Copyright © 2001 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

Orlando, FL - The American Indian Movement of Florida (Florida AIM) along with supporters will hold a rally in front of the Orlando Federal Courthouse (80 N Hughey) in downtown Orlando, FL to call attention to the unconscionable injustice of holding AIM activist and Anishinabeg patriot Leonard Peltier as a prisoner of war for more than twenty years. Florida AIM chose the Orlando federal courthouse due to its recent decision that digging up American Indian cemeteries warrants a mere $50 fine.

Leonard Peltier was convicted in 1977 of the killings of two (2) Federal Bureau of Investigations agents on the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Nation in 1975. The two agents and an AIM member and Couer D'Alene patriot Joe Killsright Stuntz were killed during shootouts that afternoon in Oglala, Oglala Lakota Nation. They were precipitated by the FBI agents attempting to serve a warrant they did not have, on someone who was not there. Two other AIM members Dino Butler and Bob Robideau were arrested and charged with the murders of the two FBI agents. These patriots were acquitted on the fact that they and the others in the AIM encampment acted in self-defense.

Leonard Peltier who would be tried later in Fargo, ND was convicted of the same offense. It was learned later that FBI documents, which had been withheld, showed the bullet was not fired from Peltier's gun and key that witness's had been coerced and in the case of Myrtle Poor Bear the testimony was falsified in multiple versions. Some 6,500 documents remain withheld.

The United States Attorney who prosecuted the case openly admits they have no idea who shot the agents and Peltier is incarcerated for aiding and abetting. Despite these inconsistencies and the known controversies over the FBI's massive Counterintelligence campaign against the American Indian Movement-Leonard Peltier was denied executive clemency by U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton because he was not white enough or rich enough. Such a gross injustice is evidence of the fact that justice is dead in America, as it has been since the invasion of Christopher Columbus in 1492.

Florida AIM calls on its members, friends, supporters and people of goodwill to renew their support for Leonard Peltier and all prisoners of the longest war in the Western Hemisphere. The 508 year long war against Indigenous peoples. Peltier's sole crime is being a patriot to his Anishinabeg and Lakota citizenship's. And for defending Indigenous peoples. That he has been vilified and incarcerated for this is unconscionable and he must be freed. Florida AIM will continue to rally, demonstrate, support and call for actions that will lead to the eventual release and freedom for Leonard Peltier and all Native American Prisoners of War.

For more information contact, Mark Madrid, phone: 727-826-6960, or David Narcomey, phone: 904-291-1991.