i must say it's very frightening when i see government officials armed officials marching through the streets of our capital to convince a civilian president not to correct the civil rights abuses that they themselves have committed present the final ticks of the clinton presidency past pardons granted to former members of congress drug traffickers and billionaire fugitives but there was one case the clinton administration did not address he's an american indian name leonard peltier the f b i has long to determine that he will never go free why would an agency continue to prosecute a man they imprisoned three decades earlier  said vengeance or was it something much more spanning forty years the seventy's began with an earthquake of reform the fires of social change and civil rights intensified as support for the war hit an all time hero youth movements demanding redress in policies for considered subversive and immediate threats to national security president johnson let it be known that the a movement dedicated to ratifying treaty rights and assuring that he quality was more than just another broken promise in their eyes their people had suffered long enough when the american indian and they said back in one nine hundred seventy s the american indian movement was regarded as a terrorist organization by the united states the f b i considered the american movement to be one of the most dangerous organizations in the country and the documents what they put down was a whole list of very lawful activities sent about civil rights jobs housing and justice souter but then they noted that aim was shifting its emphasis towards protecting the earth and to stopping destructive mining operations america's energy demands have grown so rapidly that they now outstrip our energy supplies what is needed now is decisive and responsible action to increase our energy supplies the dozens of companies involved in the billion dollar mining operations of the black hills immediately felt the threat of the american indian movement the departments of interior and justice would a seventy one day siege at wounded knee on the most poverty stricken community in the united states would generate exposure but also infuriate the powers that questioned dick wells and set out to especially the civil rights movement among native americans when you are out there to help protect that land or even two emissions to help the people you are ti you are not worth anything to the cotton mill so your disposable with the law on his side wilson employed a vigilante police force to inhabit the reservation and control those who didn't agree with his policies and he was one of the questions right people he wasn't leader but if he said get this done people believe that they better get it done by they would get fired i mean on the spot they literally created a climate of terror they killed as many as people as they could and prosecute as many people as they could the ongoing beatings harassment and murders of traditional people escalated there were people who were killed including a close friend of mine including one of my students killed by a federal agent it is hard to are shots in the distance the pine ridge indian reservation law according to still sketchy and unconfirmed reports two f b i agents were killed while trying to serve arrest warrants on indians of the pi and ridge indian reservation in south dakota when we heard that there were federal agents that were killed this is one of the worst fears that we had had to that this would happen because we knew at that point all hell was going to break loose on the reservation the people would suffer more than ever nobody cared very much if a native american was killed there was that was not that big a deal but you kill somebody from the dominant society especially somebody who holds a federal badge and all hell is going to break loose violence begets violence and irish hopes that the subjects responsible for the death these two fine young men shall render we have no mission of retribution the f b i embarked on one of the largest criminal investigations in their history determined to find the killer of special agents ronald williams and jack kohler the murder of joe stunts was simply ignored it three men who were shot in the head why is an indian's life worth any less than age b i says is looking for sixteen persons in connection with yesterday's fatal shooting on south dakota's pine ridge indian reservation the rage of the f b i escalated in the weeks following over two hundred agents infiltrated the reservation it would be looking for certain people a day were asking kids i'll give you a dollar if you tell me were some people's houses were ransacked there was no there was no pretense of having a search warrant they went through people's houses looking for things breaking things there's a lot of anger and again more palpable fear on the reservation but this time fear of drek lee federal marshal alongside dino butler bob roberto and jimmy eagle in february one thousand nine hundred seventy six leonard peltier is captured in vancouver canada where he decides to fight extradition in fear of an unfair trial in the united states do you know butler and bob robideau were arrested and tried in cedar rapids iowa evidence exposing f b i misconduct and their abuse of power on the reservation was admissible during the hearings the jury was able to deliberate based on the facts of the case but also on an understanding of the tensions on the reservation leading up to the agent's deaths that admission would infuriate the f b i in cedar rapids iowa trial and to assure that this would never happen again charges immediately were dropped against jimmy eagle so the full prosecutive weight of the federal government could be placed against leonard peltier in december peltier was extradited back to the united states based on affidavit signed by a myrtle poor bear claiming that healthier had confessed to her months later these very affidavits were proven fabricated and signed by poor bear as she was held peltier's trial was scheduled to begin the government demanded a venue change to fargo north dakota where f b i friendly judge paul benson resided the trial opened with an all white sequestered jury from the start rulings from the bench strongly favored the government myrtle poor bear was not allowed to testify and the affidavits used to extradite peltier were suddenly determined to be not relevant crucial evidence exposing the tensions and f b i misconduct on the reservation were withheld from the jury in the midst of the trial a new affidavit was presented to judge benson a jury member had expressed extreme racism toward american indians and those close to her felt that she would be unable to put those racist feelings aside in a closed door hearing judge benson decided to let the trial continue i remember repeatedly it by the end of the day feeling fairly depressed about what was going on we were getting terrible rulings from the judge he was letting the government do whatever basically they want just based on the sheer volume of documents that were provided  is defined as attorneys how can you say he had a fair trial how could his defense attorneys prepare an adequate defense and why did the fact that thousands and thousands of pages where with all the nine hundred seventy seven and continue to be feelings of being powerless despite the hundreds of cartridge casings found in the area of the crime scene the prosecution concentrated on just one it was fired from an a r fifteen rifle they linked to peltier the jury went to deliberation with no understanding of the violent tensions between natives and the federal government or the illegal actions by the f b i in indian country physical evidence was fabricated the response has been so wh years after peltier's conviction a key piece of documentation was discovered through the freedom of information act this document previously withheld from the defense proved that the cartridge casing found near the agent's bodies did not in fact match the rifle affiliated with peltier the most important aspect of the government's prosecution was debunked so here you had previously suppressed ballistics evidence that showed that peltier didn't do it and so even if you can then prove that the government fabricated a case against you and targeted you politically you can can trial it's terrifying the government was allowed to switch its conviction from first degree murder to aiding and abetting now thirty six years after his conviction peltier remains in federal prison later it is treated differently in prison than he is arrest the f b i is the higher he in the prison system they have one or two aides assigned and they do call the shots his treatment through the bureau of prisons is an ongoing harassment and the agenda against him is just as strong today as it was thirty years ago there are forces that want him removed from the face of the earth and will not stop until they attempt to do so it's pretty obvious there is an peltier case that we lose our rights there was a time when we believed in our government we had faith that justice would prevail and our constitution would be followed and defended by those we elect but decades ago this dream was lost in the offices of the white house and the halls of the f b i we now live in an age where the very individuals who advocate illegal operations against civil rights movements stay in power for decades and then force those same policies against the movements of today we may dream of change and hope that justice exists but as long as an innocent man languish is in the jails of the united states it will all be thing welcome back to thirty frames most people have not heard of that case forty three years later is still in prison which is unbelievable he was convicted of double murder then they put the but you know what justice means that just that just us because you look at look at america look at look for america was back in the seventy's and we we had come full circle as black and brown anybody they stayed on the reservation people like dick those people came over there to watch the end of the between the indians in the federal agents in the seventy's people seem to forget it's not our country people of color be african people people in the african diaspora indigenous people of other lands they all seem to have a name for the white man with indians have a name for the w man but they don't refer to his color they don't refer to his race but they but the name they gave to the white man i forget the name i have the food writer but it refers to the written by white me that is correct that is correct and generally it is a too of control all religion is a tool of control yes yes yes yes colonise other white countries we colonize indigenous countries and where we colonized central america south america was african countries but we colonized countries right why would you do that and that's the thing he did me the first four years of obama's administration he spent trying to reach across the aisle but but why you know he's been in the senate for years you know how white america is what did you think it was going to be different we became friends and and and and know all this crap about politics and yet he had he had a yeah yeah but there are certain positions that are  where you have an end and and we've gone back to the days of the robber baron right we've gone back to the days of children dying in the cold hands and working children right little children work in fifteen sixteen hours a day when you have now lawsuits in place where it's estimated that down as it is now and i'm a couple thousand of children who all were held subsidized housing or the projects they're going to ask you they're going to fix you not my money that's crazy right right and the only way the only way you would have all undocumented member undocumented anything living in your house is probably because that person is a family member that's exactly what he would do you do what you do not kick about right read write it you know what you look at of all places one of the most amazing places i've been in this world is i thought now to someplace i would never go back australia right australia i see in australia the  and right but we don't know we're in africa how are you going to deport what happens dads worse than deporting us back to africa that's like saying we're going to go on the reservation  fine but but the resonation is safe until the white man fast the way to make money right any bum rush is the place and raise whatever you can to extract what it is the me that that was the whole beef parachute right why was the f b i agent even there right right there you don't bring the government on then that wasn't right that wasn't a major crime we've had on this show we've had members of the original black panther party right  vote to black people of changing the rules about voting when you had a nation it is not on the nation of islam was taken people out of prison right redirected their entire lives and putting them on a these stang's had anything to do with actually shooting it out right right right because they weren't there when i say they were all in intended on bring in power and power to people who had been denied any access to power and and and the ability to move forward within the confines of the american system but you know what white supremacy is so strong yeah that it didn't back then in the was planted right after the sixty's right because we had become complacent we actually believed and we said this last week that we tend to fight battles we as i'm an attorney i'm an eternal optimist but i look at this and i'm afraid that we're not going to come back i'm not an optimist or or a pendulum is going i am a realist but to think how ok it would take the act of something for us to come back to get back with the we're too old well almost too far gone and this is the this is the problem this is the problem when you when you talk about places like mozambique when you talk about places like zimbabwe very very difficult to extricate yourself from the confines of colonization the better home for the world is the best hope for the world lies from those people who are part of of of those aspects of the world who are african who are african people who are indigenous people and who live and grow up and go to school up a fight just it's just been crazy like what like gambia and then i'm like what the hell is going on all of that these people think that it's ok that they see it in america and take it back to their doing work where when we and we make a mistake we make a mistake in doing it because we see people who come to america who have social ety eight more than half of the population more than half of the population with living well below the poverty line right now you're talking about a country that in terms of resources they got having everything that's why we sit here we're not here just to talk we're here to offer you solutions and you guys if you take we're not trying to save the world we're just trying to help you educate yourself and become self sufficient that can only be done through generations to come i'm a loser you go to do anything but what i'm doing now as i said before the food is that we brought you today never was pretty much that's why i am have been proved to be able to go to places and get information dead a lot of people don't have access to share this for quite like i said we are in a war and the war is not just like for jobs war is for civil war drugs is real and and and it's not against white people but it is against white supremacy right there's a big difference there is a big difference like i said what is it one of one of the most affective so just white supremacy was morocco bamma right