happy birthday l. peltier

September 12, 2008

Greetings,

First of all I want to thank everyone here, it means a lot to me to be remembered on my birthday. But you know one thing that comes to my mind is my mother, she has died since I have been in prison, along with my father and many of my other relatives. But aside from that, I want to get back to talking about my mother.

In my time of thinking in here, it just comes to my mind, that we should all on our birthdays remember our mothers. In fact in my thinking, we should all consider our birthday a mother’s day.

Because she is the one who went through a lot of pain and suffering on that day, she’s the one that needs to be remembered most. And if my life has ever meant anything to anyone in a good way it is owed to her.

She birthed me and because of her, today my words can be heard.

I have spent more than half of my life imprisoned, for something I am not guilty of, as of today the shooter wants everyone to know his identity. And I want you to know that I’m not being held for the deaths of those agents, I’m being held as an example to anyone that would stand up to them. In the coming months there is going to be legal efforts to bring this case into full view of the entire public so that possibly justice can prevail.

I guess I’m getting away from the essence of birthdays. I am 64 years old today and when you get to be my age the only good thing about birthdays is the more you have the longer you live.

Again I want to thank all of you so very very much. You can’t imagine how much it means to a prisoner to be remembered. If I ever get out of here in an upright position I will owe it to people like you who remembered me and remembered the reasons I was put here and accepted the challenge to seek justice for our people.

May the Great Spirit bless you with everything you need. Again I want to thank you

Your Relative in the Struggle

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,

Leonard Peltier