Greeting Sisters and Brothers: I have been asked to write a SOLIDARITY statement to everyone about the Camp of the Sacred Stones on Standing Rock. Thank you for this great honor. I must admit it is very difficult for me to even begin this statement as my eyes get so blurred from tears and my heart swells with pride, as chills run up and down my neck and back. I’m so proud of all of you young people and others there.
I am grateful to have survived to see the rebirth of the united and undefeated Sioux Nation at Standing Rock in the resistance to the poisonous pipeline that threatens the life source of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. It is an honor to have been alive to see this happen with you young people. You are nothing but awesome in my eyes.
It has been a long, hard road these 40 years of being caged by an inhuman system for a crime I did not commit. I could not have survived physically or mentally without your support, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart and the depths of my soul for encouraging me to endure and maintain a spiritual and legal resistance.
We are now coming to the end of that road, soon arriving at a destination which will at least in part be determined by you. Along the lines of what Martin Luther King said shortly before his death, I may not get there with you, but I only hope and pray that my life, and if necessary, my death, will lead my Native peoples closer to the Promise Land.
I refer here not to the Promise Land of the Christian bible, but to the modest promises of the Treaties our ancestors secured from enemies bent on their destruction; in order to enable us to survive as distinct peoples and live in a dignified manner. Our elders knew the value of written words and laws to the white man, even as they knew the lengths the invaders would go to try to get around them.
Our ancestors did not benefit from these Treaties, but they shrewdly and persistently negotiated the best terms they could get, to protect us from wars which could only end in our destruction, no matter how courageously and effectively we fought. No, the Treaties were to the benefit of the Americans, this upstart nation needed the Treaties to put a veneer of legitimacy on its conquest of the land and its rebellion against its own countrymen and king.
It should be remembered that Standing Rock was the site of the 1974 conference of the international indigenous movement that spread throughout the Americas and beyond, the starting point for the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The UNDRIP was resisted by the United States for three decades until its adoption by the UN in 2007. The US was one of just four nations to vote against ratification, with President Obama acknowledging the Declaration as an aspirational document without binding force under international law.
While some of the leaders of this movement are veterans of the 1970s resistance at Pine Ridge; they share the wisdom of our past elders in perceiving the moral and political symbolism of peaceful protest today is as necessary for us as was necessary for the people of Pine Ridge in the 1970s. The 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee ended with an agreement to investigate human rights and treaty abuses; that inquiry and promise were never implemented nor honored by the United States. The Wounded Knee Agreement should be honored with a Truth and Reconciliation Commission established to thoroughly examine the US government’s role in the “Reign of Terror” on Pine Ridge in the 1970s. This project should be coordinated with the cooperation of the many international human rights organizations that have called for my immediate and unconditional release for more than four decades.
I have to caution you young people to be careful, for you are up against a very evil group of people whose only concern is to fill their pockets with even more gold and wealth. They could not care less how many of you they have to kill or bury in a prison cell. They don’t care if you are a young child or an old grandmother, and you better believe they are and have been recruiting our own people to be snitches and traitors. They will look to the drunks, the addicts, and child molesters, those who prey on our old and our children; they look for the weak-minded individuals. You must remember to be very cautious about falsely accusing people based more on personal opinion than on evidence. Be smart.
I call on all my supporters and allies to join the struggle at Standing Rock in the spirit of peaceful spiritual resistance and to work together to protect Unci Maka, Grandmother Earth. I also call upon my supporters and all people who share this Earth to join together to insist that the US complies with and honors the provisions of international law as expressed in the UNDRIP, International Human Rights Treaties and the long-neglected Treaties and trust agreements with the Sioux Nation. I particularly appeal to Jill Stein and the Green Parties of the US and the world to join this struggle by calling for my release and adopting the UNDRIP as the new legal framework for relations with indigenous peoples.
Finally, I also urge my supporters to immediately and urgently call upon President Obama to grant my petition for clemency, to permit me to live my final years on the Turtle Mountain Reservation. Scholars, political grassroots leaders, humanitarians and Nobel Peace Laureates have demanded my release for more than four decades. My Clemency Petition asks President Obama to commute, or end, my prison term now in order for our nation to make progress healing its fractured relations with Native communities. By facing and addressing the injustices of the past, together we can build a better future for our children and our children’s children.
Again, my heartfelt thanks to all of you for working together to protect the water. Water is Life.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
LRInspire 
Wow. I hope Obama does what you ask. Stand strong, your words are powerful. You are a very wise man.
Dear Leonard. Your message reached my heart and tears spring to my eyes. Yes…we are rising and are granted to live to wittness the rebirth of humanity!!! One thing my heart longs to share with you. Jesus was not a Christian, while in the body he was as indigenous as can be, born in the craddle of the Essene people. I say because I understand that the New Jerusalem, the promised land, the New Earth, Shambala, the Good ways of the indigenous peoples….it is all the same. I live in ‘the old world’, waking up in a sleeping nation, where the white brother has forgotten who he is and where he comes from. But our world is collapsing, and more and more of us wake up in the realisation that our world is not the earth; that our culture was one of the first to be destroyed. we are finding our way back to our roots, our connection with grandmother earth and her waters. we stand up with standing rock and find our place to hold. our ancestors have been waiting long, as standing rocks traveling with the earth through the ages. waiting to welcome us back home. I know this is just the beginning and we have a path to travel…but we will! I pray for the day that weapons and misusing oil will be banned to the history books. I don’t know if we will live in the body to see the day, but we do see the dawn of this new day, where the old life, in connection with Creator and Sacred will receive the Peace that descends upon us. I honour you, and thank you for the immense contribution your life is to the awakening of humanity. I bow for you.
In love
Irene Hadjidakis – van Schagen
I may only share 1% native American blood but my heart is with your cause. I believe this land should be shared any only people should benefit and not corporations.
FREE LEONARD PELTIER
Thank you for this statement, a great chronological timeline of historical evidence.
You kept notes during your improsonment, or gathered from your mind, a clear hope for Indigenous people, peaceful, representing their loving work as earth,water, and air, and peaceful heart protectors. With the tribes of the earth uniting, those who care for the environment have had the finest educators at Standing Rock North Dakota.
I hope you are released to see dances and pow wows again, the decorative ti pis, and Mesa Verde. I hope you are asked to be ambassador and travel the world, and reinvigorate nature.
My dear Leonard Peltier, how I can imagine you must have suffered! Now indeed the time has come to make a stand and a big change… I wish for you that the time now has come to sit in peace and enjoy the fruits of your work!
Love and light, you are protected and loved! Namaste, Erica Mannee
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Leonard, you remain top of my list
Until your free
With your family
Love
Freedom
For You
Bless you, dear brother in this time of great upheaval. I want to sign the petition to free you at last, but I can’t find out how. The great people at Standing Rock are standing for more than just one place, but for all peoples everywhere on Turtle Island who feel as they do about the black snakes all over this land. Your advice seems so good to me. Thank you for warning the young people with such wise words. I hope they heed them. I hope they do not engage in violence as then these others will find reason to wipe them out. I love this land. I love the people. I send love to you.
Dear Brother
I welcome the day we will stand in a sea of people to hear your wisdom in person under
A bright Sun and send the Thank You Song together to Creator!! Every Sundance I asked
Tunkashila that it be your dance too and all those incarcerated that would want to join our sacred circle in one Heart one Mind one Spirit. Sometimes when it got hard I felt
Relatives dancing beside us for support and wondered if it were you. We danced for this
Generation and cry now in wonder to see them. We Want to see you Free! To walk
The Oceti Oyate road lined with flags and feel the amazing Love Magic of the camp…
We picture you there, because all along your inspiration has been with us……
Mitakuye Oyasin
My older brother. I hear your words and encourage you to keep your view strong. You are not going unnoticed. The Sweatlodge, drumming and preys are strong for you. UNDRIP will be learned and school among our youth and elders. I love you for your looking out for our mother earth. peace with you.
Leonard Peltier we at #DemocracyWatchNews (@dwatchnews @dwmnews_na) discussed your plea for clemency during a recent press briefing. You have our Support, Solidarity, and Coverage! Your struggle is now and forever legendary, for your Indigenous Nations’ and All who aspire to Social Justice and Human Rights globally! Your message Solidarity to Water Protectors at #StandingRock to #Detroit, #Flint and the #Resistance is of #BloodOaths and #Unity!
¡My Highest Regards Brother Leonard Peltier!
Michael J. Buell (1/13/2017)
Democracy Watch News Correspondent
buell003@cougars.csusm.edu
democracywatchmedianews@gmail.come
@buell003
Leonard Peltier we at #DemocracyWatchNews (@dwatchnews @dwmnews_na) discussed your plea for clemency during a recent press briefing. You have our #Support, #Solidarity, and Coverage! Your struggle is now and forever legendary, for your #Indigenous Nations’ and All who aspire to #SocialJustice and #HumanRights Globally! Your message of “Solidarity to Water Protectors at #StandingRock” echos to #Detroit, #Flint and the #Resistance. It is a message of #BloodOaths and #Unity! A Celebration of Tactics & Reconciliations to Empower a transcendence beyond the suffering of the 70’s resistance and upon #Divinity achieve your #Dreams, our dreams and #Destiny!
¡My Highest Regards Brother Leonard Peltier!
Michael J. Buell (1/13/2017)
Democracy Watch News Correspondent
buell003@cougars.csusm.edu
democracywatchmedianews@gmail.com
@buell003
Obama you are loved so much please make sure all the indigenous Americans lenord Pelletier and red fawn and everyone’s from Lakota freed and records expunged!❤️ Thank you Mr. Obama
Obama, this should have been done a long time ago. Free Leonard Peltier while you still can..
From France, Mr Obama, you still have time to do a good deed, please free Leonard Peltier, we would honor you for this
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Leonard, your path to freedom has always been and always will be through the parole system; the path you have chosen has only led to your continued incarceration. To qualify for parole, you must acknowledge your crimes, show genuine remorse, and ask forgiveness from your victims’ families. You must also cooperate in the on-going murder investigation of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. You say you were her friend; you know who was involved. It’s time to be a man. Honor the truth and it will set you free.
In the Spirit of Coler and Williams
Sadly, Obama showed no courage or compassion in this case and denied hope. Just one more broken promise, but Leonard’s successors are boldly standing up today from Standing Rock to Sells AZ, and fighting for Indigenous Rights around the globe.
Please please grant clemency to Leonard. He has suffered for 40 years for a crime he did not commit. Supporters have begged for his release only to see him used as a scapegoat because the Natives are fighting the government to stand by their treaties go honorably.please order clemency. If you do nothing to gain the American peoples understanding of Your humanity and caring for the “forgotten” do this #
HELP FIGHTING THE……. EVIL EMPIRE
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1667884443504891&substory_index=0&id=100008500545670
Words of a loving man to his People! Our ears are taxed by untruths of the government of this land. They’ve not followed nor abided by their own rules and laws. They are not useful nor beneficial. Our LeonardPeltier is a Great Man, I Pray for He, You n I to walk victorious for the future of OUR CHILDREN’S CHILDREN! We stand UNITED! Peace to ALL!
Powerful words my brother Leonard! I keep you in my prayers and smudge everyday!