Killsright who was from the Lower Elwha band and died on the day of the firefight. Then Gloria Hunt spoke about her brother who was an AIM member. Then Kelly White spoke. Then Bill Bichsel of Tacoma Catholic Worker. And the Juan Jose Bocanegra of Seattle JWJ. Then Albert Combs and local drummers, Then Frank Reynolds of the Native Coalition. Then Arthur J. Miller and Steve Hapy of the Tacoma LPSG. Then Shelly Vendiola of the Indigenous Women’s Network. Then long time activist and Puyallup tribal member Ramona Bennett. And the last speaker was Zoltan Grossmen of OMJP. Then Albert Combs and local drummers closed the rally.

We have received reports of police harassment. The cops harassed Ramona Bennett. One report from a Native person who tried to get to the rally with his Mom and his little nieces and nephews but the police blocked their way telling them that there were too many people at the rally already. the cops continued to block their way even after being told they included speakers for the rally. Another Native person was told to remove his Puyallup Tribal Canoe Family bandana. The cops told him that if he didn't take it off that they would arrest him. This Native brother is not afraid of the police but he didn't want to loose his job so he stepped away from the wall so he could reach up and untie the bandana. The police took it as a threatening move and one cop started to reach for his tazor. The Native brother saw him reaching and stopped moving telling the cop “ok ok, I'm not moving”.

We are looking into other reports of police harassment. If you witnessed or were a subject of police harassment please let us know.

We had one person try to disrupt our rally. He first demanded to speak at the rally and latter because he did not like what a Native woman had said he started yelling and would not shutup up for a while. Was he an agent provocateur? Maybe. But on the chance that he just disagreed with what the Native woman had to say, let me speak to that. The Annual NW Leonard Peltier event is a community event. We try to have as many people from the Native community speak as possible. Though they all support Leonard, it must be understood that the Native community is not a political organization with a correct line. Like every community there are people with different viewpoints and folks should respect their right to express themselves without being harassed by white folks.

A few more interesting side notes. Back in 2004 Democratic Party activists try to get us to cancel our annual march and rally that year because they believed it would interfere with their party functions going on that morning. That was also the year that we won our lawsuit against the City of Tacoma and the police had a massive cop turnout with even two SWAT Teams to try to intimidate us. Those Democratic Party activists called us all kinds of names and even said we were working for Bush. We did not place our annual event on the day of their functions on purpose, but after getting our information for three months we were not going to call off our event. Heck our event took place after their functions took place. Well this year the some of the peace democrats held a “townhall meeting” dealing with the war in Iraq in Tacoma at the same time as our rally was taking place. They did this even though they knew the date of our annual march and rally back in October. As I was putting banners in my car a man came up to me and asked me where I was going. I did not answer him and then he said “You are going to the Leonard Peltier March?” And he then said he was going to the town meeting. So those nice liberal folks knew damn well what they were doing. We have never asked for anything more than one day a year. But to some of the Democratic Party peace liberals they cannot respect that. Well their event had around 100 people whereas ours had over 400. Their event made it into the local daily paper, ours did not, the local daily paper has not covered our event in 14 years.. I guess you could call this the “Great White Way”.

Again the police and the mass media showed us that we still have a long ways to go in our resistance to racism and repression. Had people trying to get to a peace march had been blocked like the Native folks trying to get to the Peltier rally; there would be all kinds of uproar. But let it be known, we do demand our right to voice our views without the City of Tacoma harassing us and we will not back down from standing up for our rights. The government says that it will not release somewhere around 140,000 pages of documents on Leonard’s case due to national security. We say that it is our national security that is threatens by the government’s cover-up in Leonard’s case and with what happen at Pine Ridge. Though the government has its war in Iraq that it calls a war for national security and freedom, it is not the people in Iraq that have imposed upon our freedom and security at our Feb. 10^th NW Leonard Peltier March and Rally, it was the City of Tacoma that did that as it has done the same in many years of the past.

In Solidarity

Arthur J. Miller

Co-Coordinator, Tacoma LPSG

Report from the February 10th Leonard Peltier March and Rally

author: Photographs by Elliot Stoller
Feb 11, 2007 20:49

February 2, 2007 marked the 31st anniversary of Leonard Peltier's illegal extradition to the United States from Canada using coerced and fraudulent testimony. This was the beginning of his odyssey that resulted in his false conviction for the June 1975 murder of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in Fargo, North Dakota 1977. On February 10th, supporters from around the Pacific Northwest joined together for a march, demanding freedom for Leonard Peltier.

February 10, 2006
Matilaja - Master of Ceremonies	Bill Bischel
Arthur J. Miller - Tacoma Leonard Peltier Support Group: There is a spirit among all people. There is a spirit among the human race. We can only take so much. We can only take so much from these people and we start to fight back. And I don't care about their money and their guns. The purpose of political repression is to stop the struggle. And if we stop struggling, if we stop our culture, our ways, our education to our young, then they win. [The government is] still holding 140,00 pages [on Leonard Peltier]. That is number that is hard to fathom, that many pages. Why? They say it's in the national interest. [They say Leonard Peltier] is a threat to national security... Well, the thing we need you to do is go home and talk to your friends, your unions, your churches, your tribe, whomever you can talk to and tell them what they are doing to Leonard Peltier is a threat to OUR national security. And we need a homeland security struggle to free Leonard Peltier and kick Bush the hell out of there.
	Robert Robideau, Co-director of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee: People are dying around you because of police brutality, because of the ... hunger for oil by the Bush administration. We have to wake up and we have to teach each other how to communicate to wake others up. This is our responsibility to each other as human beings. Leonard Peltier represents the injustice this country has done against native people. And has continued to do. We need to teach each other the reality of these injustices... Leonard Peltier, who has served 31 years in prison for an alleged offense of killing two FBI agents. The United States government has admitted in open court they do not know who killed these agents. That is not the reality of what this is all about. This is about the need for the United States government to cover up their own actions against native people during that period of time which we call the reign of terror. [It was a time] when the United States government, a colonial police force, entered our lands and were responsible for over 60 homicides and 300 assaults. And were responsible again [for] the... taking away of more land. One eighth of the Pine Ridge reservation was handled over to the government during this same time. We have a right to defend our land. We have a right to defend our freedoms, whatever they may be. Do not allow them [the United States government] to criminalize your rights.
Chuck Conway	Kelly White
------------------------------------------------------------- ADDITIONAL SUPPORT INFORMATION ------------------------------------------------------------- VIDEO/PHOTOGRAPHS: The video of events are used by supporters around the country. If you have video or photographs, please send copies to: Tacoma Leonard Peltier Support Group P.O. BOX 5464 TACOMA, WA 98415-0464 bayou@blarg.net For up-dates and notices on helping Leonard Peltier please sign up on the NW Peltier Support e-mail list by sending an e-mail to: nwpeltiersupport-subscribe@lists.riseup.net. ------------------------------------------------------------- CONTACT INFORMATION ------------------------------------------------------------- Leonard Peltier Defense Committee & Leonard Peltier Legal Team Bob Robideau- Co-director LPDC Barry Bachrach Toni Zeidan- Co-director LPDC Mike Kuzma Email: info@leonardpeltier.net Phone: 915-533-6655 Website: http://www.leonardpeltier.net/ Freedomwalk: http://www.freedomwalk.com/