Copyright © 1999 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved
by Dale Allen Pfeiffer
Copyright © 1999 Pfeiffer
An " International Day of Protest, to Free Leonard Peltier" took place, Saturday, February 6, 1999, on the 23rd anniversary of his arrest. The following is one of the statements made at the Free Leonard Peltier Rally held in Pontiac, Michigan.
I have been asked many times why I am preparing to risk my life for Leonard Peltier. I tell those who ask that it is worth risking my life for justice and to save the life of another human being, and that is true. Can there be nobler purpose in life? And yet, though this is a grand reason for risking one’s life, there is much more to it.Justice for Leonard Peltier is just the first step in seeking justice for all indigenous peoples, and seeking justice for all indigenous peoples is the first step in seeking justice for this entire planet and ensuring that there is a future for humankind. All of these things are indivisibly connected, and freeing Leonard from prison will free us all from prison.
If we are to have a future, then we must change our ways soon. Many grave ecological and social problems wait to exact their toll in the not too distant future if we do not open our eyes now and change the way we treat each other and this planet. I could take an entire day to list all of the critical problems which we face, but I shall confine myself to three crises brought about by the way we have abused this planet.
Even though we are already attempting to phase out chloro- flourocarbons, the chemical reactions which these substances go through in the upper atmosphere will continue for another fifty years. Skin cancers and eye cataracts are already on the increase and are likely to become much worse. Ultraviolet radiation also stresses the immunological systems of both animals and plants. Biological studies demonstrate that plants are suffering genetic damage due to increased ultraviolet penetration. Surveys of ocean life show radiation is the likely culprit. Plankton is at the base of the marine food chain; as plankton die out, so will the oceans.
Another problem which is already upon us is global warming. Temperate forests are spreading into arboreal zones, and arboreal forests are overtaking the thawing tundra. Desertification is spreading and the massive ice shelves around Antarctica are breaking up. The latest scientific models take into account positive feedback systems which act to increase the effects of global warming. As forests move northward, they in turn lead to greater warming. Oceans which normally absorb carbon dioxide and convert it to weak carbonic acid, will reverse that reaction as they warm and instead pump more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. And on the continental shelves, where millions of tons of methane lie in suspension, a rise in temperature of only a few degrees will bring this methane out of solution and cause the waters to exhale it into the atmosphere. The latest models show that, if we do not stop global warming in the next few years, then we will lose the ability to do so, and in twenty years time the phenomena will begin accelerating.
Finally, allow me to bring your attention to the fact that we are already living in the third greatest mass extinction in the history of this planet. Third behind the Permian extinction of many hundred-million years ago, and a close third behind the Cretaceous extinction--which is when the dinosaurs died off. In the past hundred years, more species of life have vanished from this planet than I care to list, and a long list of other life forms stand on the brink of extinction. And all of these extinctions can be directly traced to humankind. We don’t need a comet or a meteorite; we are quite capable of wiping out the life on this planet by our own ignorance and greed.
As I stated previously, these are only three catastrophes of many that are already in the offing. But they all have their basis in our perception of ourselves, and of the world around us. In this, they are linked to our social problems, which I have not even gone into here but which are all derived from the way we view each other as separate and exploitable.
The history of the rise of European culture, the history of the industrial revolution and--in particular--the history of U$ ascendancy is the history of the genocide of indigenous people in order to rob them of their land. The Indian wars never ended, we are still engaged in robbing the American Indians of their land whenever we discover it to harbor some new treasure of mineral wealth. So it is on Pine Ridge Reservation, so it is in the four corners country of the Hopi and the Navajo, and so it is on numerous other reservations when avarice is whetted by material riches. Outside of this country, our war against indigenous people is just as bloody as it ever was, if not worse. Wherever valuable resources are to be found, we embark on a campaign of terrorism and slaughter, and wherever native peoples attempt to take back their land, we crack down doubly hard. The wilderness to us is merely an untapped resource from which we can extract profit, and the people who live there are either vermin to be eradicated or exploited as a cheap source of labor.
I have spent a lot of time getting to know nature, learning her ways and feeling her rhythms. If you live for any length of time with nature, you come to appreciate how everything is connected and how everything is interrelated. Yet the knowledge of how to live with nature is vanishing with the indigenous people. Two of my greatest teachers are Tom Brown Jr. and--through him--Stalking Wolf. I consider Tom Brown’s Field Guides and autobiographical novels to be among the most important books in the world because they contain a wealth of this vanishing knowledge. Stalking Wolf was a full blood Apache, an accomplished scout and a powerful shaman. Tom Brown was his adopted grandson to whom he imparted the wealth of his knowledge and experience, which Tom Brown has in turn given to us through his books. I learned more about nature from these books than from any other source, excepting possibly personal experience.
In his fourth book, “The Quest,” Tom Brown shares with us the most important of Stalking Wolf’s visions about the fate of mankind should we not wake up to our true relationship with nature. This vision contains four prophecies of warning, the first two of which have already come to pass. The first vision was of mass starvation in Africa. The spirit of an African wise man narrated this vision, explaining to Stalking Wolf that these people had lost the old ways which would have brought them through drought, the old ways having been replaced by false ways which were incompatible with their environment and which even exacerbated the degradation of their environment. Stalking Wolf was told that the eyes of the world would be focused on this tragedy. This was the first warning; at this point there would still be time to correct our mistakes through direct action. But, if humankind failed to comprehend the true reasons for this tragedy, then we would be unlikely to awaken.
The second vision was of holes in the sky, like gaping wounds in the firmament. A voice told him that these holes in the sky were a second warning, and once they had appeared there was no more recourse to direct action. From this point on, only spiritual awakening could halt our course. The third vision was a night of despair as the very stars appeared to run with filthy gore. This was the Night when the Stars Dripped Blood; it was the final warning. From this point, the children of the forests would have one year to vanish into the wilderness before civilization would end in unspeakable death and destruction. The fourth vision was narrated by a child, who said that after ten years those children of the forest who had survived their many hardships could leave the wilderness to begin anew.
So, if the visions of Stalking Wolf are to be believed--and everything I know and feel tells me that they are--then humanity has only one hope: spiritual salvation. We must open our eyes and realize once again the most intimate ties which bind us to everyone and everything. And I believe that this is possible. For every single person who awakens to this awareness, humanity comes one step closer to enlightenment. And once we have reached the critical mass, this enlightenment will become available to everyone.
My time in the woods taught me to trust my instincts, even when there is no evidence to support them. And my instincts tell me that freeing Leonard Peltier from prison will send us down that road to salvation. Justice for Leonard Peltier will--almost inevitably--lead to justice for all indigenous peoples, which will in turn free us from ignorance and awaken us to our true place in this world. For this, I would gladly risk my life.
More Reasons for Fasting:
from Dale Allen Pfeiffer
An innocent man is being tortured in a United States prison, kept in constant pain, unable even to chew his food. An innocent man has been locked into a tiny cell for twenty-three years now, simply for standing up to defend his people and their land. For being a true patriot, this man has been deprived of his home for twenty-three years, deprived of his family and loved ones, his children and grandchildren. Twenty-three years deprived of the freedom to come and go as he pleases, deprived of the freedoms most of us take for granted, deprived of his most basic rights and confined in a tiny cell unfit to house even a dog, though the US government has admitted that they cannot prove him guilty of the crime of which he is accused. This man is named Leonard Peltier and his people are the Lakota Indians of Pine Ridge Reservation.Fearful that his story may someday come to light, and terrified because they cannot break his spirit, the government attempted to assassinate Leonard while he was in prison. They beat him, placed him into solitary confinement and subjected him to surgical torments to the point that he is now in continuous pain and cannot even move his jaw to eat. All of this to hide their crimes against his people, and to intimidate them from demanding what is right.
The people of Pine Ridge were terrorized and murdered so that they would not resist as the US government stole their land. They were bitterly, mercilessly oppressed so that a few major corporations might profit from the discovery of uranium deposits, and so that the US military might have the materials for more weapons of mass destruction. Their land, once a pristine wilderness, was gouged out and defiled, all for the sake of money and power.
And when Leonard stood up for his people and his land, the US government swatted him down and rigged a trial against him. They coerced and intimidated witnesses, fabricated evidence and did everything in their power to paint him as a mad dog killer. And even after these crimes of the government were uncovered, they held private meetings with judges and even presidents in order to thwart his appeals and his petition for executive clemency. And now they would torture him even to the point of death by denying him the medical treatment he so urgently needs, and which the Mayo Clinic has so graciously offered for free.
There comes a time when you have to stand up against such an injustice. For many years now, our efforts to defend Leonard and win his rightful freedom have been met by stony silence and by intimidation. This is intolerable; it simply cannot go on any longer. If Leonard continues to remain in prison, if he is denied medical treatment for another day, then all of our talk about justice, liberty, equality and democracy is a sham.
To demonstrate the strength of our convictions, to illustrate our solidarity with Leonard Peltier and the truth of his innocence, I and many, many other good people will be fasting and carrying our message to the public, from now until Leonard is released to the Mayo Clinic or until he is granted executive clemency. To the Bureau of Prisons, we demand that Leonard be given medical treatment in the Mayo Clinic. To President Clinton, we demand that Leonard be given executive clemency. In the name of all that is right, it is time to bring an end to this injustice.
/S/ Dale Allen Pfeiffer
See Related Web Site: Justice for Leonard Peltier!
Dale Allen Pfeiffer, IWW Pontiac, Michigan Delegate.
| NAIIP News Path! |
| Leonard Peltier & AIM Information |
| "the People's Paths Site Index!" |