Son of June

We return to Pine Ridge to visit the grave of Joe Kills Right Stuntz, the murder site of Pedro Bissonette, and the June Little cabin on the Jumping Bull ranch with Chase Iron Eyes. Chase is an Oglala Lakota and currently serves as the co-director and lead counsel of the Lakota People's Law Project. But there’s something else you should know about Chase. His personal connection to the Oglala firefight and Leonard.

Transcript

SEASON TWO, EPISODE FIVE

SON OF JUNE

[Sound of birds chirping – cars passing]

Chase Iron Eyes
My father never – he didn't like to talk about what happened at Jumping Bull property.

VO
That’s Chase Iron Eyes speaking at his father’s grave in the Little Family Cemetery in Oglala, South Dakota just a few miles down Highway 18 from the Jumping Bull ranch where three men tragically lost their lives on June 26th, 1975.

Chase Iron Eyes
Every time I asked him about that, he didn't, he didn't offer information. Because much like when they killed Crazy Horse, everyone was <<Lakota>> They were, they were hiding. They were covering up their identity because the United States government was hunting us.

Chase Iron Eyes
It was the same after 1975. Nobody wants to talk. Because there's still that apprehension that people could be prosecuted. Hearts will break if a lot of the truths are shared. And that's not my truth to share. That's theirs.

VO
You’re listening to LEONARD—a podcast series about Leonard Peltier, one of America’s longest-serving political prisoners. I’m Rory Owen Delaney.

And I’m Andrew Fuller. We’ve spent the last three years working to share Leonard’s story with a new generation of people: who he is, how he ended up behind bars, and why we believe he deserves to go free.

This is Season 2, Episode 5, “Son of June.” In the next two chapters we’ll be taking a detour from Leonard’s timeline to kick it with Chase Iron Eyes in South Dakota and Washington, DC.

Chase is an Oglala Lakota and currently serves as the co-director and lead counsel of the Lakota People's Law Project. But there’s something else you should know about Chase. His personal connection to the Oglala firefight.

WILD SOUND GATE OPENING

It’s an overcast morning in early May 2021. And rain clouds are gathering above the Little Family Cemetery, a small plot of land containing a hundred graves or so.

Chase kneels to rearrange several large stones and resets an upturned American flag by his father’s memorial.

A small photo of Wallace “June” Little adorns the headstone above an emblem of the American Indian Movement.

Chase stands, lights a cigarette and offers tobacco smoke to the four directions.

Chase Iron Eyes
<<Lakota prayer>>

VO
The emotion of the moment overwhelms Chase, who tears up before continuing.

Chase Iron Eyes
I don't come see my dad very often.

Chase Iron Eyes
June Little, Wallace June Little.

Chase Iron Eyes
He was a Wounded Knee veteran. Two tours in Vietnam. Custer riots. Mount Rushmore. He was a quiet, reserved man of action.

Chase Iron Eyes
Hook. They used to call him Hook because he had one arm and one eye.

Chase Iron Eyes
He lost his arm and his eye in our struggle for liberation.

Chase Iron Eyes
My father had experience in explosives that he gained from the United States Army. We have to assume that he was preparing some implements that went beyond civil resistance to assert our international struggle, our international character, to be our own nation.

Chase Iron Eyes
So today I wanted to send some tobacco smoke and honor my father. In this way.

Chase Iron Eyes
A lot has happened since he's passed on. I don't know if he ever would have dreamed that I would move to the Pine Ridge Reservation. But I know he, uh, he's here for me, for all his children to lean on, to call upon, to inspire our path here today.

Chase Iron Eyes
And all of his children in their own way still resist.

[Sound of birds]

Chase Iron Eyes
This is Grandpa Eddie. This is my dad's brother. Born in 1925.

VO
A haze of burning sage swirls around Chase as he makes his way through the cemetery, looking at headstones.

Chase Iron Eyes
He was– he's in a lot of movies. Gilligan's Island, uh – I can't remember the name of all the movies he did, but he's in a number of the spaghetti westerns and so forth.

Chase Iron Eyes
My Uncle Bo is buried right over here.

Chase Iron Eyes
Bo's actually my cousin, but he's another pillar of the movement. A lot of these guys are unsung heroes. They didn't get to tell their stories in front of audiences or on film or anything like that. They just took care of their families.

Chase Iron Eyes
Joe Kills Right Stunts is buried here as well, and I never appreciated that he's here. But my grandfather and my grandmother were obviously very gracious people to provide a place of monument, a place of spiritual pilgrimage where we could come.

VO
The Little Family Cemetery is where the FBI showed up in force to intimidate Chase’s grandpa, Wallace Little, as preparations were underway for Joe Stunts’s funeral just days after the shootout.   

Wallace Little
They came up here in a dozen police cars and vans. They surrounded my place. About 60 of them. How can I get my name back up there like, like I had.   

VO
Chase pauses to pull up some tall grass from the grave of Joe Kills Right Stunts. Next to Joe’s headstone is a memorial that reads: In honor of our brothers who have given their efforts here for the Lakota – June 26, 1975.


Chase Iron Eyes
I don’t know when these headstones and memorial markers were put up, but they're put up to, uh, to memorialize what happened that day. But my dad, Joe Kills Right Stunts, they were all brothers and sisters of the same struggle, the struggle that we inherited.

Chase Iron Eyes
Our whole destiny changed in the 70s. It's because people's blood was spilled that I am able to wear long hair. I'm able to Sun dance. I'm able to go into the sweat lodge. I'm able to know and seek our metaphysics and share it with my children – share it with the world.

Chase Iron Eyes
It's a beautiful thing, but it's – it's hard too. There's a lot of scarred people, scarred souls. You know, when I visited Leonard – he knows my dad – he knew my dad. And it was bittersweet solace to spend a little bit of time with Leonard Peltier. And we'll never stop calling for his freedom because our freedom is bound up in Leonard's political imprisonment. <<Lakota>>

VO
As we are winding things up, a red SUV drives slowly by the cemetery and parks behind us in the ditch off Highway 18. A man in white jeans and a black cowboy hat emerges from the vehicle in a surgical mask. Chase goes to meet him.

Uncle Little
A car went by and said you got some visitors–

Chase Iron Eyes
Multiple cars, yeah.

Uncle Little
–in the ditch over there so I said well I better go up with my wife and see.

VO
The cowboy is Chase’s uncle, June’s brother, Ernest Little. Occasionally camera crews turn up at the cemetery, so Ernie was checking us out. After learning who Chase is, the conversation quickly turns to June.

Uncle Little
I seen our Indian veterans struggle because some of them wanted to live here on this trust land. And the way that's set up is really difficult.

Uncle Little
And I seen your dad get turned down three or four times for his veteran home loan. And I seen him fight and he basically died from that Agent Orange trying to get his pension.

Chase Iron Eyes
Yeah, I did not know he was only fifty five, he wasn't that old, you know.

Uncle Little
Lived a lot of stuff in them years. But, because of his difficulty with his service connected benefits, he went over there in that occupation and just became an activist. And Bo was the same way, you know?

Uncle Little
Bo, one time I was sitting with him and he said, oh boy. He said, one time, uncle, them rounds were going off over there. And he said I was scared and June, June! What do I do? And June said, you got a gun? Yeah. He said, well use it! [Laughter]

Chase Iron Eyes
Yeah. Oh man.

Uncle Little
That was just real that thing, you know.

Uncle Little
My dad always taught us to say something – if it’s wrong, say something. So I learned that from him and it served me well. And all of this family was like that.

Chase Iron Eyes
Strong people, you know, just stand upright. So how long, Uncle Ernie, have you been kind of the last child of Wallace, you know, to ranch and to oversee the flat here?

Uncle Little
I’m probably the last real person here. Probably the end of the 60s and stuff. I kinda get emotional when I talk about things like that.

Chase Iron Eyes
Well, it's, uh, you know, this is where my dad grew up with my Uncle Ernie. And I never knew these here things were this steep. These, uh, pretty much cliffs there.

Uncle Little
That was our sleigh riding hill when we were little.

Chase Iron Eyes
[laughter] Holy Christ.

Uncle Little
Got knocked out when you fell off of it.

Chase Iron Eyes
No kidding. For some of things you guys probably did CPS would have got called. [Laughter]

VO
The cemetery sits on a flat above the Little farm. Past the farm the land rises into a craggy ridgeline that is dotted with trees, picturesque terrain for hiking, mountain biking or tripping on psychedelics.

Rory
It's beautiful.

Chase Iron Eyes
It's so beautiful here, bro.

Chase Iron Eyes
I start my hike at this here – they call it Cake Hill or Little Medicine Tower – and then just go up. It's really steep over there, but it's really beautiful once you're in there and then just come right along the edge. I've never been to those buttes right there, though. I’ve never been beyond that.

Uncle Little
That big hill up there. That's where the Running Hawks land was. A lot of their people are buried there, but there's some Cavalry Scout markers up there.

Chase Iron Eyes
Whoa – what the heck? A-ho. Anyway, thank you for letting us come on.

Uncle Ernie
Okay. Thank you.

Chase Iron Eyes
And thank you for sharing that. Because now I could know – I’ll tell my kids, you know.

[WILD SOUND OF GATE CLOSING]

VO
A light rain falls as Chase locks up the cemetery.

Chase Iron Eyes
Wow, just to hear some of that family history, I had no idea. I don't know if I would have got Uncle Ern to come up here and talk if I would have went and asked him. So it worked out OK, you know, because I thought he was going to be mad at first. But, you know, once he saw what I was doing, he was OK. But this is his – this is the family cemetery, but it's also part of our people's spiritual monument.

Chase Iron Eyes
But I'm on my own journey finding out where I came from.

VO
After the break we take a ride with Dan the Man.

ADVOCACY BREAK

VO
We overnighted in Pine Ridge at the Prairie Wind Hotel and Casino.

The place was mostly empty and it felt like we were either in a Coen brothers dramedy or a Kubrick tragedy.

It was fine. It was a roof over our head and a place to charge our batteries. Plus, there was a restaurant inside that stayed open past 8pm.

Which is worth noting because there’s not a ton of dining options on the res, as you might have guessed. There’s the casino restaurant as mentioned. There’s Higher Ground coffee house, a great little mom-and-pop place that sells sandwiches but offers limited hours. And then there’s a Pizza Hut, a Subway, a Taco John’s, and whatever you can scrounge up at Big Daddy Bats, the go-to gas station and convenience mart.

After you leave the main drag, that’s pretty much it. Of course back in the 70s in Leonard’s day, none of these spots even existed. If you wanted to go out to a restaurant you drove to Rushville, Nebraska. So comparatively speaking we were spoiled.   

In the morning we buy groceries at Bueche foods in Pine Ridge Village. When we emerge, Chase introduces his dad’s old friend, Dan Merrival, who agrees to an impromptu guided tour.

Chase Iron Eyes
Nobody knows – this stuff is not written anywhere, whatever Dan can tell you.

VO
It’s another windy overcast day with rain in the forecast.

Chase Iron Eyes
Just act like you’re telling me a story that’s really good, Dan.

VO
As we mic up Dan, Chase drives ahead in his battle tested Prius.

Andrew
This is the place to be today.

Dan Merrival
Back in the day, this place was considered the most dangerous place to live in.

Rory
What is this little square called?

Dan Merrival
Right here? Yeah, this is, uh, the Bueche's parking lot. This here supermarket used to be called Sioux nation.

VO
In addition to the Bueche foods, the block – a nondescript strip mall on Main Street – is home to Star Buds, a new cannabis dispensary that had popped up since our last visit. It’s also the site of Billy Mills Hall, where Dennis Banks and Russel Means celebrated their takeover of the BIA building back on the res.

Billy Mills is an Oglala Lakota former track and field athlete who won a gold medal in the 10,000 meters at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, a victory that still ranks as one of the greatest Olympic upsets of all time.

Dan Merrival
To your right. Then on top of the hill to your left. All right. This used to be an AIM house. One of the main AIM houses. This one on the top. The blue one. That's where Debbie Richard and them lived. And the Goons come by and done a driveby and sprayed it with bullets and got her little son in the arm.

VO
The Richard family were the victims of a drive-by shooting that wounded five family members one evening back in 1974.

Debbie Richard
I got hit in two places. And then I saw John’s arm go.

VO
That’s Debbie Richard speaking about the experience for the 1990 Frontline documentary “The Spirit of Crazy Horse.”

Debbie Richard (cont’d)
And then I just lay down with him. And then just that quickly it was over. The house was full of powder from the walls. And I turned and I was running into the kitchen, and there was just blood everywhere. And Lulu was lying half in and half out of the house. It was just total confusion. There were kids laying all over. And I didn’t know who was dead and who was alive.

VO
Fortunately, no one was killed in that attack. And although they never found out who shot them, the family suspected the gunmen were undercover police officers, sent by Dick Wilson, who was looking to settle scores with his political enemies.

Dan Merrival
The main GOON town was where we come from, Pine Ridge.

Dan Merrival
And then take a left right here. Left left. And that's my house over there on the corner. That used to be one of the main AIM houses too.

VO
Dan grew up on Pine Ridge and joined AIM in the 8th grade. 

Dan Merrival
This is -- they call it the meth block here. There’s a lot of meth dealers around here. I'm working with one of my mentors, his name's Wendell Yellow Bow. And we're working on getting an <<Lakota>> society together. It is like a warrior society.

Dan Merrival
One of the results we want is to get it where our traditional law will supersede federal and tribal law. And then from there we're going to go after these meth dealers and get them the hell out of here. And if they’re our own people then we'll probably end up abolishing them. Take their membership rights and everything. Do what Fidel Castro from Cuba done to the United States: He sent all of his undesirables over here in a boatload and kicked them off. We can do the same thing to the United States. [chuckles]

Dan Merrival
And we got a couple of miles here to go and we'll be at the site where they killed Pedro.

VO
Pedro Bissonette was a respected local boxer and one of the founding members of OSCRO, the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization, that together with AIM, was instrumental in the negotiations at Wounded Knee 1973.

Because of Pedro’s high standing in the Oglala community, his murder later that same year ranks as one of the more notorious killings in the Reign of Terror, a period of violence in the mid-70s that claimed the lives of dozens of AIM supporters and saw Pine Ridge bear the highest murder rate per capita in the country.

Dan Merrival
This is our airport right here.

Rory
This is where Dick Wilson, uh, stomped–

Dan Merrival
–Shot up the plane, yeah, that was bringing in AIM lawyers. Mhmm. Myself. I've been shot twice by them. In the head. I carry a bullet right here. Oh, right here. No, it's right here. Because they shot me on this side. And it didn't go up, it deflected somehow like that and went in my jawbone.

Dan Merrival
Took an ambulance a half hour to come pick me up. And they picked me up; they took me to Rapid. Anyhow, while I was there, they said that they might have to remove part of my brain. And he was asking me for permission to go ahead. I said, go ahead, I had too much to begin with anyway. [Laughter] They cut me open from here to here. That bullet went through, passed through my brain. So they had to do a full frontal lobotomy on me. They took off my forehead and they removed my frontal lobes of my brain. And they said that bullet severed my optical nerve on this side. And they said we’ll probably have to remove your left eye. And I said bullshit because I could still see through that. So they put me out, when I come to, I was pissed because they removed my left eye.

Dan Merrival
You're going to be coming up to an approach up here on your left.
[Sound of car doors opening]

Andrew
Watch out for this dog over here.

VO
We piled out of the van into the cold open tundra.

Dan Merrival
This is the site where Pedro Bisonette was murdered by a BIA cop called Joe Clifford, known as Buzzy, who was also one of Pedro's brother-in-laws. He used to be with his sister. And at the time he was going around saying they had orders to literally take him out and murder him. Like a hit. These were by the FBI. And that's how it was around here. If you was an American Indian Movement member or supporter then your life wasn't worth a plug nickel.

VO
The day of his murder Pedro visited with Dan’s father.

Dan Merrival
Pedro was a strong individual. That day he came to the house, me and my dad was building a shed at my grandma's house, which is mine now. He pulled in – and unbeknownst to the two of them, I jump in the backseat – and then my dad didn't call him Pedro; he called him Pino. He said Pino you better get your ass out of town and lay low, man. They're hunting for you. So he was kind of like a macho guy, you know. Who? The goons? I'll beat the fuck out of 'em. Who? The cops? I'll shoot the fuck outta them. Then I said something in the back. So they both turned around and made me get out of the car. About like a half hour later, I heard a bunch of gunshots up there. And this is, this is where they got him right here.

Dan Merrival
So I guess only on reservations, and only if you're Indian, the United States can give people permission to kill you.

Dan Merrival
That's supposed to be illegal. There's a disparity of justice here big time. Like you go to our prisons here, the majority of it is Native American. So why are the prison systems filled with our people? Me, myself, I went to jail for something years ago that I didn't do. Back in 1978.

VO
On the way back to the minivan Dan said he met Jimmy Eagle while incarcerated at the Terra Haute supermax federal prison in Indiana. Yep. That Jimmy Eagle. The one allegedly in the red pickup on June 26th.

Dan Merrival
He was walking by. Everything there is controlled movement. Remember them big glass windows like that they're in squares. One, one was knocked out like that. You could see out like that. So I was peeking out like that. They was on their way to the yard, off to rec. And I said Eagle! He said, “Who the fuck is calling me?” So he comes over. Peeks in like that. “Merrival, what you doing here?” I said the same thing as you. “Time.” [laughter]

Dan Merrival
He said, “What's up?'' I said you got any <<Lakota>> That's our cigarettes. You know, he said, “Hold on, I'll be back in about a half hour to 45 minutes.” I said, all right. He said, be here. I said, okay. So I was patiently waiting there. Pretty soon a pack of cigarettes come flying in. So I go into my cell with my celly. Open it up. There's three doobs in there. Three joints. So I keep one and I trade the other two for a carton of cigarettes. You do a lot of bartering in there.

Dan Merrival
Anyway, that's the last time I saw him and when they went down to Jumping Bull that time, they used him as the reason why they were going down there. The story was for stealing a pair of cowboy boots. Come on, man, stealing a pair of cowboy boots ain't no fucking federal felony. That was bullshit. Why send an unmarked car into a well-known armed AIM camp shooting? You know damn well what’s going to happen.

VO
Leonard Peltier was part of the AIM group camping at the Jumping Bulls that summer to provide security in the face of the overwhelming res violence at the time.

Dan Merrival
Them Feds sacrificed two of their own agents to get at AIM. Because AIM, like I said, jerked up that rug and let everything out. I don't ever underestimate the United States government. They're shrewd. They're cunning. And they're very, very detached. They don't give a shit. They don't want us here. We're a big hindrance to them. Like money-wise. If one could look into what was all extracted from the Black Hills – the Black Hills is our mother, that’s her womb.

Dan Merrival
If we ever get compensated for that – recompensated for that – hell, shit, man, I’d bet you we'd own most of Fort Knox. And it ain't only gold they took out. Look at all the timber they're extracting out there. Silver. Look, I can go on and on. And when I go around talking like this, bringing up these old deals, people call me a troublemaker, a rebel and a militant, but someone needs to tell the story.

Dan Merrival
I used to be a mean alcoholic. I was what people around here considered a full-fledged wino then with a rotgut drink called Moscatel. Everyone drank it. And that's what I was drinking. Until one day I looked at myself. For some reason, I took a moral inventory of my life right there and then. I was at that there shopping mart we was at, remember? On the side there, where that there loading dock is, that used to be my turf. I just bought a jug and a pack of cigarettes. And I looked at myself then, I was in a pair of ragged Levis, no shirt, no shoes, hair out like this. And I thought of back when I was going to school, how far ahead I was of everyone else? And how fortunate I used to be, and I looked at myself there and then, and thought "What the fuck am I doing to myself?" and I said, "Fuck this shit,” and I threw that jug up against that wall. And then I thought, "Fuck – I coulda sold that." [Chuckles] But it was too late.

Dan Merrival
When I found out why I lived, I vowed to Tunkashila that I will never drink again. So that's like a vow made to God. So once one makes a vow or a promise to God, it's best to keep, right? [Chuckles] Or else.

VO
While Pine Ridge is well known for the gun play at Wounded Knee and Oglala, the heart of those struggles was and is spiritual as evidenced by the landback movement that continues to this day. Wallace, June, Pedro, Leonard, Debra, Dan and everyone else who stood up along the way, are treaty defenders. And it’s their spiritual strength that sustains them in their centuries long David and Goliath struggle with the world’s foremost superpower.

Dan Merrival
They call this the holy road. Because there's a lot of Sundances through here. This place we're going to is Dave Swallow's down here. Chase and I are the head helpers during the Sundance here. I'm getting too old to dance. [Chuckles] But once you commit to the Sundance, it’s a lifetime commitment.

VO
The sun peeks out as we pull off the highway onto a dirt access road that leads us down to Dave Swallow’s property in Porcupine, South Dakota.

On the left is a fenced-off area for Sundancing. During the four day ceremony young men dance around the tree of life, a 10 to 12 foot pole that stands in the center of a large circle. Others are pegged to it by rawhide thongs pierced through the skin of their chests.

As we park, a long, rangy man in a cowboy hat and boots emerges from a trailer. It’s Dave.

He meets us by a tipi with an AIM flag flying above it. That’s where he wants to be interviewed. With his traditional long hair, aviators and coyote tooth earring, Dave makes a striking first impression. We instantly had man crushes.

Fortunately, Chase was there to fill the awkward silence. 

Chase Iron Eyes
I don’t know how long it’ll stay up but maybe tomorrow he’s gonna come this way.

VO
Chase is referring to Leonard Crow Dog.

When we were in Rapid City earlier that week, Chase had stopped in at Crow Dog’s house to see about an interview.

Crow Dog’s health was fragile, so he suggested meeting up in a few days in Pine Ridge. Chase mentioned Dave Swallow’s tipi as a possible location.

Chase Iron Eyes
And so he was really happy about that. So I don’t know. It’s hard to get Crow Dog to travel, though, cause he’s older now, you know? But we got to meet him.

Dave Swallow
Yeah, he’s older. He’s only two years older than I am.

Chase Iron Eyes
What?! Washte.

Dave Swallow
Yeah, I think he’s seventy two. He’s seventy two.

Chase Iron Eyes
See I always look at Dave like he’s sixty.

Dave Swallow
And I’m seventy. I think the oldest one here is Eli Tell. Eighty two now. He’s the oldest. I said to these boys, I don’t want none of you calling me an elder, I said. [Laughter]

VO
Eventually, Dave leads us into the tipi, which is large enough to accommodate our crew of six people comfortably.

Dave Swallow
A-ho. My name is Dave Swallow. I live here in Porcupine, South Dakota, Pine Ridge Indian reservation. Also known as camp 344, you know. I'm from here. I'm a Lakota. I'm not an Indian. I'm not a Native American. I'm a Lakota, the first of all, see?

VO
The Lakota are one of the many tribes that were moved off their land to prisoner of war camps now called "reservations." Camp 344, known today as the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, was established in 1899.

Dave Swallow
So I'm from here and my Lakota name is <<Lakota>> Of course you wouldn't understand that, that's the language of this land. See? Lakota language is the first language of this land.

Dave Swallow
In my lifetime here, there's a lot of incidents that occur on this reservation here. I will try to remember as much as I can.

VO
As things are getting underway, a family member passes out choke cherry iced teas. 

Dave Swallow
That's a good tea. Don't worry. It's really good.

Andrew
Oh I’m not worried. Looks great.

Dave Swallow
As a matter of fact, it's got antibiotics in there. Natural antibiotics. See? So <<Lakota name>> that was given to me a long time ago in a ceremony, you know. And I carry that name. So <<Lakota name>> means "walks with pride". That's who I am, you know, among my people, Lakota People, you know, like that. Of course today, we're having a hard time. Ever since we tried to live the American way, we’re having a rough time because we don't know how to live the American way. You know, we don't know how to do that. Even today. We're very well educated, have a master's degree, but we still cannot live like the wasichu, the white man way. And the simple thing is we're not the white men so even though we learned their tongue, we learned their ideas – we learned everything of them – we still cannot be one.

Dave Swallow
You know, this thing in my hand here is an Eagle fan made out of Eagle feathers. I use it in ceremonies. I use it in my talks. I use it every place where I go because this is the true feather of a fan. Eagle is a powerful bird that flies in the sky. See? And when you see – when everybody sees an eagle they get amazed, "Wow" – well, I am honored enough to use these feathers down here to speak the truth, see? Like that.

Dave Swallow
Reservation world is different from the outside. Outside you have freedom of religion. You pray any place where you want to. In the reservation, we don't have that. Your freedom of religion didn't cover us at that time. No. They're going to have a Sundance; they have to ask permission from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, see? And when are you going to pierce, you have to sign that waiver, see? See how US looked at us? See? They looked at us as a – as somebody really dangerous, you know. [Chuckles] So United States says, okay, in 1978, now you could pray.

VO
The American Indian Religious Freedom Act was introduced by South Dakota’s Democratic senator, James Abourezk.
Although the first amendment of the Constitution guaranteed every American the right to practice any religion of their choosing when it was ratified by Congress in 1788, it took another 190 years for the same right to be extended to the first peoples of the United States.
Which is a particularly tragic irony considering what we all remember from our Thanksgiving mythology. How the Pilgrims were driven out of England because of their Puritanical beliefs. And how the Native Americans saved them from starvation that first cruel winter.
Then the wasichu survived, stole all their land, and denied them their right to spiritual independence. So it goes.

Dave Swallow
The Act of Congress or whatever it is, that piece of paper, they showed it to me. I crumbled it and threw it away. I’m going to keep praying with their permission or without theirs. It don't matter to me. I'm going to keep praying the way my grandfather showed me. And that's the way it's going to be. See? Because the prayers that we're doing is come from up here and the four directions and right here, what we're sitting on.

Dave Swallow
So today, you know, we have many, many Sundance, and many, many piercing, you know, all over, but in those days they were really watched. When they find somebody, a medicine man, a spiritual leader, 20 years. 20 years for praying. And they erased it off so nobody reads about it, or you guys, the new generation, you know, you're not going to hear about it. See?

Dave Swallow
So they want to say America is real good, you know. No. If America is good, what are those children doing in that border? Huh? I think when you said, God bless America, God really need to bless America, you know, see? Not the land, not us. We're good. Land is good, but he needs to bless that house.

Dave Swallow
So freedom of religion act, uh, it's good that they did that, but that's just to show that the Congress is doing something good for the natives and all. And the reality is Congress knows with or without his permission we're still going to do it. Congress knows that this is our land. It's going to be still ours. Our way of life, see?

Dave Swallow
What if I bring an American and try to force him to live my Lakota ways? He's going to know nothing. He don't know nothing about being a Lakota. You don't even know one language of Lakota. So where does that put you if you come to my world? Huh? See? See what I'm saying? Yeah. So when they passed the Freedom of Religion Act and they said, "We did something great for them." Yeah. No, they didn't do nothing great. So yeah, that's just a piece of paper and they're trying to pull a, what do you call it authority over us by giving us freedom of religion. See? They try to do that. <<Lakota>>

Dave Swallow
I know Leonard. But not personal basis, you know.

VO
In the 70s Dave worked security for AIM, which is how and where he first came into contact with Leonard Peltier.


Dave Swallow
And the way I know Leonard is he's a quiet guy. And it was kind of hard for me to believe what they accusing him of. [Laughs] If they accused one of the security's of that then I will believe it. But Leonard? This guy's always trying to help people. He's got ideas for the people, you know, what things should be done and stuff like that. You know, if you really ask me, I don't think Leonard could hurt anybody, you know. That's my opinion.

Dave Swallow
But that incident, few people know what really happened. And most of them made their journey now, they took it with them. See? And that incident is a kind of touchy incident. They're still out there looking down. They're still saying, “Who is Mr. X?” I don't think Mr. X will never come out. Because the way American system is running, see? Who really killed those two agents? Who really killed them? Who shot them? See.

Dave Swallow
Joe Stunts. What come about that, huh? No, nothing come about that. I believe American Indian Movement Lives Matter too. See? That's why it matters. See? But nobody cares. See? Nobody cares.

Rory
Do you think Leonard will ever get out?

Dave Swallow
The day he is free is probably the day he is going to make his journey, but it'll be a great day to be free. For him. So he could meet all the leaders up there in the spirit world.

Dave Swallow
Leonard is a great symbol to us and all indigenous people of how much hate America has for the indigenous people. See? The American law system – it was created by the home stealers, I call them. Created by the timber cutters. Created by the miners. Created by the farmers. Those laws in Washington is created by you white people. Because you want the resource here. See?

Dave Swallow
Any war, things happen. Any war… You ever been to conflict, war? None of you. Well, you're lucky. Very lucky. Ugly things happen, you know. Any place that has a conflict. War.

Dave Swallow
And up till today, FBI, they're supposed to rely on the facts, but they lied. And they fabricated. But nobody can do nothing. See? It don't matter if you're innocent or not. It's the color of your skin. That is why they made the white law.

Dave Swallow
As long as there is an American law system, no, they ain't going to let Leonard free. They let free of other criminals. Every president has a choice when they have to go they have to free somebody. But no, America put Leonard in there. Why? Because of the land and the way of life that he's one of them that try to protect. See? So if they ever set Leonard free, that means America gave up and believe in us, and they don't want to do that. See? They don't want to.

Dave Swallow
But that's the way of a life of a warrior. And he is accepting it. Like we all accept it. If I chose to be a warrior, that's the way it's going to be. And I will accept it, how, whatever it comes with that, too, you know, like that.

Rory
Could you do a prayer for us for Leonard?

Chase Iron Eyes
Also, <<Lakota>> if you wanna say a few words like that? You know, in Lakota.

Dave Swallow
I will say a prayer and <<Lakota>> I'm going to use the Lakota language here. Those of you that do understand Lakota language, keep swimming and learning and stay. [Laughter]
<<Dave’s Lakota prayer>>

Dave Swallow
Okay. So that’s it.

VO
After the break we return to the scene of the crime, the Jumping Bull ranch, with Chase Iron Eyes.

ADVOCACY BREAK

VO
The Jumping Bull ranch had changed a lot since we had visited with Edgar Bear Runner just two years earlier. The chest high clover had been cleared. The rusted out cars were gone. And an RV was parked out front of the June Little cabin.

Chase Iron Eyes
My dad lived here. His family lived right across the road, which our family is still there today. But my dad lived here on the Jumping Bull property with Wanda Siers, who is the mother to my brothers and sisters.

Chase Iron Eyes
People refer to me as June Little's son, but I was raised in Standing Rock by my mother. This is why I changed my name from Chase Little to Chase Iron Eyes. And this was when I was 18, because anything that I achieved, I wanted my mother to get credit for it.

Chase Iron Eyes
After having learned of what went on here and needing for myself to come and find him, I showed up over in the community of Oglala, just out of the blue one day on my own, knocking doors. [Laughs] Where does June Little live? You know? And then after about three houses, uh, I found the right one. They told me exactly where he lives. So I showed up on his doorstep, and you know, he just welcomed me in right away.

Chase Iron Eyes
And so I didn't have a father to son relationship with my dad until I was 17. And then he passed away when I was 22 years old, 21 years old, right around there. But I've never been inside my dad's cabin. I've seen pictures of my dad and my brothers, you know. They're little babies at the time. And it's, it's strange, you know. Joe Kills Right Stunts was sniped here. Somebody executed a headshot on Joe Kills Right Stunts.

Chase Iron Eyes
And so my dad, he was traumatized by what happened here. His whole – the whole time that I knew him, in what should have been his later years or his sunset years, he still walked around with his guns loaded at each corner of the house and peered out his windows as if Goons were going to come blasting at his house. My uncle Bo, same way. They stayed heavily prepared to deal with the evils of COINTELPRO. COINTELPRO was giving legal cover, ammunition, weapons, military support and funds to divide our people and watch us kill ourselves.

VO
Chase is referring, here, to the FBI's Covert Intelligence Program, the domestic spying program which surveilled just about everyone the Federal Government considered a threat: the Black Panthers, the Chicano Movement, and the American Indian Movement.

Chase Iron Eyes
And it's no accident that the FBI won't let Leonard free. The FBI committed criminal acts to achieve their ends. And Leonard Peltier is doing all of our time.

Chase Iron Eyes
Every June 26th we remember Leonard Peltier in a run for freedom. We remember Joe Kills Right Stunts. And I even remember Ron Williams and Jack Cohler. I don't think they intended to do what they were partaking in that day.

Chase Iron Eyes
This is a long war. And Leonard Peltier / Jumping Bull property, that's one battle in that long war. Just like Little Big Horn, just like Wounded Knee One – the Wounded Knee massacre – just like Wounded Knee Two. Just like Standing Rock.

Chase Iron Eyes
But we've, we've got to find the strength. And it's hard. Leonard Peltier cannot die in prison. Leonard only wants to come home so he can make his transition in his Homeland, which is waiting to embrace him, which loves him.

Chase Iron Eyes
I don't know what to say about Leonard. I don't know how he keeps it together in there, but he's, he's strong. And we all benefit from that kind of unconquerable dignity. All over the world, people are calling for clemency for Leonard Peltier. We can never lose faith in knowing he should be free. <<Lakota>>

VO
This episode is dedicated to Leonard Crow Dog and Debra White Plume, who both passed away last year.

News and Notes.

February 6th, 2022 marked Leonard Peltier’s 47th year behind bars. An anniversary he spent in solitary confinement after contracting COVID-19 in late January. Thankfully, he was able to weather the storm and beat this horrific virus. But it took a lot out of him.

So please keep Leonard in your thoughts. And please continue to call the White House comment line at 202-456-1111 Tuesday through Thursday between the hours of 11am and 3pm Eastern Standard time to leave a message for President Biden.

Leonard’s attorney, Judge Kevin H. Sharp, says staff is paying close attention to the call volume, so put the White House on speed dial and ask President Biden to free Leonard Peltier.

Also, if you like what you’ve been hearing, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It really does help to get the word out.
Credits

This podcast is produced, written, and edited on Tongva land by Rory-Owen Delaney and Andrew Fuller. Kevin McKiernan serves as our consulting producer.

Thanks to Bobby Halvorson for the original music we’re using throughout this series. Thanks to Maya Meinert and Emily Deutsch, for helping support us while we do what, we hope, is important work.

Thanks to Chase Iron Eyes, Ernest Little, Dan Merrival, and Dave Swallow. And thanks to Mike Casentini at the Network Studios for his engineering assistance, and to Peter Lauridsen and Sycamore Sound for their audio mixing.

And thanks, most of all, to Leonard Peltier.

To get involved and help Leonard, go to whoisleonardpeltier.info or find us on social media @leonard_pod on Twitter and Instagram, or facebook.com/leonardpodcast.

This podcast is a production of Man Bites Dog Films LLC. Free Leonard Peltier!