'free LEONARD PELTIER' Trumbullplex (Anarchist housing collective) Detroit, Michigan, March 2009 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution

On February 6th an International Day of Action has been called to mark American Indian Movement activist Leonard Peltier’s 40th year of imprisonment. A ticker can be seen on his legal defense committee’s website counting down the last days of President Obama’s term in office. They are calling upon the President to provide clemency to Peltier, initiate a congressional investigation of the FBI’s misconduct in Indian Country and against AIM, and in Peltier’s case specifically, the release of tens of thousands of case documents.

However, many questions have arisen in the past 10 years many questions regarding Peltier’s role as a security enforcer for AIM by the family of Anna Mae Aquash, a young leader in AIM from the Micmac Nation whose body was discovered nearly 40 years ago on February 24, 1976 on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

In 1975, Peltier, a member of the Anishinabe (Ojibway) tribe and then AIM security chief and bodyguard to AIM leader Dennis Banks (also Anishinabe), took part in a shootout that resulted in the death of two Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agents Jack R. Coler and Ronald A. Williams. The agents had come to the Jumping Bull Compound looking for Jimmy Eagle who had been accused of stealing boots, not a crime that the FBI has jurisdiction over on the reservation.

FBI Wanted Poster for Leonard Peltier

Peltier fled to Canada and his cousin Bob Robideau and Dino Butler who were also present at the shootout were tried without him. Robideau and Butler were found not guilty on grounds of self-defense.

After Peltier was finally extradited under an affidavit (falsely, it was later recanted) and returned to the United States to stand trial, he endured a more difficult trial than his cousin and Butler had faced, and was convicted in 1977 and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment. He has lost repeated appeals, the latest in 2006 despite being represented pro bono by former United States Attorney General Ramsey Clark.

Amnesty International in their overview of Peltier’s case states that they ”believe that political factors may have influenced the way in which the case was prosecuted.” They quote Judge Gerald Heaney, who presided over Peltier’s 1986 appeal hearing, who in a letter to the late Senator Daniel Inouye, former Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, wrote that he believed, “the FBI used improper tactics in securing Peltier’s extraction from Canada and in otherwise investigating and trying the Peltier case…Although our Court decided that these actions were not grounds for reversals, they are, in my view, factors that merit consideration in any petition for leniency filed.”

A who’s who of celebrities who have stood by Peltier in his fight for clemency. These include Harry Belafonte, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Brown and most famously, Robert Redford who narrated and executive produced the acclaimed 1992 documentary film “Incident at Oglala: The Leonard Peltier Story.”


WHO IS LEONARD PELTIER from Giuliana Dieni on Vimeo.

Redford focuses not on whether Peltier is guilty, but makes a very convincing case that he did not receive a fair trial. Particularly compelling is the examination of the ballistics testimony. The film also provides a lot of background on the poverty and violence that were plaguing the Oglala Lakota people on Pine Ridge and of the tension between traditional, grassroots tribal members and the establishment leadership of Dick Wilson and his “Guardians of the Oglala Nation” (GOONs) which led to AIM’s occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973 to take a stand for the Oglala people against a repressive regime.

Anna Mae with Nogeeshik Aquash at Wounded Knee in 1973

Recent revelations from an unexpected source, the trial of fellow AIM leader, Anna Mae Aquash’s murders have painted a different picture of Peltier’s role in the organization. In testimony, four different AIM members, including his cousin Robideau and Butler say that it was Peltier who interrogated Aquash and participated in “snitch jacketing” her as an FBI informant that led to her death.

Aquash was accused in June of 1975 in Farmington, New Mexico at the AIM National Convention of being an FBI informer. She was subsequently questioned by Bob Robideau, Dino Butler and Leonard Peltier. In an interview with journalist Minnie Two Shoes, AIM member Iris Thundercloud claims Peltier stuck a pistol in Aquash's mouth during the interrogation.

Darlene (Kamook) Nichols (then common-law wife of AIM leader Dennis Banks) testified in the 2004 trial of Arlo Looking Cloud for the death of Anna Mae Aquash that it was generally known  in AIM circles that Peltier had pointed a gun at Aquash’s head when he was interrogating her about being an FBI informant. In interviews with journalists Paul DeMain and Minnie Two Shoes, Nichols and her sister, Bernie Lafferty, both made further claims that while traveling with Peltier in Marlon Brando’s motor home in 1975, he told them that he did kill the FBI agents. These were later corroborated by other AIM members independently.

Aquash and Kamook Nichols handcuffed in 1975 by federal marshal

Paul DeMain, publisher and managing editor of News From Indian Country and journalist Minnie Two Shoes answered the call from Vernon Bellecourt, AIM co-founder in 1994 to look into Aquash’s unsolved murder. What the two Native American journalists found, however—published in a series of penetrating investigative pieces over the next 10 years—set them at odds with Bellecourt and led to the conviction of Aquash’s murderer, John Graham, and an accomplice Looking Cloud. The investigation also forced DeMain, who is Anishinabe like Peltier, to end his support for fellow tribal member’s release from prison and calls for clemency.

“I was in support of him (Peltier) for 25 years, I don’t support his release now. There have been too many lies and too much finger-pointing. They even tried to frame Kamook as being an FBI agent. There is no remorse for the loss of human life. We should respect even our enemies as another human being.”

Peltier came out in support of Graham initially, saying he could not support the incarceration of another Native American man. His cousin, Robideau, who was head of his defense committee pressured Peltier to issue a statement distancing himself from Graham. This led to a falling out between the two men. Peltier resumed his support of Graham and Robideau resigned.

After Graham was convicted, Peltier agreed to settle a defamation lawsuit he had pursued against DeMain. DeMain was simply made to issue the statement that he did not believe Peltier had received a fair trial in his conviction of the FBI agents’ deaths and that he did not believe that Peltier had any involvement in the death of Aquash.

However, today DeMain says he no longer agrees with those statements based on evidence that has arisen since. Also, Peltier’s attorney in the libel suit, Barry Bachrach, has since quit as Peltier’s counsel and now believes he should not receive clemency.

Aquash with her daughters and a relative

Anna Mae Aquash’s daughter, Denise Pictou Maloney says she talked to Peltier’s late cousin Robideau—who died in 2009—over a span of five years and met him face to face at the court trials in South Dakota of her mother’s murderer. She says, “He (Robideau) wanted to keep alive what AIM meant even if it was contradictory to its history. I told him, you can’t ignore the horrific atrocities they were involved in and simply able to re-invent themselves as activists.”

“Peltier called her his sister in his letters to me,” Maloney recalls, “He promised to research her case when he got out. He sent me a letter immediately when I began investigating my mother’s murder not to trust the FBI and to be careful of what they are telling me. I hadn’t talked to any FBI agents I’d only talked to AIM members. The FBI was only the conduit that put the trial up. All of the testimony we heard at trial was testimony from AIM members.”

When asked if she believes Peltier put a gun to her mother’s mouth she said, “Yes, I do believe it. Because she told family members when she came home that they were questioning her, interrogating her. Bob Robideau told me specifically that he interrogated her at gunpoint and Minnie Two Shoes heard it from four sources. This was a regular thing that happened. He did do it to other people.”

Maloney believes her mother was targeted for standing up and calling out the corruption of certain AIM leaders. Testimony by AIM members also claim Aquash saw the murder of Ray Robinson, a black civil rights leader at Wounded Knee by AIM members and that she heard Peltier’s confession to the murder of the FBI agents. Both of these further put her at risk for elimination.

Leonard Peltier’s most recent petition for release on parole was denied in 2009, and may not be eligible for consideration again until 2024. Reports of Peltier’s ill health (he may have an abdominal aortic aneurism) have increased calls for his release.

For Aquash’s daughter the promise that AIM once held to help Indigenous people that her mother fought and died for remains paramount and worth fighting for but first, it begins with honesty about the past. When asked what such honesty might provide for her people, she said, “Freedom”—ironically, the same thing Peltier is seeking for himself.

By Jacqueline Keeler

Last week, 12 Native American extras walked off the set of Adam Sandler’s new $80 million film “Ridiculous Six,” a comedy remake of the classic western “The Magnificent Seven.” These Native Americans took a stand and refused to participate in a film that denigrated American Indian women and featured Apache characters with names like “Beaver’s Breath” and “Wears-No-Bra.” Netflix, which is financing Sandler’s film defended the film in a public statement to the media saying, “The movie has ridiculous in the title for a reason: because it is ridiculous. It is a broad satire of Western movies and the stereotypes they popularized, featuring a diverse cast that is not only part of— but in on—the joke.”

 Throughout American history, Native women have been characterized primarily by the
stereotypes of the “dirty Squaw” and the “Indian Princess”—both of whom are sexually available to white men. One as a beast of burden and the other to bestow legitimacy to colonists’ claims to the land. Sandler’s film not only plays heavily on the stereotypes of the “dirty Squaw” to score jokes but stages some of the most graphic scenes ever filmed sexualizing Native women and depicting Native culture as inherently low and dirty.

This can be seen in a two-year-old copy of the script leaked by Gawker, which features a scene where a naked Apache woman described as “Sexy Woman” displays herself to a couple of white men who make jokes about her. She is greeted as “Sits-On-Face” by Sandler’s character and then she squats and urinates on camera while smoking a “peace pipe.” According to a Native American extra who did not walk off the set, this scene was actually filmed.
A copy of an actual page from the shooting script was featured in Indian Country Today and the scene’s running joke was that Apaches do not know what toilet paper is and have to learn personal hygiene from the Americans. The opposite was, in fact, true as Native Americans were often noted by Europeans for their strange practices of bathing and unusually high levels of personal hygiene than was the rule at the time in Europe.

Keeler created this meme and posted it on Instagram

The promotion of these outdated stereotypes is particularly harmful considering a 2010 Department of Justice report that found Native American women have two and a half times the rate of rape and murder of any ethnic group of women in the country. And the report found that in nearly 70 percent of the assaults on Native women the assailants were white men. This is unusual. Most women in the United States are assaulted by men of their own race/ethnicity. If it were not for the additional assaults by white men, Native women’s rates of murder and rape would be closer to the average rate of other American women.

On many Native American reservations, gaps in jurisdiction mean no one is prosecuted for these assaults. A recent revision in the Violence Against Women’s Act (2013) expanded tribal jurisdiction over non-Indians for Domestic Violence offenses but the law is still only being implemented.

The promotion of these outdated stereotypes is particularly harmful considering Native American women have two and a half times the rate of rape and murder of any ethnic group of women in the country. ... in nearly 70 percent of the assaults on Native women the assailants were white men.

For many Native American women, the question is not if, but when women in their family will be raped. Lisa Brunner, an advocate for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in her community, the White Earth Nation in Minnesota, told The Guardian, “I call it hunting — non-natives come here hunting. They know they can come onto our lands and rape us with impunity because they know that we can’t touch them.” Tragically, her teenaged daughter was also gang-raped by four men from off the reservation before the new VAWA law was passed.

On her Facebook page, a former Miss Navajo Nation (and the first African- American/Navajo winner) wrote, “We have to control how we are satirized and make fun of ourselves. We need to stop allowing Hollywood to perpetuate unoriginal, antiquated, racist stereotypes that have long been used by media in general, or since the settlers first made contact with us ... As for Netflix defending Adam Sandler and his movie, this shows that they themselves care little about being original or creative when it concerns Indigenous people.”

Native Americans protested Sandler’s film and supported the 12 actors who walked via social media using hashtags like #WalkOffNetflix, #NotYourHollywoodIndian, #NotYourSquaw, and #CancelRacism.” Many canceled their Netflix accounts as well and signed Change.org petitions.

 When I was in college and studying film history, we studied the Comanche character “Look” from the “The Searchers.” The middle-aged “squaw” was the comic relief in an otherwise serious film. When she is kicked down the hill, John Wayne laughs. I found this photo of her from the film (see above) and as I looked into her face and I see the serious and proud faces of the Navajo grandmothers behind her, dressed much like my grandmother did, their skin darkened from years of caring for their herds of sheep and cattle and for their families. I see the confidence these Native women possess and strength. All of which is missing in Sandler’s script. Someday, I hope to the world gets to see us as we really are, in all our complexity, lest we continue to be the butt of jokes in $80 million films.

Originally published in ScenariosUSA

Originally published in XOJane. I was also interviewed about this in June by MTV: Here's Why You Shouldn't Wear a Native American Headdress.

While I appreciate Pharrell Williams’ 15-word apology last week for posing on the cover of Elle UK in a headdress precious to my people, I wonder how is this still happening? How can he NOT know how Native American people feel about the misuse of our culture?

From my MTV interview on Pharrell's Appropriation

I am shocked that any American handed a headdress would wear it. The headdress represents our leaders who were hunted down and murdered by the U.S. military of this country. It is not a fashion accessory it is an honor and a symbol of the sovereignty of the Plains tribes and the authority vested in the people to choose their own leaders. It should only be worn in circumstances that a head of state would participate in as a representative of these nations. This headdress should NOT be worn when posing for a fashion magazine cover next to titles screaming out details of Keira Knightly’s love life.

There are photos at the Smithsonian of my ancestor Owl Man wearing his headdress when he met President Andrew Johnson at the White House in 1868. As a Dakota, I would never presume to wear this regalia and even tribal members who have been so honored would never wear it on the cover of a fashion magazine.

Saswe Deloria (Owl Man) at the White House with Yankton Dakota delegation in 1868. Small man on balcony, President Andrew Johnson. Miami tribal delegates on balcony on the left of the picture.

And yet, when Native people speak out they are often met by claims of Native ancestry by those who are disrespecting our heritage. Whether it is Washington Redsk*ns fans, Chief Wahoo supporters, celebrities appropriating our culture for glamour shots or hipsters at art festivals, it’s always the same claim: “But I am part Native.” This notion that some fabled Native ancestry allows Americans of all colors some right to our cultural heritage and a voice that exceeds actual citizens of Native Nations underscores so much of the dialogue.

In this case, outrage over Pharrell’s misuse of regalia was met with outcries that he is part Native American thus it should not be an issue. Despite the fact that even if an enrolled member of a tribe who had earned the headdress wore it on the cover of a fashion magazine they would be lambasted for it by their own people. It’s simply not appropriate.

This focus on ancestry reflects United States’ policy of measuring our blood quantum as a way of reducing our numbers—another pathway to eventual elimination of the indigenous population. The hope was that we would all eventually have too little “blood” to qualify for citizenship in our own nations and tribes would then disappear and trouble U.S. claims to the land no longer.

It also demonstrates complete ignorance of our actual political status as citizens of our respective nations—all 566 of them. These nations are still sovereign and exist within the borders of the United States. They still retain jurisdiction over their lands and the states within whose borders they lay have no jurisdiction over them or right to tax because our nations occupy a status higher than that of states. We are sovereign nations that persist within the United States and much of U.S. policy has been guided by an interest in masking that reality. Some of our nations issue passports that their citizens can travel with internationally.

So, being Native American means being a citizen of a nation that pre-existed the establishment of the United States. You either are one or you are not. There is no “part” citizen of the United States, is there?

The taking of our identity, our regalia, the silencing of our voices, our point of view, is fully inline with the historical nature of the genocide of Native people that is the legacy of Manifest Destiny. This cultural taking also causes great damage to Native people. Our youth have to deal with folks like Pharrell and go through the complicated emotions of liking his music, wanting to feel represented by his art and then distanced by his stereotyping of their culture.

In the age of information literally at our fingertips I can’t believe Pharrell did not look at that headdress being offered to him by a British stylist and say, “Wait a minute. That doesn’t feel right.” And quickly research it on the Internet where in minutes he could find hundreds of articles written on the subject, many by actual Native Americans.

Navajo Code Talkers being honored at a Washington Redsk*ns game in November 2013.

I've had the good fortune of being asked to be an editor at The Good Man Project a site I've been admiring for some time now. Joanna Schroeder the Executive Editor brought me on and I am so excited to share the work of Native writers and thinkers with a larger audience.

Native Seahawks fans (and one Broncos fan) enjoying the Super Bowl without Redface & cultural appropriation!