On “The Incident at Oglala: the Leonard Peltier Story” Essay

The Incident at Oglala The Leonard Peltier Story is a governing bodyal documentary which questions the claims of justice and equality in the coupled States. It is a civilized Rights documentary that recounts unrivalled event in the lives of Native Americans. This essay is an instructive work and non a critique. The objective here is to present the study elements of the documentary and their ramifications for the doctrine of equal treatment under the police force in the United States. With other supporting sources, it is my hope that the readers would become enlightened just about the issues of justice as it relates to minority populations. hurt continue The Political condition The primary events documented in the film occur cerise at a placed conside rubor the poorest reservation in the nation, the Pine ridgeline Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Pine Ridge, with a population of about 15,000 Lakota Indians, is a badly economic on the wholey depressed area with the hig hest reach rate in the United States per capita. The high murder rate is the result of intra-tribal rivalries fermented by limited federal official funding. The residents of Pine Ridge had divided themselves into two groups, the red-blooded and the mixed blood.The full-bloods were the genetically pure natives with culturally conservative views. The mixed-bloods were Native Americans with Caucasian heritage who mainly preferred a more progressive society. For the most part, the mixed-blood dominated the court of the reservation. To foster self-help and a sense of pride among themselves, the residents formed the American Indian Movement (AIM). In the spring of 1972, Dick Wilson, a mixed-blood, became president the tribal Council. The leader of the Tribal Council controlled the major source of livelihood on the reservation, the bills from the federal official semipolitical relation.Wilson was believed to be a very corrupt leader who utilize death squads (Guardians of the Oglal a Nations or GOONs) to silence his critics. As a result, nearly all of the victims of the high murder rate in Pine Ridge were the full-blood Native Americans. The failure of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of India personal matters (BIA) to investigate the murders coupled with the fact that Wilson was being supported by Federal money gave the impression that the Federal organisation was in support of the actions of Wilson and his cohorts.In this environment of fear and intimidation, m whatever of the residents secured arms for self-defense. To publicize their plight, AIM unconquerable to push confrontational with the Federal governing. The group occupied Wounded articulatio genus in late 1973. AIM got the desired publicity with the unintended consequences of a heavy military response from the Federal Government. After a three-day tie and two Native American deaths, the crisis was resolved. It, however, re entropyrced the belief among the Pine Ridge res idents that they could not depend on the Federal Government to seek their interests.As Wilsons vigilantes pushed their campaign of intimidation and elimination, Pine Ridge residents became more refer for their lives and afraid of strangers. Wilsons Goons, in collaboration with the FBI and BIA, attempted to destroy the American Indian Movement. AIM members became very much afraid of strangers and always false a defensive posture. It was in this environment that two FBI agents, driving in two unmarked fomites, made an aggressive pursuit of a fomite into a heavily armed section of the reservation in 1975. A gun battle ensued in which the agents were killed.It was not until after their deaths did any of the residents of Pine Ridge know that they were Federal Agents. All the men involved in the shootout fled. Leonard Peltier went to Canada. The Trials The events of that day became the focus of the Michael Apteds documentary, Incident at Oglala The Leonard Peltier Story. The U. S. Gover nment brought indictments against Jimmy Eagle, Dareelle Butler, Bob Robideau, and Leonard Peltier. The suit of clothes against Eagle was dismissed for lack of evidence. harmonise to the documentary, Peltier fled to Canada fearing that he would not get a bazar tally anyplace in the United States.Peltier fought extradition from Canada. Desiring a speedy foot race and perceiving that the extradition proceedings would score considerable time, the U. S. Government prosecuted the other defendants without Peltier. The depicted object was taken to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Government tried to instill a sense of fear in the local anesthetic population against the Native American population. It did not work. Convinced that the presidency did not present case void of reasonable doubts, all the defendants were found not felonious on the grounds of self-defense. Peltier was the lone accuser left and the prosecutor cute to con game him at all cost.Federal agents had been murdered and som eone had to be convicted and Peltier was the man. If he had not fled to Canada, he would have acquitted along with his colleagues. Now, he must face a separate fate. What followed is a disturbing breast into how representatives of the Federal Government can manipulate community and information to convict innocent people. It began with the extradition. The U. S. Government used a perjured document to get Canada to cede Peltier back to the United States. Myrtle Poor Bear, the Governments line up in the extradition case, claimed to be Peltiers girlfriend.It was a lie. She admitted in the documentary that if she had seen Peltier in court, she would not have been able to identify him. Yet, they Government got her to sign two affidavits attesting to be on the scene when the Federal Agents were murdered and that they were murdered by Peltier. Her affidavit of February 23rd indicated that she was not present when the agents were murdered. Four days later, she sign(a) other affidavit i ndicating that she was present when the agents were killed and that the perpetrator was Peltier. Fingerprints analyses from the location did not arrange Poor Bear at the scene.Why, then, did she lie? Poor Bear was exist by representatives of the U. S. Government. She was shown the mutilated body of a colleague and told that her fate could be worse. In addition, she was told that she could lose her child to the Government. Fearing that the Government had the power to make dangerous on its threats, she decided to cooperate. The Government Agents then provided her the information she attested to in the affidavits. That representatives of the United States Government would deliberately lie to a foreign government and undermine international treaty is very disturbing.But that is what happened. With an eyewitness affidavits ((Linder, known Trials Leonard Peltier Trial, paragraph 17) putting Peltier at the scene of the crime and identifying him as the perpetrator, the Canadian Governme nt turned Peltier over to the United States. According to Bob Robideau, one of the defendants in the first trial, the Canadians did not need the affidavits to extradite Peltier. It gave them the excuse because the Canadian Government has its own problems with the local populations of Native Americans.No wonder they were ordain to breach an international treaty based on conflicting evidence. The trial of Leonard Peltier was filled with many inconsistencies in the Governments case. James Harper, the Governments prime witnessed who allegedly got a prison confession from Peltier, was a liar. His landlord reported how he had rehearsed his claims of evidence in the Manson case and in Peltiers case. Secondly, the bullet casings found at the murder scene could not me matched to any one particular weapon.Thirdly, the Government provided conflicted evidence about the vehicle the knackered agents were following. All initial reports indicated that the agents were following a red pick-up truck . This would have been the case because the person they were look for, Jimmy Eagle, was last seeing driving a red pickup. So it made sense that they would chasing after a red pickup truck however, to implicate Peltier, the prosecutors changed the vehicle in the chase from a red pickup truck to a red and white caravan because Peltier owned a red and white van.Three witnesses, who at the trial placed Peltier at the murder scene, later recanted their statements and said that they were coerced (AIM For Freedom For Leonard Peltier). dissimilar his colleagues who were tried in Iowa, Peltier was tried in Fargo, South Dakota by a jury that did not represent his peers (Linder, Famous Trials Leonard Peltier trial, paragraph 20). Peltier was found guilty in spite of the preponderance of very doubtful evidence. Ballistics analyses could not definitely tie Peltiers gun to the casings found at the murder scene because his gun was damaged in a motor vehicle fire.The Government Agents were appare ntly chasing one vehicle it was both a red pickup truck and a red and white van. Witnesses were coerced. Even a Federal Appeals Court has found this case to be gross caricature of justice. As late as November 2003, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals admit that Much of the governments behavior at the Pine Ridge Reservation and its prosecution of Mr. Peltier is to be condemned. The government withheld evidence. It intimidated witnesses. These facts are not disputed (AIM For Freedom For Leonard Peltier)Opinion The credibility of any judicial carcass rests on the fact that it can be trusted by the people to administer justice impartially. When judicial system can be manipulated, specially by the government, to disregard the principle of innocent until proven guilty, it is not Leonard Peltier alone who is the victim. We are all victims because the judicial system loses its credibility at main office and abroad. Since his duress, many world-renowned figures have called for his on the grounds that he is a political prison.Amnesty International, the 14th Dalai Lama, the Belgium Parliament, the United Nations Commissioner on Human Rights, the Italian Parliament, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Italian Parliament, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and the European Parliament have all called for his release (See Resolution). The continued imprisonment of Peltier also undermines the United States in it efforts to be a beacon of justice, equality, and fair play. As long as the world continues to see Peltier as a political prisoner, Americas call on other nations, ilk Cuba and China, to release their political prisoners would ring hollow, if not seen as hypocritical.Worst of all, if the government can plant evidence, distort evidence, coerced witnesses, and intentionally falsify documents just to get a conviction in one case, what will stop it from doing the homogeneous in any other case? On a big sociological point, the Pine Ridge Indians see the case of Peltier as another reason w hy they should be skeptical about the government want their interests. This is the same reason why African Americans have distrusted the government, especially law enforcement.If the government wants to be a government for all people, regardless of race, trust or ethnicity, justice must be blind and never, even manipulated by the government. References AIM For Freedom For Peltier, 2009. An Internet publication. Retrieved on 12 May 2009 from http//www. whoisleonardpeltier. info/background. htm Linder, Douglas. 2006. Famous Trials The Leonard Peltier Trial, 1977. Retrieved on. 12 May 2009 from http//www. iterasi. net/openviewer. aspx? sqrlitid=eguyvxdeae-dwr5whj8t6g Resolution on the case of Leonard Peltier. European Parliament. 1999-02-11. Retrieved on 12 May 2009 from http//www. webcitation. org/5LSGc933r.