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LPDCUpDates and Announcements!
Monday, September 02, 2002Subj: Inmate Peltier Remains Active in Philanthropy, Creative Outlets Date: 9/1/2002 9:31:30 PM Eastern Standard Time Inmate Peltier remains active in philanthropy, creative outlets Last Modified: 12:21 a.m. 8/10/2002 By Matt Moline Special to The Capital-Journal Chief Thin Elk LAWRENCE -- Few Americans could identify an inmate in the U.S. Bureau of Prisons system by his government name: No. 89637-132.But two young boys in Central America can. Prisoner 89637-132 is the youths' foster parent.So can Indian students attending New York University's law school. Inmate 89637-132 raises money to support a scholarship fund. And clients of women's shelters in America's impoverished Indian reservations count on the toy and clothing drives organized from a Kansas prison cell by No. 89637-132 -- better known as Leonard Peltier.Peltier is the American Indian Movement leader who is serving two life prison sentences at U.S. Penitentiary at Leavenworth for the 1975 shooting deaths of two FBI agents at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.Imprisoned for more than 25 years, Peltier continues his jailhouse philanthropy through the efforts of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, the Lawrence-based international group whose supporters said that an innocent man is behind bars at Leavenworth.Over the years, thousands of contributors have responded to Peltier's calls to aid public service agencies on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations in South Dakota, including Head Start programs, medical clinics and women's shelters, reports LPDC events coordinator Denis Moynihan."He puts out the calls and we provide the implementation, and that's mostly through direct mail and through other ancillary networks," Moynihan said. "In any event, the word seems to get out, and people want to support his efforts." Head Dancer The 58-year-old Peltier also has become an accomplished self-taught artist, whose oil paintings reflect the artist's commitment to Indian culture, Moynihan said.Although recent purchasers have been private collectors, including motion picture director Oliver Stone and actor Peter Coyote, Peltier frequently donates his artwork to charitable organizations, such as the Canadian group in British Columbia that is planning an auction of a painting next month.In the artist's 1999 autobiography, Peltier writes about the human need to maintain a creative impulse, especially in a hostile, dehumanizing environment such as a prison.Peltier, who traces his ancestry to the Dakota Sioux and Chippewa tribes, was born in 1944 on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota."Through my painting I can be with my people, in touch with my culture, tradition and spirit," he writes. "I can watch little children in regalia, dancing and smiling, see my elders in prayer, behold the intense glow of a warrior's eye." Posted by Webmaster@AIMSupport.org 11:40 AM 
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