 Forest Yerman sits in Plemmon’s Student Union during his lunch break to inform students about Leonard Peltier. Peltier has been imprisoned since 1976. Photo by Nathan Cullitan | The Appalachian Over the last two weeks, Forrest Yerman has sat in Plemmons Student Union during his lunch break behind a table and a trifold that read “Free Leonard Peltier.”
Yerman, an English graduate student, said his goal was to raise student awareness of the wrongful imprisonment of a Native American activist.
“Very few people know about him,” he said. “You don’t learn about him in high school classes or most college-level history courses. You have to be in a specific environment to hear about him.”
Yerman said he is trying to bring that specific environment to Boone by helping to promote the Free Leonard Peltier movement.
Leonard Peltier is a Native American who was arrested in 1976 for charges of murder of two FBI agents. He stood trial in 1977 and was found guilty on April 19, according to whoisleonardpeltier.info.
Much of the evidence and testimony used in the trial are now viewed as controversial or false, Yerman said.
The Free Leonard Peltier movement is an attempt to grant Peltier clemency, meaning he would be released from prison immediately. This power lies with President Obama and cannot be overruled by Congress, Yerman said.
Lamonte Boddie, senior communication studies major and president of the Native American Council, worked with Yerman to raise student awareness of Peltier. Boddie is a Native American from the Haliwa-Saponi Nation of North Carolina and Nansemond Nation of southeast Virginia.
He said the decision to join the Free Leonard Peltier movement was an easy one.
“As a Native American, my decision was very easy,” Boddie said. “Given the chance to help a person in need, especially in a situation such as this, is how I was raised. I have always been and will always be an advocate for my people and all people for that matter.”
Yerman recently became a member of the Native American Council, after contacting Boddie to ask if the club wanted to get involved.
Yerman said the main force behind Peltier is the Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee, LPDOC. He said this group is Peltier’s “legal team” in a sense. The group runs Peltier’s official website and are responsible for starting a recent petition to free Peltier from prison.
The petition is being run through a new website called “We the People” at whitehouse.gov. The website was created by the Obama administration to encourage citizens to be a part of agenda setting by policy makers in the United States.
The Free Leonard Peltier petition, which was created on Sept. 22, reached its requirement of 5,000 signatures on Oct. 14, according to data from whitehouse.gov/petitions.
The White House promised to review any petition that reaches the required signatures.
Boddie said it is hard to guess how the White House will respond. He said he hopes the petition will open a window for more information to be shared and revealed about the subject.
“I believe that by reaching the goal of 5,000 signatures we prove to the president that people are not going to forget about Mr. Peltier or ignore the injustice at hand,” Boddie said. “This is a statement by and for Native and non-Native people across the country.”
Yerman said if the petition is denied, he is ready to start the process over again.
“I’m prepared to sit out here as long as it takes to give him freedom,” he said.
Yerman is also trying to create a chapter of the LPDOC at Appalachian. He said it will have close ties with the Native American Council and he hopes to create it in the spring semester of 2012.
For more information, visit aimovement.org and whoisleonardpeltier.info.
Story: RYAN NAGY, Senior Lifestyles Reporter
Photo: NATHAN CULLITAN, Photography Editor |
