Leonard Peltier and Eddie Hatcher: Native American injustice in the U.S. justice system

Leonard Peltier AND EDDIE HATCHER

THE NATIVE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE WITH THE U.S. JUSTICE SYSTEM

The objective of this work is to provide two cultural or historic examples of injustice in the treatment of Native American individuals and will identify the tribe or the individual's name as well as the geographical or historical context. The pros and cons of the situation will be analyzed and stated.

Leonard Peltier is a Native American who is imprisoned and is considered to be a political prisoner by Amnesty International, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, National Congress of American Indians, and the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Rev. Jesse Jackson. Leonard Peltier was tried and convicted for the deaths of two FBI agents who were killed in 1975 at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation during a shoot-out. North Carolina Indian activist Eddie Hatcher is another example of the injustice allotted to Native American individuals exampled by their treatment within the 'justice' system of the United States. While the U.S. has spoken out against countries that commit violations to human rights and hold political prisoners the U.S. has itself committed these violations with an estimated 100 political prisoners being held in the United States and all of these stated to be "recognized as Political Prisoner's by National Organizations and reputable leaders and religious groups." (Burrows, 1994)

THE CASE OF LEONARD PELTIER

In 1973 a three-year period of political violence began on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation with the tribal chairman hiring vigilantes or self-titled "GOONS" to run the American Indian Movement (AIM) off of the reservation. During the violence over 60 traditional tribal and AIM members were murdered and many more hurt. The evidence seemed to point to the GOONS as being responsible for the largest part of the crimes yet nothing was done to stop the ongoing violence. THE GOONS were supplied with intelligence on AIM members by the FBI who also supplied the GOONS with ammunition. The traditional people at Pine Ridge South Dakota asked Leonard, who was a gifted organizer for AIM to go to Pine Ridge and watch over those who were the victims of violence. Leonard and a few other younger members of AIM camped on a ranch which was owned by the Jumping Bull Family, a tradition family. June 26, 1975 was the fateful day that two agents for the FBI followed a pickup in their unmarked car to the Jumping Bull Ranch. The families who lived there, due to the violent nature of those who had targeted them became scared and shots rang out while over 150 agents, GOON's and law officers surrounded the ranch. When the shooting was done the two agents for the FBI and one Native American was dead. The FBI documents sate that over 40 participant Native Americans were involved however, only members of AIM Bob Robideau, Darrell Butler and Leonard Peltier were brought to trial.

DISCUSSION

These two cases are, at first glance, quite different from one another however; upon a closer look the similarities are shockingly obvious. In each instance, both that of Peltier and Hatcher, the American justice system has failed to protect the rights of each individual and that failure is based upon the individual's minority status. Clearly this is a travesty of justice that one would think would have been resolved in the U.S. system of justice however, unfortunately for the Native Americans that reside in the United States this type of injustice is a factor in the daily life of the individual who is a minority. Each of these men, both Peltier and Hatcher are actually heroes who made their stand for the minority individuals, such as those at Ruby Ridge experiencing violent assault and the minorities for whom Hatcher hoped to assist in identifying and collecting information as to the actual wrongdoers in the cocaine trafficking business in Robeson County. In each of these cases the 'system' stepped squarely upon the minority individual[s] in a careless disregard for basic human rights, justice and the very principles that the United States is founded upon.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION certain aura clouds the United States justice system, and that cloud is composed of something that is inherently loathsome as the 'system' is manipulated by those in power rendering verdicts that forever change the lives of individuals such as Hatcher and Peltier wreaking a great injustice upon individuals, tribes and minorities throughout the United States. In cognitive analysis of the method that the land of the United States was secured as the "land of the free [and]...home of the brave..." It must be said that it is doubtful that real justice and just principles can be in reality founded upon the methodological genocide of the Native American people that occurred in the establishment of this system of 'justice'.

The basic human rights of minorities in the United States are violated on a daily basis both through acts of commission and acts of omission and to make matters worse the present administration has cut funding so greatly for Legal Services that many areas are completely without even satellite offices having lost the remaining skeletal staff that was left after the budget cuts in the 1990's. Justice, freedom, equality...all of these words can be said to be relative to ones' ethnicity or race at this time in the United States and however sadly, this has always been true and it is certain that Native American history has many stories to support this statement.