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1976. After the government's suppression and manufacture of evidence against Leonard Peltier for the murder of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation came to light, it admitted it didn't know who killed them. Nevertheless, the American Indian Movement leader was denied a new trial, and remains in prison after twenty years. Government misconduct began with his extradition from Canada. |
| At my extradition hearing, they presented a so-called eyewitness, Myrtle Poor Bear. Later, we found out the FBI had gotten two contradictory affidavits from her. The first said she hadn't actually seen the murders, but I had confessed it all to her. They kept that one secret. Then they got her to say she was an eyewitness. That's the one they gave the Canadian authorities. Later, the special prosecutor admitted there was no truth whatsoever to Myrtle Poor Bear's story. But that's what got me extradited. They violated international law by knowingly giving the Canadian government false affidavits. I spoke to Myrtle Poor Bear on the phone during my trial. I asked her, "Why did you do this? I don't know you. You know I don't know you." "Well," she said, "they threatened me. They told me if I didn't do this they would take away my children," Myrtle Poor Bear was a sick woman. They used her like they used so many Indian people. I have no bad thoughts for her. |
