http://files.mail-list.com/m/freepeltiernow/Peltier-Birthday-12_PELTIER-BIRTHDAY-12.pdf
Greetings my relatives and supporters,
and, we are all truly relatives
in one way or another,
First of all I want to thank all of
you for remembering me on this
day, as many of you probably
suspect and some know, that
when you are in prison you have
a lot of time to reflect and think on
how things are, and how they
were and perhaps how they
should be. Having said that, I was
thinking about how on your birthday
the person who really should
be celebrated is your Mother, for
she carried you for 9 months and went through the pain of giving
you life. So truly a person’s birthday should be another
Mother’s Day. So if a woman has four children, she should
have four Mothers days. All too often people talk about the exploits
of men and what they said and what they did, and all too
often give no thought to the women who gave them life, the
women who supported them, the women who cared for the children
while they did what they did, who kept the home fires
burning and families fed. There is a certain adrenaline flow that
takes place when you are involved in movement activities and
trying to make a difference, a satisfaction in doing the right
thing and sometimes being successful in righting what’s wrong.
However, the really true heroes in this are the women who do
day after day what needs to be done, and give their children
the values they need to stand up for what is right in this world.
Again, I want to thank you, you can’t imagine how much it
means to a prisoner to be remembered. When a person goes
to prison their immediate family, relatives and friends are attentive
on some level but as time goes on, it’s almost as if you had
died and you are only remembered on certain occasions. There
are a multitude of people in prison that they have forgotten
about that were movement people, people who stood up for the
earth, the animals, nature, water rights, human rights, civil
rights, all of those things, and have been forgotten. They are
only remembered by a few. I am really truly thankful and I have
to be thankful to all of the movement people throughout the
world who have recognized the injustice that has been perpetuated
against Indigenous people. And I am fortunate that there
are those who have found me to be evidence of that injustice
because of all of the legal recognition from the courts of the improper
proceedings that took place. My case as many of you
well know probably has more recognition of improprieties than
most, and I recognize that I am an ordinary man who has been
cast into an extraordinary situation, and have served as legal
evidence of their wrongdoing. Forgive me if I am getting too
wordy and singing to the choir, but I have probably had too
much time to think. I do want to encourage all of you to keep
standing up for what is right to keep trying to right what is
wrong, and I want you to know there are those who appreciate
what you do, and oftentimes you may find yourself the only one
standing up. And more often than not, whether you realized it or
not, it was your Mother that directly or indirectly gave you that
strength, that woman you should celebrate on your birthday. I
encourage all of you to have fun, enjoy your freedom, enjoy
your life and have some cake and ice cream, or pemmican, or
hotdogs or dog stew for me. And remember when you stand
up, wherever you are, I’ll be standing with you even though it’s
some distant place.
In closing again I want you to enjoy and know that I am thinking
of you and appreciative and may the Great Spirit Bless you with
all you need and enough to share with others.
I’ll close for now, got some thinking to do, Ayee.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse
Doksha Leonard Peltier
