Peltier and Propaganda

I would like to explore the idea of propaganda and persuasion, in regards to legal aspects surrounding Native American Peoples. The “Incident at Oglala” film opened my eyes to the tactics used, for example against Leonard Peltier. The fact that Butler and Robideau were found not guilty should have influenced the jury to see the same in Peltier. Instead, he was a scapegoat from the moment of his extradition, gaining the label of “murderer.” During the trial, the jury was shut off from viewing the public, and not allowed to see any of the humanity of the Native American people. This is the first step in genocide; to dehumanize a people in order to justify crime against them.

Something I found to be ridiculous, were the three affidavits from Myrtle Poorbear. The fact that the first one said she was not present at the Jumping Bull compound should have been a tip off, not to mention that Peltier had no idea who she was nor she him. Instead, her story was changed over and over to fit the needs of the prosecution.

Regardless of what actually happened on the Pine Ridge Reservation on June 26, 1975, the evidence used against Peltier was not respectable. He is still locked up for a crime many think he did not commit (maybe he did, I honestly have not seen enough evidence to say either), but our system claims “innocent until proven guilty,” and I do not think the evidence was sufficient to prove.