PELTIER SCORES...

65% on Vanity Self-Test…

Dear Supporters:

Peltier’s home page recently changed to an adulterated upside down American flag.

United States Code (4 U.S.C. § 8) states that a U.S. flag flown upside down is a sign of distress, and arguably Peltier is clearly in distress.

The U.S. Supreme Court (Texas v. Johnson) agrees that Peltier has the right to abuse the flag based on his First Amendment right to free speech. And no less ironic (as with other Peltier endeavors), he demeans the flag of the country he despises and ridicules yet at the same time wraps himself within the very protection it provides. As always, he wants it both ways.

(Please see Peltier’s flag at www.whoisleonardpeltier.info: We’re not afraid to link to Peltier’s website…more on that important point in a later blog.)

The new logo is framed with the words “The Bill of Rights…Just another broken treaty?”

That Peltier poses this as a question leads some to believe he’s not convinced…given, of course, his dozens of ventures into the courts, numerous appeals, etc. He’s had his right to due process, did not prevail, and his adulterated flag demonstrates that his First Amendment right to free speech is also very much intact.

There’s also that younger and defiant Peltier shown like in one of his self-portraits with an eagle flying out of his head. Or perhaps its just nesting…it’s hard to tell. Still, with all this symbolism, clutter and mixed metaphors of anti-America and Native America he can’t get the picture or message quite right.

(However, that wasn’t the face I saw at Lewisburg in July 2009; not by a long shot—no pun intended. He wouldn’t have the courage to use a picture of himself today. Face it Leonard, we’re all getting older…deal with it! 9/12/44)

Emblazoned on the red stripes (thankfully he did get the number of red and white stripes correct), are twenty-three—for lack of a better word, phrases or anecdotes representing Peltier’s self-description to his supporters. These are the questions about himself that Peltier is offering to anyone left out there who’ll listen. He is saying to the world; this is what I’m all about; this is who I am; this is Leonard Peltier.

Offering these is like a self-test of his own worth, an assessment of his own narcissism.

And to no one’s amazement, he failed.

The questions he answered correctly were: Native American, Indian (redundant and not politically correct…depending on the context), Anishinabe, Dakota, son, father, uncle, grandfather, brother, elder, prisoner, man and “wind chases the sun.” (Adopted from the probably never-to-be-released basement production of the same name by novice filmmaker, Preston Randolph, who has already demonstrated that he doesn’t want to be encumbered with the facts but is content to help perpetuate the myth. Prediction: Wind Chases will not even mention Mr. X and the infamous red pickup truck; which will in no way alter Peltier’s second biggest lie. Please see: http://www.noparolepeltier.com/lie.html)

And, we’ll give Peltier two more; poet and artist. But those are subjective…in the eye of the beholder as it were…and everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. Although, one person’s art is another’s garage sale item.

Wrong answers:

Warrior: If viewed from the broader historical perspective as native warriors led by legitimate chiefs overwhelming Custer at the battle of the Greasy Grass, then Agents Coler and Williams were first surrounded and overwhelmed by a larger force, in this instance, Peltier, Robideau and Butler and a number of AIM teenagers (a teenager with a rifle can kill you just as quickly and easily as an adult). But the problem with this theory is that Peltier describes himself as a “political prisoner,” and, Coler and Williams were both first severely wounded and then shot in the face at point-blank range. That act alone makes Peltier not a warrior, but an assassin.

Victim & Scapegoat: Only in his own mind. A central element of the Peltier folklore has been that someone had to pay for killing the two agents and it may as well have been Peltier. That is so far beyond the facts of this case that it doesn’t register on the reality scale. For a complete review of Peltier’s actual and factual guilt, please see http://www.noparolepeltier.com/debate.html#concise

Icon: In all likelihood Peltier uses the definition of an icon that refers to—an object of uncritical devotion, and certainly there are those who look at Peltier that way. That number, however, is small, fragmented and marginalized while the overwhelming opinion of those who even care to think about Peltier see him as no more than an embarrassing cliché.

Hero: A hero? To whom ? AIM? Any serious analysis of how little the American Indian Movement contributed to the benefit of those they were allegedly helping would prove that there were no heroes in that group. Although the use and definition of the word hero has expanded in recent years, Peltier would fit none of them. If he’s a hero to the fringe myth worshipers, then so be it.

Teacher: If failure was the lesson, then Peltier was a teacher. Really, what did he accomplish other than setting the example that unbridled violence diminishes your cause and in this case led to a life behind bars?

Leader: More like the incompetent leading the uninformed, or worse yet, like leading Joe Stuntz to his death. To repeat perhaps the single most important quote of the entire Peltier saga—in or out of court; “I seen Joe when he pulled it out of the trunk (Coler’s FBI jacket) and I looked at him when he put it on, and he gave me a smile.” (ITSOCH p. 552: Please also see the blog entry below dated July 12, 2010). How obscene a scene was this; smiling with two mutilated dead bodies at their feet? Peltier cowered and ran as fast as he could for the hills, while Stuntz and others (at Peltier’s direction), shot at responding officers and agents. Leadership was hardly present that day because all Peltier did was place everyone in jeopardy. An inappropriate and criminal over-reaction to the presence of the agents at Jumping Bull put everyone’s lives at risk because Peltier believed the agents were after him. Great leadership…if you think the law is coming after you, shoot them.

Spirit: In every culture and religion there are good and bad spirits: draw your own conclusion about where Peltier stands…One day he will meet the Great Spirit and his eternal fate will then be sealed.

The Peltier myth is collapsing under the weight of its lies and the folklore is eroding to the point where Peltier will be no more than a footnote in Native American history.

“In the Spirit of Coler and Williams”
Ed Woods

(Next parole reconsideration hearing, 2024)