[Shadow_Group] Day of Mourning Message

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

Day of Mourning (so-called Thanksgiving Day) Message

 

  I refuse to concede to the deceivers of the overlords of this country that they love America and those those who speak out and resist the policies of the overlords are some how disloyal to America. While I do acknowledge that the term America is questionable and the Americas extend from the top of North America to the southern tip of South America, but only those in the dominating country of the Americas are called Americans, that question of words we use is a topic of discussion for a later time. 

  The deceivers of the overlords claim to love America and to be loyal to America means blind acceptance to their actions that they call American interests. I challenge that concept as being a false misrepresentation of what has been our history and the reality of America today. 

  Is America only that which benefits the overlords? Or is America the land and the people who live within what we call America? If America is the land and the people then I say to the deceivers that I do love America because I seek to protect the land of America from the abuses that the greed of the overlords cause it and I seek the end of oppression and exploitation of the people of America by the American overlords. I do not believe the overlords do love America. Rather I believe that the overlords see America as something to exploit in order to increase their wealth. Thus when confronted by the statement from the deceivers, “America love it or leave it”, my response is, I do love America, its land and people and it is you, the overlords who exploit the land and the people, who do not love America and you should pack your bags and leave!

  Today many of us are calling for peace because of another foreign war the overlords have gotten America into. Some wonder why it is that we are still forced to march for peace after so many wars? The answer to that question will be found in history. Columbus did not discover America; he invaded it, not unlike the invasion of Iraq. He and his people tortured and killed the people whose land he invaded in the pursuit of the interests of the overlords of Spain, which at that time was gold, not unlike so-called American interests that of oil. Though some of the deceivers will cry with bleeding hearts that what was done to the Native people of this land long ago was wrong, and they show how believable their words are by celebrating Columbus Day and Thanksgiving every year. 

  From the days of Columbus’s invasion to the invasion of Iraq there has been a policy in the Americas of the overlords using the might of arms to carry out their interests of accumulation of wealth and power. The formula of the overlords, be it in foreign wars or the war of conquest here in America, has always been basically the same. When the overlords see something they want, which they call their interests, that someone else has they first demonize those who have what they want, sometimes by showing their faults or by outright lies, in the minds of the America people. That process is to instill in the minds of the American people that those who stand in the way of American interests are our enemies. Once that is done the overlords have the justification to use whatever force they desire to annihilate the so-called enemy and gain that which they want. 

  To the American people, the overlords demand that they sacrifice, fight and die for interests that do not directly benefit them and to refuse or even to challenge this arrangement is to be seen as disloyal and un-American. Even when the war is fought on the other side of the world the deceivers tell the America people that they are fighting and dieing for their freedom when in fact they are fighting and dieing only for the benefit of the interests of the overlords.

  In the modern world the overlords act in the interest of large corporations. Not only are wars fought for the benefit of these large corporations, but the overlords have signed so-called trade deals, such as NAFTA and so on, and created international organizations in the direct interests of the corporations, such as the WTO, IMF and World Bank, and they sell all this to the American people as being in their interests also. We the American people, how do we benefit from this? Our jobs go some where else where cheaper labor is found, our labor protection is lost, our environmental protections are lost, in other words like the wars we are forced to fight, we always lose went we go along with the interests of the overlords. And if we resist or try to improve our conditions, the overlords have their political police force, the FBI, to suppress us and force us to submit to the power of the overlords. 

  Yes my friends, the FBI is a political police force. The FBI, since it was created, has been used against most every social movement in America. It has been used against the peace movement, the civil rights movement, the labor movement, the environmental movement, against the movements of people of color and many other such movements. If the overlords do really love America as they say then why do they seek to suppress the American people when they seek social change in order to improve their lives? The real reason is that any improvement in the lives of the American people is seen by the 

overlords as a threat to their purpose of maximized accumulation of power and wealth. 

  Let me tell you a little story here. There was a group of people who resisted the conquest of their land by the American overlords. A war was fought and in time a peace treaty was signed, though the treaty did give the American overlords some land, the American overlords signed a document that granted the resisters some of their former land and sovereignty within the boundaries of that land. No sooner than the treaty was signed the army of the overlords took up bases in the resisters land and began to enforce its will upon those people. It was seen that if the resisters culture, religion, identity and even their language could be done away with that in time the overlords could just seize the remaining land with out much resistance. They outlawed many cultural practices, outlawed their religion and sent in missionaries of the overlord’s religion to force these people to convert to it. When a group of people tried to practice their religion they were massacre, children, women and men. They kidnapped the children and placed them in interment camps that they called boarding schools and were not allowed to see their families for years. In these interment schools, their colture, religion and language was beaten out of them. Then the overlords set up a government for them upon the request of oil companies so that mineral rights could be signed. The overlords themselves would run a trust fund that royalties would be placed in because those people, it was said, could not do that for themselves. That trust fund was robed and is the largest financial scandal in the history of America, though few outside of the victims seem to care about it. And to aid the genocide of these people the overlords had a secret force sterilization program.

  The land that these people were forced to live on was land that the overlords had once viewed as worthless land. Later on uranium was found in a section of these people’s land and the overlords wanted that uranium for their weapons of mass destruction and for their nuclear power plants. Knowing that these people would not willingly give up any more of their land and that there were still, even after all they had been through, people on that land that resisted the overlords and held on to their culture, the overlords sent in their political police force with a covert plan to suppress all who may resist the interests of the overlords in stealing the land they wanted for the mining corporations. Some people did resist and then political police force used out right murder, 67 resisters were killed in two years, villages that were seen as strongholds of resisters were invaded and shot up. Many resisters were sent to prisons. One encampment of resisters was set up for a firefight so that it could be destroyed. In that firefight two of the invading political police died as the resisters defended themselves from a murderous attack. Those who defended themselves were called murders by the invaders.  

  This true story did not take place in some foreign land like Iraq. It took place on the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Reservation within the borders that the state of South Dakota claims. The person in charge of the political police force at that time, the head of the local

FBI office, Norman Zigrossi, defended the illegal FBI actions by saying: “Indians are a conquered nation and the FBI is merely acting as a colonial police force.” He went on to say: “When you’re conquered, the people you’re conquered by dictate your future.” How easy that statement can be seen as the policy in Iraq or any other place the interests of the overlords are played out by military force. The wars here at home and in foreign lands are not about liberation and freedom, they are about conquest. It should also be pointed out that the Lakotas were not conquered, but rather a peace treaty was signed that the U.S. government violated. 

  Three of the Native resisters were put on trial for murder. The trial of the first two Native resisters ended with an all white jury finding them not guilty for reason of self-defense. The third Native resister, Leonard Peltier, was caught up in Canada on Feb. 6, 1976. The U.S. Government was able to extradite Leonard by knowing lying to the Canadian courts, that has been proven. Leonard was put on trial and the government intimidated witness, who later made public statements to that fact. Key evidence was fabricated. Evidences was and still is being withheld. Through the appeals process Leonard’s defense team has disproved the government’s case to the point that the government has stated that they don’t know what involvement Leonard may or may not have had in the deaths of the two FBI agents. Though Leonard was converted in his trial as being one of the people who shot the FBI agents, the government now has changed that, without and new trail, to say that Leonard “aided and abetted” in the deaths of the agents by just being there that day.  Given the fact that the first two Native resisters were found not guilty for reason of self-defense, that means Leonard has been locked up in a cage since 1976 for “aiding and abetting” an act of self-defense. 

  Last year the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a statement denying Leonard’s latest appeal, put Leonard’s situation into more truthful terms when it stated: “Much of the government’s 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.” 

  The peace movement and other such movements can never win out in the long run by only resisting each war or social issue at a time. These movements need to learn that it is the long time policies of war and injustice that must be changed in order to stop these wars and injustices. Some times the minds of social activists look at what is happening in foreign lands and over look what has happened in their own backyard. This must change because, I believe, social policy must change at home in order to change elsewhere. 

  Though we do not wish for people to stop all the other things they are doing. We only ask all social activists to realize the important connections between the issues they are working on and the great need to gain real justice for Leonard Peltier. Please help this campaign for justice for Leonard Peltier by coming out for our Feb. 5, 2005 Annual Regional Tacoma March and Rally for Justice, and help bring out all the people that you can.  Please contact us if you can help get out fliers and posters.

  On this Day of Mourning when we remember the victims of the genocide of Native people. I fast as I do every year on this day. I fast also as a means of giving thanks to all that have given so much in the struggle for the well-being of the people. I fast and I continue to work for justice for Leonard as I have for the last 25 years because I do love this land and the people. And I know that there is a power greater than all their weapons and wealth. That is the spirit of the people when it rises up to demand an end to war and injustice.  

 

In The Spirit Of Solidarity        

Arthur J. Miller

Tacoma LPSG      

 

PLEASE POST WIDELY

 

From:

TACOMA LEONARD PELTIER SUPPORT GROUP

P.O. BOX 5464

TACOMA, WA 98415-0464
Tacoma-lpsg at ojibwe.us<mailto:Tacoma-lpsg at ojibwe.us>

bayou at blarg.net<mailto:bayou at blarg.net>

 

ANNOUNCING

 

12TH ANNUAL NORTHWEST REGIONAL

 

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY

WITH LEONARD PELTIER
MARCH AND RALLY FOR JUSTICE

 

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2005. TACOMA, WA

 

MARCH FOR JUSTICE: 12:00 NOON

Portland Ave. Park (on Portland Ave. between E. 24th and E. Fairbanks Ave. Take Portland Ave. exit off I-5 and head east)

 

RALLY FOR JUSTICE:  1:00 PM

U.S. Federal Court House, 1717 Pacific Ave.

 

Program (more to be added later)
Harold Belmont: Elder, Native People’s Alliance With Friends and Allies

Dorothy Ackerman: Lakota Elder, Portland, OR

Aztec Dancers
Matilaja: Yu’Pik/Yakama

Pete Sanchez: Ktunaxa (Kutenai), Drummer

Jim Page: Folk Singer/Activist

Michael One Road: AIM, Portland, OR

Jeanette Bushnell: Anishinaabe

Kerwin Hemlock: Drummer 

Russell Redner:  AIM.

Larry Mosqueda: Olympia Movement for Justice and 
Peace and Olympia CISPES.

Juan Jose Bocanegra: Community organizer and long time Peltier supporter.

Steve Hapy, Jr: Tacoma LPSG

Arthur J. Miller: Tacoma LPSG

NW AIM DRUM
 
FANANCIAL DONATIONS ARE GREATLY NEEDED: We need to raise money for printing fliers, posters and for our mailings. Please send donations to: Tacoma LPSG, P.O. Box 5464, Tacoma, WA 98415-0464 (make checks out to: Tacoma Leonard Peltier Support Group)
 
HELP NEED: We need supporters to pass this message on to e-mail lists, news web sites and to groups, organizations and to your friends. Also we need people to get out fliers by passing them out and/or posting them. You can either make your own flier out of the information in this message or send us a message with your address and we will mail you fliers.

 

CARAVANS FOR JUSTICE (CARPOOLS): You can help by organize transportation for your friends, families and or people in groups that you are involve with to the march and rally. We will again try to organize caravans for justice from the north and the south. If you can help with that please let us know. We will need to have meeting points for the caravans soon. PORTLAND: Last year people in the Portland area talked about organizing a caravan/car pool. Is there anyone who would be interested in organizing one this year? If so please let us know.



  Those who wish to sign up on the NWPeltierSupport e-mail list can do so by sending an e-mail to: nwpeltiersupport-subscribe at lists.riseup.net



 

 

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