Eric Seitz ~ Leonard
Peltier Attorney ~ Response on
Parole Denial
Date: Fri, 21 Aug
2009 15:42:10 -0700 (PDT)
Aug. 21, 2009. Today
the fallout from the brown smog of
an over populated desire for
more took hold, once again,
in Indian Country. Where it is
apparent that new presidents and
claims of progressive perspectives
are mere opiates for the masses,
much as Emma Goldman explained a
century ago when she was deported
for claiming birth control for women
was a freedom. Once I explained to
a Taos Pueblo guy that I understood
Indians a whole lot because the
United States did to me, as a
woman--did to my mother and
grandmother as women-- the same
things they have always done to
Indians. Challenge our capacity for
legitimacy and lock us up, in one
way or another, if we can’t become
part of the white man’s game. And
skin color has nothing to do with
it. For as we see, a President of
color can act like a white man very
easily and a white chick can in fact
develop compassionate logic for
revolution.
But what does this
all have to do with Leonard Peltier,
a member of AIM who was yet again
denied paroled today, Aug. 21, 2009,
his next parole hearing scheduled
for 2024, when he will be 79. His
cousin Bob Robideau didn’t live that
long—we lost him this past Feb.—so
there is little chance parole
hearings make any sense in the
twisted fates of Indians. Peltier
is a symbol of all that is wrong
with America. And all that America
loathes. A reminder that no amends
have been made for massacres. That
the destiny of this nation is doomed
with or without a congressional
medal of honor going to a survivor
of Indian wars in the “old West”
(recent Obama gesture
to.Joe Medicine Crow-High Bird: The
last living Plains Indian war chief
and author of seminal works in
Native American history is also the
last person alive to have received
direct oral testimony from a
participant in the Battle of the
Little Bighorn: his grandfather, a
scout for Gen. George Custer-- CNN
Aug. 12, 09 ).
That is, Peltier
represents the need for America to
suffocate it’s history, to strangle
it’s memory, to cut out the heart of
a dream and feed it to machinery
designed to banish life.
There is no one for
me to interview on this. Whole
mess. But come with me anyway. My
old friends are either dead or think
I am a fed while others promise to
google my name a bazillion times to
prove that I’m alive. For the
history of old AIM is not yet slain.
And. Peltier’s denial of parole
falls on the skirt tails of the
upcoming John Graham trial. I
purposely don’t mention Graham’s
“co-defendent” because in my mind
smoke and mirrors are so outmoded
and “Dick” Marshall has his own
haunted house to clean. So. Back to
Graham. Graham is intrinsically
entwined with Peltier, whether
Graham imagines this or is told by
his attornies: Kamook Banks, in her
creepy testimony-- which I witnessed
from the front row of the Looking
Cloud dog and pony show-- blamed
in her all her glory. Blamed
Leonard Peltier for the murder of
Annie Mae. Whilst being coached,
according to courtroom rumours at
the time, by John Trudell. Who then
proceeded to name John Graham as the
person who executed a woman some say
was his lover. Strange how no one
ever says that part out loud.
Who killed Annie
Mae?
Peltier was on the
lamb, Robideau in jail and ashes
ashes we all fall down. But wait.
Now Peltier goes in front of the
parole board in July 09 and claims
his dead (how did he really die?)
cousin Robideau might have already
confessed to killing the agents
Peltier is accused of slaying. I
knew Vernon Bellecourt, Dave Chief
(original member of Elder Council
for Leonard) Robideau and all of
them might have something to say
about this parole denial. This
upcoming trial. But they are all
dead. So where do we go from here
There is JohnTrudell,
there is Banks, there is Russell
Means. None of these guys are
anyone who I have interviewed,
though Trudell came close to sharing
a lot with me at one point. Indeed.
Back when I wrote my tribute for
Annie Mae, back in the 90’s. When
what he gained. Was my help
in staging his “Bad Dog” shows. And
then some. He was cryptic with me,
as us poets are. He was alarmed at
so much talk about Annie Mae. He
was curious about her cousin and
mostly what I remember. Are his eyes
shifting from corner to corner of a
dimly lit backstage hall. Those dark
glasses...still. The darting eye
thing was more about whether to wear
a bullet proof vest or go on stage
bare chested. So when Graham was
arrested it made sense. Didn’t it.
Someone had to be nabbed. Why not
the guy who drove Annie Mae up
north. Instead of the leaders of
AIM.
Trudell never talked
about Graham to me.
But Graham spoke of
Trudell when I went up to Canada and
covered Graham’s extradition
hearings for Pacifica Radio. Back
in 2005. Graham wanted to know why
Trudell betrayed him. Pacing around
over coffee at an old Vancouver B.C
diner. Angry, searching. I had no
answers for him. His people wanted
more from me. And I didn’t have it
to give. That’s when they started
the whole “she’s a mole thing” up
there. Lordie. Couldn’t escape
their fears. The
