Testimony on Political Prisoners/ Prisoners of War Indigenous Witnesses • Bob Robideau • Ward Churchill

Testimony on Political Prisoners/ Prisoners of War Indigenous Witnesses • Bob Robideau • Ward Churchill New Afrikan Witness • Watani Tyehimba Mexican Witness • Ricardo Sánchez Puerto Rican Witness • Carlos Ortíz North American Witness • Rita D. Brown 184 USA on Trial Bob Robideau 185 Bob Robideau: Because of the magnitude and complexity offers these repressive forces an opportunity to create a cli- of this case, I have a prepared statement to read to you this mate of fear amongst those who continue to sleep with the evening. I wanted to be able to cover all the pertinent issues illusion of freedom. It is through the judicial process that our that this case entails, in which has affected, not only Leonard movements are criminalized and the state’s aggression legit- Peltier for the 16 years he has been confined, but also Native imized. Many of us have already committed our lives to the people in this hemisphere. liberation of our people. Because of this commitment many of us have been murdered by the state, others have been im- Over the last two decades we have shared in the develop- prisoned, and still others are struggling in US courts to free ment of movements of Red, Black, Brown and White sisters themselves from trumped up charges that could keep them and brothers to organize and defend the freedom of our locked down well into the next century. people against the terrorism of the US government and its repressive agencies. Our organizations have traveled similar The case of Leonard Peltier, exemplifies the extent in which paths. We have developed similar programs of resistance the US government will go to neutralize freedom fighters. within our respective communities, and as a result we have Leonard Peltier, as a leader of the American Indian Move- acquired a new quality within these struggles. We have be- ment, has been targeted for neutralization by the FBI, for his come less isolated and more organized. We have all felt the work in seeking US compliance with treaties, protection of brunt of brutality and murder in our communities inflicted land against corporate intrusion and destruction, and the by these repressive agencies of the state. We all continue to right of tribal people in North America to sovereignty and experience racist attacks, poor medical care, poor education, human dignity. The FBI has been responsible for falsely ac- unemployment, all of these conditions and many more are cusing Leonard of murder, attempted murder, assaulting imposed on us with impunity. These are acts of genocide. Federal officers and conspiracy. They have fabricated evi- The use of the courtroom as an arena where political activ- dence in order to imprison him and plotted to kill him once ists are eliminated is not a new tactic. Judicial persecution he was there. These actions have occurred with the knowl- and prosecution has been the governments way to neutral- edge and assistance of members of the US Justice Depart- ize national liberation movements. ment, various state and federal agencies, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the Canadian Justice Department. The US Department of Justice is used by the State to legiti- mize the suppression of our struggle. The enemy often wins Leonard Peltier is a prisoner of war in a conflict waged by the political trials even when the jury’s verdict is in our favor. Federal government to support continuing efforts by trans- Trying freedom fighters on criminal charges for political acts, national corporations to obtain natural resources that exist 186 USA on Trial Bob Robideau 187 on tribal lands. Since the arrival of Europeans on the North sponsored by the Federal government were obtained. Much American continent five hundred years ago, a constant of this evidence was later presented to the United Nations in struggle has been waged between them and tribal people. the fall of 1978. In keeping with Federal practice, no sooner Europeans have expressed an insatiable appetite for the had the occupation ended then the FBI targeted some 32 earth’s resources, removing tribal people, the buffalo, the AIM members, including Leonard Peltier. forests and anything else perceived as an obstacle. Today, Leonard left Washington DC and returned to Milwaukee, corporations seek uranium, coal, oil, gas, gold, water and Wisconsin where he was working as an employment coun- simply more land of what little remains in our possession. selor at an Indian alcohol rehabilitation program. A few Our resistance to the destruction of the earth and the geno- weeks later, while eating dinner at a restaurant with some cide practiced against us has taken many forms throughout friends, two plainclothes policemen approached him from the last 500 years. a nearby table and began to harass him and other friends From the late 1960’s through today, much of that resistance that were with him. When Leonard and his companions left has been spearheaded by members and supporters of the the restaurant to avoid an incident, the two cops viciously American Indian Movement. The American Indian Move- attacked Leonard claiming he had tried to kill one of them ment has consistently asserted treaties between the various — Ronald Helvinka. Leonard was arrested for attempted tribal nations and the US government, demanding that the murder. After arresting and handcuffing him, the officer beat United States government live up to its agreements and Leonard so savagely that Helvinka was absent from work respect the sovereignty of tribal people and our right to pro- for three days, having broken most of the blood vessels in tect and control agreed upon areas of North America. At the his hand. After a period of time, Leonard was released on turn of the 1980s, tribal people went to Washington DC to $25,000 bond, pending trial. present a list of grievances for treaty violations in what be- The Wounded Knee occupation had just ended upon his re- came known as the Trail of Broken Treaties. Dishonesty, mis- lease and believing that the struggle of his people in South representation, and broken agreements by Federal officials Dakota was more important than his trial on false charges, in the United States capital led to the temporary occupa- Leonard left Wisconsin and went to Pine Ridge. As a result tion of Bureau of Indian Affairs buildings in the fall of 1972. of the resistance at Wounded Knee, the FBI began arming, Leonard Peltier was one of those whose leadership made training and directing a private police force, known as the that action successful. From files we viewed and seized dur- Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOON) squad. From the ing the occupation, documented evidence of involuntary start of Wounded Knee, from 1975, the GOONs were respon- sterilization of Native women and other genocidal acts 188 USA on Trial Bob Robideau 189 sible for the deaths of some 69 traditional Lakota people the end of the day, two agents were dead and Joe Stuntz, a and members of the American Indian Movement. They Nez Pierce lay murdered. In early Spring of 1975, traditional were responsible for over 300 violent attacks on traditional elders of the Pine Ridge village of Oglala requested that people and members and supporters of the American Indian Northwest AIM led by Leonard Peltier help them defend Movement. This government sponsored terrorism invoked a their community from frequent GOON attacks. Contrary to request of the American Indian Movement to provide secu- FBI propaganda that we were outsiders, most of our group rity for traditional people of Pine Ridge. At this time, the US had established family ties within the Lakota communities. government, employed the FBI to engage and destroy the Leonard had children in the community of Oglala through a American Indian Movement. The aforementioned sequence past marriage. We established an encampment along White of events correspond in time to increased interest in the Clay Creek on the Jumping Bull home, and began patrolling energy resources abundant within the Lakota controlled the area to interfere with GOON activities. The immediate boundaries of the Fort Laramie Treaty. effect was to reduce the level of GOON activities in the area. Beginning in the early 1970’s, some 27 multi-national corpo- During the same period however, there were increasingly rations including Union Carbide, Tennessee Valley Authority numerous indications of FBI interest in our AIM camp. Dur- (a US government owned corporation), Mobil, Kerr-Magee, ing the first week of June, an FBI memo notes, “There are Westinghouse, HomeState and Exxon began acquiring pockets of Indian population which consist almost exclu- claims to the Black Hills in order to exploit its uranium, coal sively of the American Indian Movement members and their and oil reserves. Various plans for this energy development supporters on the reservation.” The memo went on to falsely indicate much of the area would become an arid, radioac- state that fortified bunkers had been built which were later tive wasteland for hundreds of generations. To assist these shown to be 30 year old root cellars. In the end, this disinfor- corporations, the BIA conducted a study of the mineral mation served to justify and psyche up agents for an armed resources of the Pine Ridge nation in 1975. An area known confrontation with our camp. On the morning of June 26th, as sheep mountain bombing range was noted to contain we heard gunfire coming from the Jumping Bull home, it large amounts of uranium ore. On June 26, 1975, Tribal was located about a quarter of a mile from our camp. Believ- chairman Richard Wilson was in Washington DC negotiating ing that we were under attack from GOONS we ran towards the transfer of sheep mountain area, one eighth of the Pine the homes, weapons in hand.

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