"In The Spirit Of Crazy Horse". A difficult book to read.

Wyatt Burp · Oct 8, 2015

I don't know where I got this book about Leonard Peltier and his conviction of killing two FBI agents on the Pine ridge Indian Reservation in the 1970s. But I've tried three times to read it but always put it down. It is so purely biased against the FBI that it makes me question the credibility of the author. Let's say the FBI WERE corrupt, horrible, and Peltier was innocent. This author cannot make that case like he wants to do by injecting constant snide remarks about the FBI while saying everything the Indians did was a frame job. I have an open mind but it's too difficult to read this because the author doesn't.

M1A · Oct 8, 2015

There is also Ruby Ridge.

Absalom · Oct 8, 2015

I've actually made my way through the book. It's about 300 pages too long to make its point.

A shorter way to get the same story is to watch Michael Apted's documentary "Incident at Oglala".

Those were ugly times on the reservations in the 1970s, and nobody comes out looking good, not the Feds, not the tribal authorities, not a lot of the AIM activists.

I don't think there is any doubt that Peltier was guilty in the legal sense: He was there, he admitted (in 1999 in his biography) that he fired at the agents, and even if he was not the one who actually killed the agents, he was NOT an innocent man sent to prison, even if he probably couldn't get a fair trial in North Dakota at the time, and I'm sure the FBI back then wouldn't have been beyond bending some evidence to make sure someone was convicted whom they saw as the killer of two of their own.

Whether Peltier has spent a lot longer time behind bars than convicted killers that have done worse, largely for political reasons, is a different question. But a sequence of presidents, liberal and conservative, have refused to grant him clemency.

Wyatt Burp · Oct 8, 2015

I saw that "Incident at Oglala" is on You Tube but you have to buy it so I didn't watch it. Is this the one one Robert Redford narrates? If so, I'll watch it anyway if I can find it free. I'm the guy who just talked about having an open mind so I will if I can locate it. Same with watching "The FBI Files" TV show. If they covered this I'd be ready to question it, too.
Edit: Found that film and will watch it.

GatorFarmer · Oct 8, 2015

The stepfather of one of the people that I shoot with was supposedly active in AIM. He still greets visitors rifle in hand and claims to be under black helicopter and unmarked van surveillance. Shrug. Maybe he is.

rwsmith · Oct 8, 2015

It's the style nowaday.....

You want to sell a lot of books? Take a popular person and demonize them, especially somebody that can't answer for themselves.

I've seen this a lot, but one notable example was Arthur Goldman's treatment of John Lennon. Lennon getting breakfast had some evil ulterior motive. Paul McCartney simply said, "It's a piece of trash" and "Any old bunch of lies he sees fit". Many people who knew Lennon dismissed it.

Jessie · Oct 8, 2015

Wyatt Burp said:
I saw that "Incident at Oglala" is on You Tube but you have to buy it so I didn't watch it. Is this the one one Robert Redford narrates? If so, I'll watch it anyway if I can find it free. I'm the guy who just talked about having an open mind so I will if I can locate it. Same with watching "The FBI Files" TV show. If they covered this I'd be ready to question it, too.
Edit: Found that film and will watch it.

I'm afraid if its done by Redford, I'll pass.
There's a guy with a closed mind considering his latest work portraying Dan Rather.

"In The Spirit Of Crazy Horse". A difficult book to read.

Wyatt Burp

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M1A

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Absalom

SWCA Member, Absent Comrade

Wyatt Burp

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GatorFarmer

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rwsmith

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Jessie

US Veteran

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