PELTIER CONFESSES TO "INCIDENT AT OGLALA"

PELTIER CONFESSES TO “INCIDENT AT OGLALA”
February 6, 2010

In a statement today celebrating the anniversary of his arrest in Canada and the beginning of his thirty-four year incarceration, Leonard Peltier confesses to his crimes at Jumping Bull.

But as always, and with self-serving drivel, he couches it in terms of himself—the perpetual victim of circumstances.

Peltier laments Joe Stuntz; as well he should, the young Indian probably thought he was doing the right thing by following the older leaders and not realizing he was being led down a dark path by Leonard himself. After agents’ Coler and Williams were executed, young Joe Stuntz (who perhaps even witnessed the murders), helped ransack their vehicles, stole and wore Jack Coler’s FBI raid jacket and then shot at agents and officers responding to Jumping Bull—until a law enforcement bullet stopped him.

Peltier, not the tough guy anymore, whines like a baby “it isn’t fair,” “I don’t deserve this,” “I have cried so many tears,” and is still not willing to accept or understand that this is the price he pays for his feigned hubris.

“I never thought my commitment would mean sacrificing like this, but I was willing to do so nonetheless. And really, if necessary, I’d do it all over again, because it was the right thing to do.”

In other words he never gave any serious consideration to what his actions really meant or what price would be paid for those decisions. If his decisions were made “nonetheless” then they were made out of ignorance of the consequences like most common criminals.

Peltier telling whomever will listen that he’d do it all over again because it was the right thing to do, clearly establishes one critical element of his crime for this moment, and his next parole hearing:

Peltier knows better than anyone that two human beings were brutally attacked, severely wounded and then summarily executed that day. That’s what happened at Jumping Bull…and now there are no other excuses from Peltier. From his own words, gone is the lie of self-defense, and what remains is an admission of complicity and guilt.

To reinforce the notion of unrepentant culpability he assures us that given the same circumstances he would “…do it all over again.” What he fails to realize is that he’s making the case that he is still a danger to society. He reaffirms there has been no rehabilitation for him over the past thirty-four years.

Every breath he takes denigrates the sacrifice of two young agents who died a violent and horrible death. He raises money on their destroyed faces trying to convince the ignorant or enamored of some historic legitimacy as he maligns an otherwise proud Native American tradition. He is an affront to every genuine warrior from that rich past and when Peltier does meet The Creator, a judgment will be made as he answers for his crimes at Jumping Bull and against the proud heritage he’s hijacked from the past.

“In the Spirit of Coler and Williams”
Ed Woods
NPPA