What It Takes

― Martin Luther King / Nelson Mandela / Leonard Peltier

Sharing deep concern as to what lies ahead for our world, our thoughts today take inspiration from three political activists who influenced so many by their words and actions. Somehow they represent the unquentionable human spirit within each one of us who will stand and fight for justice and freedom with and for that same spirit that can unite us all. May their spirit bring forth our better natures and together, as a One Humanity, let us heal from the wounds of the past and do our part for the best that may yet to be.

Martin Luther King

As Martin Luther King warned from his Alabama jail cell in 1963, 'freedom is never given freely by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.'

His words mirrored those of another great American about a century earlier. 'Power concedes nothing without a demand,' Frederick Douglass said in 1857. 'It never did and it never will.'

We cannot be silent. We cannot give up. We must continue to make demands to create the America (and the world) that we envision for ourselves and coming generations....

“As television beamed the image of this extraordinary gathering across the border oceans, everyone who believed in man’s capacity to better himself had a moment of inspiration and confidence in the future of the human race,”

— King, “I Have a Dream,” 125; 122)., 28 August 1963

"Greatness is determined by service!"

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was a social rights activist, politician and philanthropist who became South Africa’s first Black president from 1994 to 1999. After becoming involved in the anti-apartheid movement in his 20s, Mandela joined the African National Congress in 1942.

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom

Beginning in 1962, Mandela spent 27 years in prison for political offences. In 1993, Mandela and South African President F.W. de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to dismantle the country's apartheid system. For generations to come, Mandela has become a source of inspiration for civil rights activists worldwide.

Leonard Peltier

Leonard Peltier, of the Anishinabe and Lakota Nations, is a father, a grandfather, an artist, a writer, and one of the world's best known Indigenous rights activist. He is now 80 years old in poor health having spent 49 years in US prisons for a crime he did not commit. Amnesty International considered him a "political prisoner". Petitions for his unconditional release were signed by numerous political leaders including the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela.

To many Indigenous Peoples, Leonard Peltier is a symbol of the long history of abuse and repression they have endured. Tribal Nations, Nobel Peace laureates, former law enforcement officials (including the former US attorney whose office oversaw Mr Peltier’s prosecution and appeal), dozens of lawmakers, and human rights organizations strongly supported granting Mr Peltier clemency The National Congress of American Indians and the Assembly of First Nations, representing the majority of First Nations in the U.S. and Canada, repeatedly called for Leonard Peltier's freedom.

On January 20, 2025, Peltier's sentence was commuted to indefinite house arrest by President Joe Biden shortly before he left office. He is scheduled to be released from prison on February 18, 2025.

May he now return safely to his family and his people, to spend his remaining days in Peace with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren who he has never met.

Leonard Peltier is an example to us all of one man who has dedicated his life to the cause of his people's human rights and cultural freedom—who took action to defend his people against the same injustice and erosion of freedom and liberty worldwide that befalls us all.

"No human being should ever have to fear for his or her life because of their political or religious beliefs. We are in this together, my friends, the rich, the poor, the red, white, black, brown and yellow. We share responsibility for Mother Earth and those who live and breathe upon her. Never forget that"

— Leonard Peltier

The Obama years …

Leonard Peltier is a man who stands for the Right to be Free and Defend against injustice — the right of every citizen on this planet. Peltier did what any of us might have done under grave situations. He helped to defend Elders and Children at a time when the FBI was waging war — a "Reign of Terror" — on the Native American population at Pine Ridge, South Dakota in the mid-1970s. Over 60 native people were killed and over 400 assaulted and many imprisoned. Leonard, who has consistently denied the charges made against him and spoken out in defence of his people's rights was convicted of shooting two FBI agents. Not only has the shooting been admitted by an other individual but the weight of evidence proved beyond reasonable doubt that Leonard was scapegoated in a ruthless campaign that throughout American history has attempted to eradicate Native American culture and has exploited their remaining land for oil and uranium mining, continuing to this day.

At the age of eight he was taken from his family and sent to a residential boarding school for Native people run by the US Government. There, the students were forbidden to speak their languages and they suffered both physical and psychological abuses.

As a teenager Leonard Peltier returned to live with his father at the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota. It was one of three reservations, which the United States Government chose as the testing ground for its new termination policy. The policy forced Native families off their reservations and into the cities. The resulting protests and demonstrations by tribal members introduced Leonard Peltier to Native resistance through activism and organizing.

During one particularly difficult winter on the Turtle Mountain Reservation Leonard Peltier recollects protests by his people to the Bureau of Indian Affairs about the desperate lack of food. (The termination policy withdrew federal assistance, including food, from those who remained on their land). Following these protests, B.I.A. social workers came to the reservation to investigate the situation. Leonard Peltier and one of the organizers on the reservation went from household to household before the arrival of the investigating party to tell the local people to hide what little food they had. When he got to the first house, he found that there was no food to hide and the same story was repeated in each of the households that he went to. This experience awakened him to the desperate situation for all people on his reservation.

As he grew older, he began travelling with his father as a migrant farm worker. While following the harvests, they stayed at different reservations. During this time, he came to learn that policies of relocation, poverty, and racism were endemic issues affecting tribes across the U.S.

In 1965, Leonard Peltier moved to Seattle, Washington, where he worked for several years as part owner of an auto body shop which he used to employ Native people and to provide low-cost automobile repairs for those who needed it. During the same period, he was also active in the founding of a Native halfway house for ex-prisoners. His community volunteer work included Native Land Claim issues, alcohol counseling, and participation in protests concerning the preservation of Native land within the city of Seattle.

In the late 1960's and early 1970's Leonard Peltier began travelling to different Native communities. He spent a lot of time in Washington and Wisconsin and was working as a welder, carpenter, and community counsellor for Native people. In the course of his work he became involved with the American Indian Movement (AIM) and eventually joined the Denver Colorado chapter. In Denver, he worked as a community counsellor confronting unemployment, alcohol problems and poor housing. He became strongly involved in the spiritual and traditional programs of AIM.

Leonard Peltier's participation in the American Indian Movement led to his involvement in the 1972 Trail of broken Treaties which took him to Washington D.C., in the occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs building.

Eventually his AIM involvement would bring him to assist the Oglala Lakota People of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in the mid 1970's. On Pine Ridge he participated in the planning of community activities, religious ceremonies, programs for self-sufficiency, and improved living conditions. He also helped to organize security for the traditional people who were being targeted for violence by the pro-assimilation tribal chairman and his vigilantes. It was here that the tragic shoot-out of June 26, 1975 occurred, leading to his wrongful conviction.

Despite the harsh conditions of imprisonment, Leonard Peltier has continued to lead an active life. From behind bars, he has helped to establish scholarships for Native students and special programs for Indigenous youth. He has served on the advisory board of the Rosenberg Fund for Children, and has sponsored children in Central America. He has donated to battered women's shelters, organized the annual Christmas drive for the people of Pine Ridge Reservation, and promoted prisoner art programs.

He also established himself as a talented artist, using oils to paint portraits of his people, portraying their cultures and histories. He has written poetry and prose from prison, and published a moving biography titled Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance (St. Martin's Press, NY, 1999).

Leonard Peltier credits his ability to endure his circumstances to his spiritual practices and the love and support from his family and supporters.

An anecdote, a story with a point;

"Tame the beehive. A good man who was a beloved teacher in my community took up bee keeping in his retirement years. Once when a swarm of bees landed in our pepper tree we called him for advice. He came to our home with an empty beehive and his smoke can and asked me to help him. He said, "Don’t be afraid, I will guide you."

I climbed the step ladder and steadied the open beehive we placed on the ladder just below the hive. He smoked the area and reached with his bare hands on to the limb where the hive had settled. He said, “Think good thoughts about the bees. Do not be afraid. My smoke will calm them.”

I stood there with him and watched as he placed his old, wise, bear hands and gently pushed the bees off the limb and into their new home. He smoked them some more.

The bees fell everywhere like streaming water over a fall. He said, “It’s okay, they are not hurt, they will not hurt us.” He showed me the queen and said, “There! That’s what all this is about. The queen just needs protection and support. There she is. Now she has a new home.”

He pointed into the clump holding his finger almost on the queen. “I got her. The rest will follow.”

We have become most dependent upon bee keepers in many ways. I think however, on that day, I learned something about spiritual growth. Do not be afraid. Think good thoughts of the other as we have all become interdependent in this world in ways that many of us are just now learning.

Have we learned the ways of the bees or have the bees learned the ways of man? Either way, think loving thoughts and smoke the hive with the smoke of truth, compassion, and acceptance for the way we are and the way we could be so that justice is not seen as the folly of loopholes.

We are the smoke in Leonard Peltier’s smoke can, he has done so much for his people but he must now guide his way home.

“Mitakye Oyasin!” ―for All Our Relations