Leonard Peltier example essay topic

My life is a Sundance The book Prison Writings by Leonard Peltier is an inspirational story of a martyr in today's time fighting for the rights of his people, the Native Americans. The book is a biography explaining the events that led up to his being wrongly convicted and his experienced being imprisoned for a crime that he did not commit. Leonard Peltier, now in his twenty-fourth year of confinement, was wrongly convicted of the murder of two FBI agents and has been doing hard time ever since. Peltier remains in prison as his appeals from clemency were rejected by President Clinton, despite the calls for freedom from the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, the European Parliament, and other prominent world figures. Prison Writings, compiled by Peltier over the years, relays the extraordinary story of his life -- his impoverished upbringing in the Dakotas, his gradual development as an American Indian leader during the political upheavals of the late 1960's and early 1970's, that culminated with the "Incident at Oglala". The "Incident at Oglala" is one of the darker moments of the United State's history when FBI agents raided an Indian reservation on the slimmest of pretenses, setting off a gun battle in which two agents were killed.

Correctly anticipating an unfair judicial process, Peltier escaped to Canada following the shoot out. Using false information gained by intimidating a young Indian woman into providing false testimony, the FBI illegally extradited Peltier from Canada and then withheld crucial information at his trial. Since his conviction, a government lawyer has admitted that the prosecution had no idea who killed the FBI agents, yet Peltier is still locked up at the Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas. Whether writing about his childhood, his involvement with the American Indian Movement (AIM), the events at Oglala, or the infamous trial that resulted, Peltier is remarkably philosophical and even forgiving. He always speaks of mercy and compassion. Looking beyond himself, he places his experience in the context of the long history of America's betrayals of and injustices to its Indian peoples.

Reading this book really broke my heart. It is hard to believe that in this day in time people can be so cruel to someone just because of their race. I cant just really pick one page that made me feel so sad because the whole book is about injustice that he, as an American Indian, had to go through and unfortunately is still going through. From prison guards urinating in his food to random beatings for no reason, this book is enough to make anyone with a heart think twice about being racist. Overall I liked to book, but not just because of the story but because of the way he thinks.

He has a lot of sadness in him but yet he refuses to be angered by the way that our government has treated him. He says that " I am only guilty of being an Indian and for that I take pride in being imprisoned, for standing up for my people". He also says that " Being who I am, being who you are - that's aboriginal sin". I went to the bookstore wanting to find a good book to write this report on and I honestly do not think that I could have picked a better one. The book taught me not to be so naive about the existence of racism that is around today and it also has taught me that our judicial system needs to be reformed in a lot of ways. I also have come to the conclusion that not all people in prison are guilty and something needs to be done about this.

Like Peltier says", I Love my people. If you must accuse me of something, accuse me of that-being an Indian. To that crime- and to that crime alone- I plead guilty". Leonard Peltier "My life is a Sundance".