Dear Supporters:
On September 5th
Peltier provided us with an update regarding his recent bypass surgery.
“My cells ac/air going on so it wasn’t only a
little chilled but under the blankets it felt nice and warm and sort of cozy…”
How heartening that Peltier
feels warm and cozy.
On June 26, 1975 Jack Coler
and Ron Williams felt only fear and pain and suffered a horrible death at the
hands of convicted murderer Leonard Peltier.
Peltier goes on to add a
couple of interesting and curious comments that we’ll let others ponder:
“I wish I could spend some time
with my Great and grandchildren even
some of my now middle-aged children,
who believe they are the victims in
this whole life. They even believe they should be given all of the
attention. I
keep trying to get them to understand you have to earn leadership…” (Emphasis
added)
It certainly sounds like
there’s trouble in paradise in the Peltier clan as he airs his dirty laundry in
public. This has been a recurring theme with Peltier, witnessed by the multiple
changes of his Defense Committee, directors and members, along with shifting
locations and websites and public disputes between committee members and Peltier.
This includes some well-intentioned attorneys who, like others in the Peltier
network, could tolerate just so much of his unsettling demeanor and personality.
Heaven forbid anyone around
Peltier should be given all the attention.
Really? Peltier actually lecturing
on leadership?
Like those he led on June
26, 1975 into an unprovoked attack on two federal agents performing their
lawful duties? Like Joe Stuntz, who followed Peltier to his own death? Peltier
didn’t pass along the common sense knowledge that when you shoot at law enforcement,
odds are they’re going to shoot back.
Predictably, Peltier’s
message slips into the repeated pathetic begging for cash routine but ends with
a peculiar comment:
“I
don't have Any Personal funds, So I have to depend on you, the grass roots
activist for help. Every little bit adds up so donations are needed, unless you can’t afford it (of course:) don't
need to be large just many.
Framed
Prints and original art work in your homes would be great talking subjects Just
an idea, but purchase them from Kari
Ann, the only ILPDC Art Director!” (Emphasis added)
Please note the
clarification that you can “…purchase them from Kari Ann, the ONLY ILPDC
Art Director!” (Also, don’t fail to note the significance of the ‘exclamation
point’ that indicates the forceful
utterance of strong feelings.)
This past March witnessed a
legal dustup with Peltier and a couple of his detractors over the display of
Peltier’s paintings for sale on public property in the State of Washington.*
Filed in federal court was
an affidavit that included at page 3:
“CHANUCEY PELTIER is the SON OF LEONARD
PELTIER, runs a gallery on behalf of Leonard and is the agent for sale,
lending, and distributing LEONARD PELTIER’s paintings.”
So what happened? Peltier
embarrassingly whines publically that his children “believe they should be given all of the attention,”
and with the emphasis of an “!” that Kari Ann is the “Only” Art Director.
Perhaps it’s just a matter of a job description. It
doesn’t appear likely, but it’s possible that Chauncey Peltier runs the gallery
and is not the Art Director. Nevertheless, Peltier seems to be sending a different
message. We’ll let others be the judge.
Is
anyone in Peltier’s camp getting the message here about the Peltier donations, finances
and decades-long money machine? This issue goes back many years with more than
just the NPPA asking the same questions about how Peltier’s money is raised and
spent.
In
February 2003, long-time committee leader, Bob Free, stated publicly, "Transparency regarding accounting and decisions will be
posted on the web."
That
was over a dozen years ago, but of course, it never happened. Wonder why?
For the clueless Peltier
diehards and those who dare not ask the hard and valid questions, hints about
Peltier’s money management have come from Peltier himself as evident from an
interview over two decades ago:
“When
our conversation veers back to the ordinary, the brief tension between us
passes and Peltier becomes amiable again. He talks about his children, where
they’re living, what they are doing, how a couple of them are forever dunning him for money. “I try
to be stern with them—‘No, you’ve got to learn to be responsible, live within
your means’—but I always end up saying, ‘OK,
but this is the last time’” He laughs, shakes his head in self-rebuke.” **
(Emphasis added)
Curious, a convicted double
murderer and lifer talking about money going to his kids.
We don’t know for certain,
and probably never will, how much money Peltier is talking about, but we have
to ask the question: Where is the money coming from?
Really, how much do federal
inmates make? Very little we know, and even the healthy ones who are able to
work for prison industries make very little as well. Some twenty-plus years
ago, Peltier the “Janitor,” was making twenty-nine cents an hour.***
But then there’s the sale of
Peltier’s paintings, which over twenty years ago were hawked among Hollywood
elite—searching for a cause—for as much as $5,000.**** (Peltier and the
Committee advertising in later years have placed the prices higher.)
The implication from
Peltier’s own public record and federal court affidavit as a Plaintiff (along
with his son Chauncey Peltier, referenced above) was suing for, among other
things, “together with special damages for Plaintiff’s economic loss.”
(Affidavit at page 18.)
Suing for “economic loss”
seems to imply that Peltier is selling his artwork as part of running a
business with his son. However, Bureau of Prison Rules at Peltier’s current location
are straightforward. USP Coleman’s Inmate Handbook, specifically page 40,
states in part, “Inmates cannot engage in any type of business and will be
sanctioned for doing so.”
Perhaps Peltier could ask
the mystery Mr.X for help? We know, Mr. X, a person they all knew, and
Peltier’s only alibi, that this person is the one who attacked and killed the
agents and then drove off in the equally infamous red pickup.
Guess that won’t work
either. Despite Peltier’s somber gaze into the camera in Redford’s film, Incident at Oglala, where he mouthed the
false admission, “This story is true:” There was no Mr. X because the
years-long alibi was proven to be a lie.*****
Today (the twelfth) is
Peltier’s 73rd birthday. So what!
On this day as well, Jack
and Ron would have both been 70 but had their lives brutally stolen by
convicted murderer Leonard Peltier. They were robbed of their next 42
birthdays.
There are countless reasonable
and thoughtful people who understand that the horrible mistreatment of First
Americans is a blight on America’s history.******
Nonetheless, to even suggest
that a free Peltier would atone for any of that, borders on the obscene.
Peltier, and those who have used him for their own purposes, those who have
supported him only to be cast aside, subscribe simply to the myth and folklore
that has become so entrenched that Peltier is incapable of seeing the truth.
Peltier has only himself and
his violent criminal acts to blame for his fabricated martyrdom and self-induced
torment, while he remains were he deservedly belongs.
“In the Spirit of Coler and
Williams”
Ed Woods
(last
accessed 9/9/2017)
***** The history of Mr. X:
****** See “Correcting wrongs of the past” that has been on
the homepage since the creation of the No Parole Peltier Association and its
website on April 30, 2000.
