"There's things, things that happened that day," "June 26, you know, that-- you know, like, 1975." "What happened to the agents?" "What happened to different people around here?" "What happened to Joe Stuntz?" "And different things, you know?" "I think that there's gonna come a time when all that has to be told." "♪ [ Drumbeats ]" "They were there to make trouble." "Because you've got two F.B.I. agents There to serve a warrant... that they don't have on someone who's not there." "It's pretty thin." "♪ [ Drumbeats ]" "Coler and Williams were kind of piggybacking... on the reservation, driving separate cars." "And I forget which one, but one of 'em spotted-- they thought they spotted-- Jimmy Eagle." "♪ [ Drumbeats ]" "Jimmy Eagle and I were at his grandmother's house... all day." "♪ [ Drumbeats ]" "They were just new here." "They weren't familiar with the area." "And I really don't think that-- you know, to this day-- that-- you know, they never expected anybody to shoot them." "♪ [ Native American Chanting ]" "I was down there." "We had a camp down there by those trees." "It must have been about noontime." "Then we heard the shots." "♪ [ Native American Chanting ]" "You could tell by the radio transmissions... that he was terrified and afraid." "And he then said," ""If you don't get here quick, we're gonna be dead."" "♪ [ Native American Chanting ]" "The guys were down in the camp at that time, and they all just took off." "They went running up the hill, 'cause they were worried about" "Is Grandma all right?" "What about the kids?" "Is everyone all right?" "♪ [ Native American Chanting ]" "Try to think the way the agents did." "Them guys committed suicide when they went in there." "♪ [ Native American Chanting ]" "I just couldn't understand why the feds would surround a place... where there was mostly, you know, family-type people there-- children." "♪ [ Native American Chanting ]" "I received a phone call from them on the hot line, telling me that there was a shooting going on at Pine Ridge." "Agents had been wounded." "They'd taken casualties." "And I couldn't even believe what I heard." "♪ [ Native American Chanting ]" "It would have been easy to die here that day." "It was a lot harder to go on living after that day." "♪ [ Chanting Continues ]" "[ Man Narrating ] On June 26, 1975, two F.B.I. agents assigned to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation," "Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, were investigating the whereabouts of a young Indian, Jimmy Eagle, who was wanted for the theft of a pair of cowboy boots." "They had a warrant for Eagle, so they turned around and started following the vehicle, which we believe led them into the Jumping Bull complex." "[ Narrator ] The Jumping Bull compound was an area on the reservation... set back from the highway, which consisted of four Indian residences... and a campsite containing a dozen or so members of the American Indian Movement." "[ Man ] Coler and Williams drove toward the Jumping Bull property." "At that time, Special Agent Adams... was about 15 miles away on the Pine Ridge Reservation." "And he had his radio on, and he could hear... the conversations between Williams and Coler." "He said, "They're not going to stop." "It looks like they're going to run." "It looks like they're going to shoot at us."" "Then, "They're firing at us." "We're under fire."" "[ Gunshots ]" "We had a camp set up down over there by the creek, way over there... about a quarter mile, a half a mile away from here." "I was just getting up that morning." "I heard these shots." "When I stepped out of the tepee, one of the young brothers was running down the hill towards the camp like that, and he was saying, "Get your rifles."" "[ Zigrossi ] And the agents were following the vehicle... into the field, into a hollow." "The red Scout went up a dirt path kind of place." "They got to a fence." "And the agents were following-- separate cars." "They came out of the Jeep-- anywhere from six to seven, eight people, maybe four-- uh, and opened fire." "[ Gunshots ]" "Sporadic gunfire was going on... while we were trying to run up here and assist in whatever was happening here." "We had no idea what was happening." "Soon as we got to the rise, you know, we heard some rounds go by us." "'Cause we weren't really" "It was in a real quick moment, and we ducked, you know, and that's where we started returning fire." "And from what I saw, there was two vehicles down there with their hoods open." "These two individuals obviously saw us when we came up, and they turned towards us and they were firing at us." "And we simply responded by firing back at them, and we got into the best positions we could... in order to protect ourselves... and the women and children that were in the houses." " [ Child Crying ]" " I heard crying and everything." "I thought, we gotta get those women and children... out of that place, man." "There was little babies there." "There was, uh" " I thought the old folks were there." "I said, "We gotta get those people out of there." "What the hell is going on?"" "Coler got hit first." "He was" "What happened" " They were trying to get to their trunk... because they were carrying their rifles in the trunk." "And all they had on them to use was their, uh, .38's." "And as Coler tried to get to his trunk, he got hit in the arm very badly." "Special Agent Adams by that time had learned approximately where they were, and I think he was driving over 100 miles an hour to the scene." "By that moment, the F.B.I. office in Rapid City-- one of the girls heard, "I'm hit,"" "and then heard a groan." "That point is when Special Agent Williams himself had been shot... and injured to the point where he no longer communicated." "I discovered that, uh, they both had been hit by my gunfire." "That's when we saw that car coming in from the highway." "[ Sikma ] Special Agent Adams drove right to the Jumping Bull residence, past the Jumping Bull Hall, and when he reached that point, his voice came over the radio, and he announced that he was under heavy fire." "I had him in my sights, you know." "I had the figure of his head." "Basically, I was aiming right at him, you know." "But I couldn't do that." "I" " I couldn't shoot him." " So I shot his front tire out." " [ Gunshot ]" "We needed to capture these two agents." "We didn't know that they were agents at the time." "We didn't have any idea who they were." "But we felt it had become necessary to, uh-- to capture 'em, and that's what we were gonna do." "And we cautiously started making our way toward these two cars, and about halfway I heard several shots fired." "[ Gunshots ]" "Special Agent Coler was Laying on the ground along the side of his car." "He had a tourniquet made of Special Agent Williams's shirt, and that was wrapped around his arm." "Special Agent Williams was sitting alongside... and that he had put his hand forward like this." "And when he raised his hand, the gun was put against his hand and fired, and part of his hand and the bullet... went through his head and carried off the back of his head and he was dead." "And it was at sometime in that same time... that Special Agent Coler was shot through the top of the head first, an instant thereafter, was shot through the neck, carried away the bottom part of his jaw and he died instantly." "When we arrived at the cars, uh, we discovered that both these individuals... were dead." "At that moment, it seemed that our whole lives had been transformed." "There was nothing left." "Uh, the only thing we could look forward to... was death." "And at that moment we knew it." "By the time I got up here, there was cars, people over there." "And I seen people over here." "There was people over here." "Now, I know we were surrounded." "[ Narrator ] In the gunfire that followed, Joe Stuntz, a 21-year-old Native American, was fatally shot at long range." "I and a deputy from Hot Springs were laying up on this butte, looking at it through binoculars, when one of them was down;" "that was Joe Stuntz." "Joe was laying here, that he was shot." "There was a bullet right through his forehead like that." "[ Peltier ] Once we knew Joe got killed, I felt we all were gonna die." "Perhaps that's what saved us, 'cause it made some of us fight a little bit harder." "I didn't think we were gonna get out of here that day... after when I came back up and looked around." "So I went back down and told everybody that we should go back down to our camp... and, uh, try to figure out how to get out of here." "There was a feeling there-- you know, a sense of loss for these lives." "We weren't happy about it." "Um, we prayed for Joe, that his spirit would have a good journey." "♪ [ Native American Chanting ]" "We prayed for those two agents too." "[ Radio Newscaster ] It was the worst outbreak of violence... on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation... since the 71-day siege at Wounded Knee two years ago." "Police sources said the agents may have survived the initial gunfire... only to be executed later." "Then there was another heavy exchange of fire." "One Indian was shot dead." "The rest of the Indians escaped." "♪ [ Chanting Continues ]" "[ Narrator ] Three Native Americans" "Dino Butler, Bob Robideau and Leonard Peltier-- would eventually be tried for the first-degree murder of the two F.B.I. agents." "No one was ever charged with the killing of Joe Stuntz." "[ Man ] The shootout at Jumping Bull, the killing of these two F.B.I. agents, was a part of the total pattern of violence that was occurring on the reservation." "But it was not surprising to me that two strangers," "F.B.I. agents in civilian clothes from off the reservation, who were not known to anybody, would drive up to an isolated farmhouse" "And whatever started the shooting, I don't know." "But it's not surprising to me... that some kind of incident might occur... under those circumstances, given the level of fear, anxiety and tension which existed on the reservation." "[ Man ] One has to understand the feelings and emotions... of what was going on back there in 1970, '71 and '72." "And when one fully realizes that, then you will understand why we said it was a war zone." "[ Man ] Pine Ridge was probably the poorest reservation in the U.S." "The level of income there is the lowest of all Indians... because of the extreme poverty... and because of the extreme neglect by the federal government... that it developed into a state of hopelessness and despair... that people just could not come out of down there." "[ Peltier ] There was a lot of poverty, a lot of alcoholism, disease." "People were really, you know-- You could just see it in them." "They really felt defeated-- you know, like," ""Wow, this is-- The rest of our life, we're gonna be in this situation."" "[ Dog Barking ]" "[ Muldrow ] The tribe on the reservation... was divided between what was called full-blood and the mixed-blood Indians." "It had nothing to do with blood quanta, but it was more the traditional-oriented Native Americans... versus the more progressive, uh, governmental types... on the reservation." "And there was a great deal of conflict between these two entities." "It might have been Indian versus Indian, but it was traditional people with traditional beliefs... versus people who were puppets for the United States government." "If you were one-half or more to full-blood, you were always a traditionalist." "Then if you were one-half and less to white man's side, you were the dominant society." "And it was a struggle for power-- who was gonna control the government." "I'm Dick Wilson, chairman of the Oglala Sioux tribe" "[ Narrator ] In the spring of 1972, Dick Wilson, a mixed-blood with nontraditional views, was elected president of the Pine Ridge Tribal Council." "As president, Wilson wielded a great deal of economic power, controlling most of the scarce jobs on the reservation... and administering federal program funds." "the main source of income for most Indians." "The perception was... that Dick Wilson's administration... was using government program money... for his own benefit, to enrich his own administration, without really giving a fair share to the people that it was intended to reach." "Dick Wilson had immediately followed the same position... as all the tribal leaders had done-- just to work with the Burea of Indian Affairs and to hell with the needs of the people." "[ Muldrow ] Wilson wanted to be able to control the reservation, and certainly the traditional people on the reservation... perceived that the government-- United States government-- and Wilson's regime worked hand-in-hand... in the maintenance of this power and in the administration of the programs... in an unfair manner in their eyesight." "We were two groups out here, and the dominant society had the upper hand... because they had the B.I.A. police support, F.B.I. support." "If the traditional person or the people out here were to stand up for their rights, we were always in the wrong." "[ Man ] As a Lakota person, we don't have any protection." "We have no place to go." "They asked me to go and talk to the American Indian Movement, said they were your friends and maybe they could come and help us." "♪ [ Drumbeats ]" "[ Muldrow ] AIM was an organization that spoke for traditional Indian people." "But they would see themselves as something of a warrior society among the traditional people... who were there to protect and to preserve values... and to help people, rather than to initiate violence." "We came out of the cities and the ghettos, the reservations... and the penitentiaries and institutions, and we started coming together, you know." "All those things that were being suppressed in us all those years... started coming out and we started communicating with each other." "[ Banks ] The American Indian Movement came in 1972 out of Pine Ridge, the people just poured out on the streets." "It was like a hero's welcome." "AIM, of course, was engaged in confrontational politics at that time." "Their absolute intention was to attract attention to Indian problems... by political confrontation and, if necessary, violence." "[ Man ] In 1972, during the Nixon reelection, we went to D.C., and we ended up occupying the Bureau of Indian Affairs national headquarters." "We kept it for like a week, but it was highly embarrassing for the Nixon administration." "We had gone too far." "A lot of the people, the Indian leadership and stuff, were from South Dakota." "So after that occupation was over, AIM came back here on Pine Ridge." "It seemed like by January of 1973... that the F.B.I. had sent some people into Pine Ridge... to start training the B.I.A. and tribal police... on how to deal with subversives or counter-subversive activity-- whatever the thing is." "And they started bringing heavy weapons in." "Now, this is before the Wounded Knee occupation." "This is before-- So it's like they had picked that as the grounds, right, to have this standoff." "[ Abourezk ] The American Indian Movement held a meeting and decided, in an effort to attract attention to their problems, they would go into Wounded Knee and take it over because of its historical significance." "♪ [ Native American Chanting ]" "[ Narrator ] In 1973, a group of traditional Indians and AIM members... occupied the small community of Wounded Knee, the site of an 1890 massacre... in which 300 unarmed Indians, mainly women and children," "were killed by the U.S. Seventh Cavalry." "♪ [ Chanting Continues ]" "AIM demanded the restoration of treaties broken by the federal government... and challenged the injustice and poverty on the Pine Ridge Reservation." "[ Man ] I think that there was a feeling on the part... of the Indian community at this time... that if they didn't make a stand soon... that there would be nothing left of the Indian communities." "The tactics of the American Indian Movement... were a readiness to put their bodies on the line, because that's all they had." "[ Man ] We have bet our lives that we can make change... for the American Indian, whether we live or die, and I'm prepared to die." "[ Narrator ] The government responded to the occupation... with a massive display of military hardware... and surrounded the small town with U.S. marshals," "F.B.I. agents and Bureau of Indian Affairs police." "[ Man ] There was a genuine fear on the part of the government... of the rise of a Native American movement, and I think the government... would do anything in its power to make this movement go away." "And I think they thought that Wounded Knee was the place to stop it." "[ Narrator ] Although gunfire was exchanged on numerous occasions... and two Native Americans were killed, the siege eventually came to an end after 71 days." "No progress was made, however, toward solving the problems on the Pine Ridge Reservation." "Well, it sort of fizzled out." "Everybody just was tired of it." "I think the Indians were as tired of it as the government was." "They finally just agreed to" ""Let's all give up at the same time." "We'll put you on trial for certain things." That's how it ended." "Maybe-- Maybe we broke even." "Right?" "Because it instilled a lot of attention." "And to some degree, I guess, it instilled a lot of pride in the Indian people, and we needed something like that as a people, maybe." "But what it did for us as a movement" "It was the beginning of the diffusion of the focus... um, because we then got tied up in the courts." "And we then got-- The hunt became more intense." "You know, we may be one of the very few organizations in this country... that basically every member of the organization... was at one time or another charged with some criminal act." "♪ [ Native American Chanting ]" "[ Narrator ] After Wounded Knee, there were over 500 arrests... and 185 federal indictments against AIM members and supporters." "♪ [ Chanting Continues ]" "Over 90% of these cases were either dismissed... or resulted in acquittals." "[ Indistinct Shouting ] [ Abourezk ] They were political trials to begin with." "The government wanted to remove the AIM leadership... and make them ineffective, basically-- put them in jail for a few years so that the organization would drift without them." "[ Muldrow ] In the aftermath of Wounded Knee, the tension between the Wilson regime... and the traditional Indians on the reservation was dangerous." "It was not surprising, of course, that so much violence resulted from the situation there... because of the tension and the level of fear... and animosity that was present on the reservation." "After the occupation of Wounded Knee, between the period of May of 1973 and June of '75 when the firefight happened, was-- that was the reign of terror." "That was the reign of terror." "You know, this is when most of the people died." "The violence on the reservation is awesome." "At that time, I think their population was around 10,000, 15,000 people." "The state's population was 700,000." "And there were more violent deaths on that reservation in 12 months... than there was the entire rest of the state combined." "[ Muldrow ] The violence was generated on the reservation... largely by supporters of the Wilson administration." "It's no secret that Wilson was using government program money... by setting up bands of armed men called the "goon squads,"" "who were a quasi law enforcement agency-- not law enforcement, but more of a vigilante-type groups." "They were used to intimidate the residents on the reservation... so that they did not threaten his practices... or dare to question them." "They said that all of the AIM people and the traditionalists, right, were the enemy, for whatever reasons, and I never understood how the death-squad mentality-- these people that were called goons, but in reality was death squads" "I never understood how they could justify-- Wilson, any of them-- could justify what they were doing." "There were times when you get wrapped up in the excitement... and things happen, you know, that you can't control." "Well, we were just one family of many that were attacked... by the people who supported Dick Wilson." "It was just a regular day like any other." "A friend of our family was coming to my home, and he said he saw a shadow running behind him, so he turned and it was one of Dick Wilson's nephews." "And he told him, "You AIM sons of bitches have until sundown to get out of town."" "And then the next thing I knew, I heard a lot of gunshots." "And I couldn't see." "The house was filled with smoke." "And so I grabbed my son and I turned to run with him... into the other room or something." "And I know he was hit." "He was hit in his arm." "And I was hit, and I got hit right here." "And I saw his thumb get blown off." "And I ran in the other room, and I laid on him, and I turned and I looked and I seen my mother get hit." "She just laid down, and everybody" "I could hear the kids outside screaming." "I had several little sisters with their friends playing outside." "They were screaming." "And I could hear a lot of gunfire." "And I was just real scared, because my son wasn't crying." "He was just looking at me." "[ Gunshots ]" "Those goons chased my family towards Rapid City." "And they hit 'em real hard, so the back smashed through the front seat." " [ Gunshot ]" " Three of my family got killed." "My mother had a broken neck." "And my, my little sister, you know, he-- she, she had internal injuries, and so did my son." "He was just full of energy, and, you know, it just kind of makes me feel bad... that I had to lose my son that way." "I lost a lot of, uh, friends, brothers." "My grandparents died bitter." "I walked up and buried a lot of my-- a lot of my people during that time." "You know, I'm just-- I'm kind of amazed that I kinda made it through alive myself." "The Jumping Bull firefight got the most attention... 'cause some feds were killed, you know?" "But, shit, there were shoot-outs going on all the time... before that and after that." "[ Muldrow ] A little town called WANBLEE" "A group of Richard Wilson supporters, who had reportedly been told that WANBLEE needed to learn a lesson, came in and literally shot up the town." "One man was killed." "The F.B.I. were called in." "B.I.A. police were on the scene." "None of them did anything to stop the violence... that was occurring there throughout the night." "People were killed." "People were shot at, by equipment that was given to them by the United States government-- automatic rifles, ammunition-- given to Dick Wilson and his people." "[ Muldrow ] The government turned a blind eye to a lot of things going on." "I can't specifically say they sided with the Wilson regime, but they were certainly sympathetic to that regime, as opposed to the more traditional people... out of which came the AIM movement." "The killing had to stop." "It had to stop." "You know, when you've got old people-- when your elders live in a climate of total fear-- and not an unjustified fear-- when they're the targets, it's an intolerable situation." " Something must be done." " ♪ [ Chanting ]" "[ Peltier ] The Oglalas came and made a presentation... to the American Indian Movement... and told about the terrorism that was going on;" "told about the homes that were being shot up, the people that were dying and how much fear they had." "You know, these were older ladies making these presentations." "It was real." "It wasn't something they were just imagining." "And they needed some help from the American Indian Movement." "[ Butler ] We came here to help these people." "There was a lot of uneasiness." "People were kind of on edge." "I mean, we had our security set up all night around here... to make sure nobody would surprise us at night around here or early in the morning." "It was a kind of situation" "If anybody came up that we were not expecting and did not-- like if it were at night, if they didn't blink their lights a certain way, you assumed they're coming to kill you." "And it really is that simple." "It was that violent." "And we had been asked to come down here specifically to protect this community, and we were gonna do that." "[ Peltier ] One of the things we've got to do" "We can't just be going around here claiming to be American Indian Movement members, we're concerned about people and everything else." "We've got to really start doing stuff-- you know, building community gardens, chopping wood, hauling water, whatever they needed done, that's your responsibility." "That's what a warrior's responsibility is." "It's not just prancing around with a gun in their hand, showing everybody they're tough." "In our society, that's not a warrior's role, right?" "They were really totally involved with organizing... a better way of life for the people-- for the Indian people, any tribe." "And we accepted them as part of our tribe." "But one thing that really, I guess, put a spark in my life... was they really advocated sobriety, you know." "A lot of young men that were here, that was the only courage they had, was to go get drunk and then face the goons." "The violent rap we got laid on us." "It was all our people that died." "You don't see no long list of feds and death squad members and any of these other people." "You don't see any long list of their dead." "You see a long list of our dead." "You look at that list, and every one of them's got an Indian name, almost exclusively." "[ Narrator ] John Trudell himself became a victim of violence... when his wife, mother-in-law and three children... were killed when the house in which they were sleeping burned to the ground." "♪ [ Native American Chanting ]" "All through the course of the years of all this, all I did was talk." "You know?" "And they cracked down hard just for that." "♪ [ Chanting Continues ]" "[ Narrator ] During this three-year period, there were over 60 unsolved murders of traditionals... and AIM supporters in the Pine Ridge Reservation." "It was in this violent atmosphere that the shoot-out at Jumping Bull took place." "We had no idea of the total relationship... between Dickey Wilson's tribal government and his goon squad... and the United States government and the F.B.I." "We had no idea." "But on June 26, uh, we certainly were sensitized... to, uh, the intent they had... in destroying... us." "[ Zigrossi ] When two of your people-- F.B.I. agents-- get killed, there's some emotion that runs very high." "We had around 350 F.B.I. agents within three days... in that small concentration of area." "We knew that the whole world was watching." "We knew that two of our people had been downed." "And we also knew that, you know, we needed to resolve the murder case." "[ Radio Chatter ]" "There was no reason to fear anymore." "We had already accepted the fact that, uh, we were dead." "I mean, when you hear stories... or look at movies about the F.B.I., you know, they always get their man." "[ Narrator ] It was one of the largest manhunts... ever organized by the F.B.I., yet the 15 or so armed people in the Jumping Bull compound that day all escaped." "And I told everybody, "Come on, brothers, sisters." ""We gotta sit down here." "We gotta pray." ""If we're right-- If the kachala wants us to get away, then he'll-- he'll give us a way out."" "[ Brown ] I saw an eagle come from the south side, and it landed on a tree not too far away." "Hey, look!" "You know?" "This big thing just sat down, you know." "Then it took off." "Wherever that bird went, we followed it." "I said, "We can't wait now." "We got to go, just got, and try to make it to the top." "We'll meet up there."" "By the time we hit the back hill, it was straight out;" "they were opening up on us." "There was automatic fire." "You could hear it go by you." "You could feel the wind of the bullets go by you." "And it was just" " You run." "You just don't even think about it." "You just run." "I don't know how we all made it up there." "There was so many rounds, and it was just like we were a bunch of rabbits running up there... and they were just all shooting at us." "We felt pretty safe then, you know, 'cause it was way up high and they were way down below us." "More fire was being directed in our direction." "And we climbed to the top of the hill, and we sat down... and, uh, rested." "And we looked out over this land, and we could see hundreds of law enforcement agents." "So we took a break, and these two brothers come riding up on horseback." "This one brother, I remember he said, "Hi." "What's going on, man?"" "I knew they were in trouble and they needed help." "We don't know if we're gonna make it out of here." "We might all be dead before tonight's over, you know." "And I said, "Well, we've made that choice to die with you guys if that's what it is." "But we're not gonna die." "We're gonna get outta here."" "I took 'em to my grandpa's house." "And it was just like he was expecting us." "We knocked on the door." "His nephew, I think it was, knocked on the door, and he just opened up the door and says, "I'm glad you're here." "Come on in." "Bring your friends in." "They're welcome."" "Marv went and opened the door, and there's Dino and them... so we just told 'em to come in and sit down." "So that's when we started visiting." ""Sit down, sit down," he says." "I said, "It's very dangerous." "We don't know what's going on." "You gotta go out and talk to some of the people and tell 'em they gotta get us outta here."" "Somebody had to get 'em outta there, 'cause the F.B.I.'s were too close." "And when we did go outside, there was a airplane or a helicopter... or something was out there, and it had a spotlight on us." "And Marv said, "You gotta get 'em out of here or they might kill 'em."" "So we gassed my car up and we picked up Leonard and our boys then." "That's when it was frightening." "[ Laughing ]" "Because it was gettin' dark then, you know." "[ Peltier ] Me, Bob and Dino, we're layin' down in the back seat." "And all of a sudden, we could see those car lights-- car coming real fast." "Cop cars come pulling up behind 'em, real close." "It was scary." "I was thinkin' we could've died, or they could shoot us or something." "Lou started praying." "She had some tobacco ties above the visor." "She started praying, and when you pray real hard with your tobacco ties, whatever you're praying for you throw it out." "And as soon as she did that, we seen the car lights go back." "Well, of course the F.B.I. is all over the United States." "They're looking for them." "They came here." "They stayed here." "While all those guys be busy looking for them all over the United States, they were here, they were here." "♪ [ Drumbeats ]" "[ Wilson On TV ] The Oglalas don't like what happened." "And if the F.B.I. don't get 'em, the Oglalas will." "We have our own way of punishing people." "[ Interviewer ] Shooting on the reservation?" "You said it." "We'll take care of 'em." "♪ [ Drumbeats ]" "[ Man ] Dino Butler was arrested during the course... of an F.B.I. paramilitary raid on the Rosebud Reservation... on September 5, 1975." "Bob Robideau was arrested five days later... when the car in which he and others were riding... exploded on the highway near Wichita, Kansas." "The initial fire and explosion set off the explosives and ammunition they were carrying." "Leonard Peltier was not arrested until approximately five months later... in Canada, on February 6, 1976." "[ Man ] Peltier was, of course, indicted originally... with Robideau and Butler." "What I would have preferred to do... would have been to try all three of them at the same time." "But Mr. Peltier was in Canada... and was fighting extradition." "The judgment was that it would be many months... before that could be resolved." "In the meantime, Robideau and Butler... were in jail... and, uh, I thought it best to proceed without Peltier." "[ Man ] We felt that when the case started, it was gonna be extremely difficult." "We were trying to defend two members... of a militant organization-- the American Indian Movement-- with long hair... in a pretty conservative community... that was predominantly white working-class, which hadn't up to that point shown a great deal... of awareness, let alone support and solidarity with the Indian community." "[ Narrator ] The trial of Bob Robideau and Darrelle "Dino" Butler... for the first-degree murder of the two F.B.I. agents... began in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in June, 1976." "[ Nilak Butler ] We had not expected a fair trial in Cedar Rapids, and in fact they went to a lot of trouble... to paint everybody as, you know, hard-core guerilla terrorists and perpetrate that whole myth." "I remember one day, um, Tina and I and the kids... were gonna cross the street, and the marshals came out." "And they made us go and sit behind another building... because they were bringing the jury out to the buses." "So they didn't even want the jury to see us, you know-- two women with a bunch of kids." "And you can't tell me that was a security issue." "They didn't want the jury to look at us as human beings on any level." "[ Butler ] Before our trial started, the marshals and F.B.I. agents... told people not to leave their cars unlocked... and don't go anywhere by yourself, because we have two AIM people that are on trial here." "and, you know, the AIM soldiers and the AIM warriors... might come in and try to break them out of jail or take hostages-- created their own little campaign of terror." "♪ [ Native American Chanting ]" "♪" "[ Man ] It was pretty clearly evident to the defense team... that we were gonna be steamrolled... if the government had their way." "The amount of evidence we were gonna be confronting, the amount of investigation, was just overwhelming." "At various times, they had as many as 250... different F.B.I. agents investigating in this case." "They had found over 4,000 pieces of physical evidence... in 20 locations in 13 states." "It was as though they had taken the United States and turned it upside-down... and just shaken it until everything had fallen out that had to do with this case." "[ Butler ] They went after Bob Robideau, Leonard and myself... because of our involvement with the Movement." "[ Lowe ] The case against Butler and Robideau, as we understood it and has evolved through all these documents, was based on proving they were on the Jumping Bull compound.... when the firefight took place with the two F.B.I. agents... and that they were participating in it in a way... that amounted to aiding and abetting in the killing of those two agents." "[ Zigrossi ] The major evidence, I believe, would have been the cartridges that were found at the scene... that came from weapons... that belonged to and were taken from the subjects." "The prosecution tried to show that the guns... that Butler and Robideau had might have fired the bullets." "Okay, he's carrying something that fires a certain type of bullet;" "they found some bullets at the scene." "They couldn't actually tie any of the found bullets, whatever was left of 'em, they could not relate those to any one specific weapon." "And to say because there's a .38-caliber bullet laying on the ground... that somebody else who had a .38-caliber bullet might have fired it" "Sure, they might have fired it." "But that's not proof beyond a reasonable doubt." "There were two witnesses who testified against them... who observed-- who observed them present... at the time the agents were killed." "They had two young Native Americans... who were going to be identifying Butler and Robideau's having been present... and what weapons they were carrying and some of the other activities." "That was Wish Draper and Norman Brown." "And we knew that statements they had from Wish Draper and Norman Brown could be attacked." "We knew that there had been-- Both of them had said that they had been intimidated... and essentially terrorized by some of the interviews that they had been subjected to, some of the threats and things that they had been told." "They kept coming to a point where, "Who killed the agents?" "We know you know who killed 'em." "We know you saw Leonard, Bob and Dino."" "And they kept going on and on, and they kept reminding me I was going to jail, that I had two counts of first-degree murder against me." "[ Sighs ] So... being there... by myself, no choice," "I sort of went along with them, you know?" "And it's wrong because it wasn't true." "The only sighting that the jury believed was for sure... was the sighting that they were somewhere 100 or 200 yards off, hiding behind a car, firing their guns." "That was the only positive evidence that we had... that, uh, Robideau and Butler had actually fired on the agents." "As the case rolled on, I realized it was all gonna be very, very circumstantial." "A lot of people were shooting." "That was understood-- there were hundreds of bullets found... and shell casings all over the place-- and that no one could really pinpoint, as far as I could see, exactly who shot the agents." "[ Ellison ] One of the last witnesses of the government, who was James Harper, and he filled in the gaps which were gaping... in the government's case." "The government needed something." "They were trying to get something to connect these two men... with the deaths of the agents." "I was kind of surprised when we got our witness list against us, you know?" "That James Harper-- We was trying to figure out, "Who the hell was James Harper?"" "[ Laughs ] Then I remembered who he was." "The testimony of Jim Harper was another vivid memory... because he was a real sleazeball when he came on." "Mr. Harper had spent the night in the Lynn County jail with Darrelle Butler." "And During this brief meeting, that Darrelle" "He had confessed to him of his involvement in the deaths of the agents, of a plan to kill a federal judge from Rapid City... and of plans to blow up the hotel... where the prosecution was staying." "The detail was such that it made appear, to me at least, that his testimony was credible." "Anybody with any logic would wonder, "Why would Butler have said all that?"" "Nonetheless, one of the most wonderful things that ever happened in this trial... was that James Harper's landlady came forward on her own." "She had read in a newspaper the account of what Harper had said." "She knew that his story was a lie." "She knew him as the-- as the deceitful... fugitive felon that he was, and who had been rehearsing, should he get caught-- because he was wanted in Texas and wanted in Wisconsin, I believe" "that if he got caught... that he was gonna tell them-- tell law enforcement... that he had information either about the Manson case, which he had been studying, or the deaths of the F.B.I. agents in South Dakota." "I'm still amazed that they could put a witness on of that character... and expect to get by with it." "[ Kunstler ] As the case unfolded, it got to be more of a defendant's case than I had dared to hope." "And then I realized that what it was was a self-defense case... and that these agents had come flying up the hill... and that they were driving late-model cars.." "and they were coming into a reservation where there was terrible fear." "There had been many-- hundreds-- of unsolved murders." "And I think the jury understood that people on the reservation were terrified... and that if anybody came rushing in the way those agents came rushing in-- and we know they rushed in-- that there would be possibly" "and there was-- a severe reaction, and a reaction not out of malevolence, but out of fear." "[ Man ] The question then arises:" "Did the agents somehow or other start this fight?" "And I think you have to essentially use simple common sense." "They're trained professionals." "I think it's absolutely absurd to think... that these two agents would follow somebody they don't know, very obviously don't know, into an area, get out at 200 yards, start blazing away at 'em... with service revolvers that have a range of about 50 feet" "They don't know how many people are up on the hill." "They have no idea what kind of weapons these people have." "There's absolutely no reason to shoot at them." "My understanding was that the defendants were probably in the tent area... where they were camped when the firing came out;" "that there were women and children in the houses around where the area." "They had women with them." "They had young kids with them in their camp." "And there's very good reasons for them to be off with their guns... to see what on earth is going on when all this shooting started." "The burden is on the government to prove the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and that doubt can arise from many sources." "One of them being self-defense." "Self-defense... as an absolutely absurd defense." "But for the two individuals," "I think you can make a very strong case, as they did, that they acted what in their minds they thought... was an attack upon them-- self-defense." "[ Kunstler ] I couldn't see how a Midwestern jury, a hinterlands jury, in considering the fate of two Native Americans, who weren't even residents there but came from somewhere else, finding them innocent of the murder of two white F.B.I. agents." "[ Lowe ] On the Friday, the last day-- it was 3:00 in the afternoon-- we got word that the jury had reached a verdict." "And I think all of us, our reaction was our hearts dropped." "We got back to the courtroom." "When we got there, the U.S. attorney's staff were all being broad-grinned... and smiles and walking around very... confidently." "They obviously believed that it was conviction." "I remember the lawyers telling us, "Watch the jury when they come down." ""If they look at you, then we're probably okay-- if they smile or anything" "But if they just completely ignore you, then we're in trouble."" "So I was watching the jury when they come back in" "[ Kunstler ] They marched in, headed by a doughty woman whose face I will never forget." "She smiled at us as she went by." "And I said to myself, "I think we have something going here."" "And, of course, a few minutes later we heard, "Not guilty." "Not guilty."" "Of course we were totally elated, and, uh, we embraced each other, whereas the F.B.I. agents, some of which were crying, they obviously were distraught with the whole verdict... and it showed." "They were very, very broken up about the loss of their two buddies, and they felt that there should have been convictions." "I wasn't totally surprised, because that trial, as trials go, really got out of hand." "The jurors complained throughout the course of the trial-- and those complaints were made known to the judge-- that Native American AIM members... were driving by their houses, were seen by their houses." "Individuals had asked questions about them in their neighborhoods." "Why, that's silly." "That's absolutely absurd." "Not myself and not one of the jurors... even was contacted or even saw an Indian, let alone to know for sure that he was part of the American Indian Movement." "The only time we saw any-- The only time I saw any Indians was in the courtroom." "There wasn't any indication that anyone was attempting... to influence the jurors in any way." "But obviously if we're gonna be frightened by anybody, I'd be more frightened by the F.B.I." "After the verdict was read, I thought the U.S. marshals were gonna kill all 12 of us." "[ Nilak Butler ] We were very glad when they got acquitted." "And we thought, "Okay, when Leonard gets extradited, you know, there's a chance for him too."" "♪ [ Native American Chanting ]" "♪" "[ Peltier ] They had to have more evidence than what they had... to have me extradited from Canada." "Reading the extradition law and reading everything behind it," "I thought I had a good chance, you know?" "I thought if this government... is really concerned about international treaty laws, then I should be allowed to stay here, because everything's legitimate." "But then my lawyers brought the discovery to me and they says," ""Well, Leonard, I've got some bad news for you."" "I says, "Yeah?" "Let's hear it."" "And he said, "Well, your girlfriend is testifying against you."" "I said, "My girlfriend?" "She wasn't even there."" "Myrtle Poor Bear suddenly turns up, giving an affidavit to the F.B.I. saying... that she was the girlfriend of Leonard Peltier." "I said, "Myrtle Poor Bear?" "I don't know who the hell Myrtle Poor Bear is."" "The Poor woman was a psychotic woman... who would pick up anything anybody told her." "If they told her she was with Leonard Peltier, she would write an affidavit." "The first time I ever met the F.B.I. agents was at the school." "It's when they came down and told me that I was involved in a shootout... and that they had photos of me running and doin' this and that." "February 19 I believe was the date that that first affidavit was given, and she said that she was not there." "So she obviously couldn't relate what had gone on." "Then they started threatening me about my daughter, that's Marty." "They said that they were gonna take her away from me... and I wasn't gonna ever see her again... and I had to cooperate with them and I started" "You know, they say, "Well, you're gonna say this." "And if you don't say it, then you're not gonna see Marty no more."" "Four days later, she gave another affidavit, and this time the affidavit was identical in all respects except for one sentence." "And the sentence that said, "I was not at the Jumping Bull compound,"" "or whatever that precise wording was." "In the February 23 affidavit, four days later, it said," ""I was present with Leonard Peltier and I saw him shoot the agents."" "Now this is a direct, 180-degree turn in one affidavit." "They were really threatening me then, and then that was the time when Anna Mae, they found her body in Wanblee." "And, you see, they were using Anna Mae on me." "[ Narrator ] Anna Mae Aquash, a known AIM activist, was shot in the back of the head by an unknown assailant in February, 1976." "Her body was found dumped in a ravine." "They could not identify her." "She was not identified." "And we finally got involved... and sent her hands into the lab to find out who she was." "Then they showed me pictures of her hands." "Just her hands." "Then they told me, "Well, if you don't cooperate, it's gonna be worse with you."" "He said, "We'll put you through a meat grinder where no one will never know."" "March 31, she gave another much more detailed affidavit, saying not only that she had seen Leonard Peltier kill the agents, but that a woman named Madonna Slow Bear... had actually grabbed her when she tried to run away from the shooting... and force her to look and watch the shooting... and all sorts of details like that." "They used that affidavit-- those three affidavits-- as a basis for extraditing Leonard Peltier from Canada." "[ Zigrossi ] Myrtle came forward with a scenario that was believable." "We tested it as best we knew how." "We involved as many people as we knew how, including the prosecutors, because I knew at the time that this was very explosive kind of information." "And after she was tested-- or the information was tested in every way possible-- we felt that it passed the test and we used it." "In March of 1976, the F.B.I. asked for a check... to see whether any of the many, many fingerprints... that were obtained from the Jumping Bull compound... matched any of Myrtle Poor Bear's." "They fingerprinted everything, I suppose, from one end of the compound to the other." "The report came back on April 6, 1976, saying that there was not a single fingerprint... that matched any of Myrtle Poor Bear's." "Now, that means that within a week after they had the third spurious affidavit, they knew that there was no physical evidence to corroborate that she was ever there." "But Myrtle Poor Bear had convinced a number of people, in her mind, that she was there... because of the great detail that she did give." "And, in fact, members of my own trial team... were feeling that Myrtle Poor Bear was there." "But when I had all of the information in front of me, at a later time when I saw the affidavits, there isn't any question in my mind that there was nothing else to support anything;" "that Myrtle Poor Bear wasn't there." "The F.B.I. agents involved had to know... that the affidavits were phony, were just fraudulent, because, first of all, they contradicted themselves internally." "They were so inconsistent that nobody in their right mind would read those two and say," ""Wait a minute." "They both can't be right."" "If indeed the F.B.I. could recognize... at the time they talked to her... that she was as incompetent as she was... at the time Mr. Hultman and I finally talked to her, then that would be a serious matter." "Because certainly to accept the word of a known, obvious incompetent... would almost by definition be improper." "I didn't even know Leonard." "I didn't even know what Leonard looked like till I met him in the courtroom." "[ Man ] I don't think Peltier would have been extradited... if it hadn't been for that false affidavit." "One would think that officials-- the people that prepared the affidavit, or pursued the affidavit and put it together, knowing-- and intentionally putting it in the hands... of Canadian justice officials as being the real thing," "and letting it be used before courts, to me that's not the way you treat any justice system, let alone the justice system of a friendly country." "The U.S. Marshal's Office in Western Washington." "♪ [ Native American Chanting ]" "♪" "[ Trudell ] They used perjured affidavits to get the Canadian government... to send him back to the U.S. to stand trial." "But the realities are... the perjured documents... aren't what convinced the Canadian government to send him back." "The perjured documents are what gave the Canadian government... the rationalization to send him back." "Because the Indians are as much of a threat up there" "See, the Indians don't like the way they're treated anywhere." "[ Ellison ] As soon as Leonard Peltier was extradited back to the U.S., the case was somehow mysteriously taken away from Judge McManus... and transferred to Judge Benson up in North Dakota." "They told him that AIM was gonna bug his chambers, so they had periodic sweeps of the chambers." "They told him that the AIM people were gonna tear up the courtroom, so they had extra security." "Every time the jury would go out of the courthouse, there were SWAT teams protecting them as they got on the bus." "The bus had curtains pulled down." "I presume they were either told or the implication was... so that snipers couldn't shoot at the jury on the way back and forth to the motel." "Well, they tried to portray me as a killer, a murderer." "Mr. Peltier has been painted as late... as having been a leader of the Indian movement." "And I've never seen any evidence that he was anything other than a bodyguard." "He had a stated intent... and motive and eyewitnesses that said he committed the offense, so there was ample evidence to convict him." "[ Lowe ] The F.B.I., between the two trials, had done an analysis as to why they lost the first trial." "And one of the reasons that they had ascribed to the loss... was their feeling that the jury wanted to actually hear evidence... that the defendants had committed the execution of these two agents... at close range, after they were already disabled," "by pulling the trigger on the guns themselves." "Just before the trial started, my chief counsel at that time, Elliot Taikeff, told me, he said, "Leonard, the government wants you to stipulate the aiding and abetting... and, uh, just go to a first-degree murder indictment."" "The weren't gonna just rely on aiding and abetting from shooting up on the ridge..." "[ Gunfire ] as they had with Butler and Robideau." "And so the evidence then switched from an aiding and abetting theory... to what's called a principle theory:" "Leonard did it." "They had to convince the jury that Leonard executed, was the murderer at close range, point-blank of these two agents," "[ Gunfire ] that his gun was the only AR-15 that was in the area." "[ Gunfire ]" "And then they had to have a shell casing... that they could say matched that AR-15 which they attributed to him." "The government, between Cedar Rapids and Fargo, realized that they had to eliminate the self-defense argument." "One of the ways they could do that would be if Leonard Peltier had shot at the agents first." "Lo and behold, miraculous Mike Anderson comes to the rescue, who miraculously sees exactly what the government needs to fill the hole." "Mike Anderson... testified at trial that he was at the residences when the firefight started." "He said he was on the roof of the house when he saw Leonard Peltier's vehicle... coming racing into the compound, being followed by the F.B.I. vehicles." "He saw Leonard Peltier drive the vehicle down into the compound, saw the agents drive down, saw Leonard Peltier get out of his vehicle... and shoot at the agents." "[ Gunfire ]" "Then Anderson gives further testimony about that... and says he jumped off of the house and then he ran all the way to the tent area... and then he got his weapon and then he came up onto the ridge." "He said he saw Leonard Peltier, Robideau and Butler... down at the agents' cars with their weapons," "He saw Leonard Peltier down there with an AR-15." "They had this cartridge casing... which seemed to back up the fact that Leonard Peltier was involved in this in a way, so that the cartridge casing gave greater credibility to Mike Anderson... and Mike Anderson gave greater credibility to the cartridge casing." "According to the pathologist reports, the agents were killed by a high-velocity small-caliber weapon." "According to the pathologist reports and testimony, this would include a .30 caliber or less." "This is a .223 caliber, which is .30 caliber or less." "It's actually a .22 caliber." "The government contended that it found a casing like this one... in the open trunk of Special Agent Coler's vehicle... approximately 10 feet from the agents' bodies." "[ Lowe ] The theory of the government was that that cartridge casing... matched the AR-15, the one that they had they had identified... and through their evidence they believed was in the possession of Leonard Peltier." "Therefore, if Leonard Peltier had fired an AR-15 down at that site... resulting in a cartridge casing ending up in the trunk of the car, that was proof that he had shot the agents at close range." "[ Butler ] In the courtroom, the atmosphere was very-- it was very tense, I felt." "I think Leonard would have got convicted in that courtroom, even if God was his attorney." "You know?" "There was just no way he was gonna win." "[ Commotion ]" "[ Tilsen ] It was clear almost immediately... that it was impossible that there would be a "not guilty" verdict." "Man, I feel the doors being slammed on me and being welded." "I says, "Man, they're really giving me a snow job here."" "After seeing what was happening and seeing the evidence that was being allowed, that the government was to present, uh, you know, like the bloody autopsy pictures in living color." "Uh, you know, knowing and watching the jury... and seeing the effect it had on them." "And we had interviewed a jurist after trial, and she said-- and this was the first piece of evidence the government put against me" "She said, "When we see those bloody autopsy pictures, we knew somebody had to pay."" "I'm the only person that's in defensive, that could have paid." "And then the judge excluded all good evidence for the defense." "He changed virtually every ruling that was favorable to the defense... that McManus had issued... and made every ruling that was favorable to the prosecution that he had refused to make, and so they got the best of all possible worlds." "And accordingly, the jury convicted." "In my judgment, uh, justice has been done." "[ Footsteps Down Hallway ]" "[ Prison Door Slams ]" "After I was convicted, I was given 30 days, uh, before I was going to be sentenced." "The date was set 30 days, on June 1." "I, uh, was moved from numerous county jails around the state of North Dakota." "During that time, because of my anger and my frustrations... at the court and this United States government," "I prepared this statement:" ""There is no doubt in my mind or my people's minds..." ""you are going to sentence me to two consecutive life terms." ""You are and have always been," ""prejudiced against me any Native Americans who have stood before you." ""You have openly favored the government all through this trial," ""and you are happy to do whatever the F.B.I. would want you to do in this case." ""You're about to perform an act..." ""which will close one more chapter..." ""in the history of the failure of the United States courts..." ""and the failure of the people of the United States..." ""to do justice in the case of a Native American." ""After centuries of murder," ""could I have been wise in thinking that you would break that tradition... and commit an act of justice?"" "[ Narrator ] In 1977," "Leonard Peltier was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in federal prison." "Five years later, Peltier appealed his conviction, charging that the government had withheld crucial ballistics evidence at that trial." "[ Man ] Leonard Peltier came to our court... to ask that an evidentiary hearing be held... on the question of whether newly discovered evidence was such... that a new trial was required." "We remanded it back to the district court... for an evidentiary hearing." "The failure to disclose... all of the evidence with respect to the ballistic tests... was the point of the second appeal." "Well, the .223 casing in Coler's car... was always a kind of a mysterious thing." "Two agents reported finding it on two different days." "But putting that aside for the moment, they had to match that bullet to an AR-15, which they could attribute to Leonard Peltier." "[ Ellison ] This is a Colt AR-15 semiautomatic rifle." "A firing pin test, matching up of the mark on the primer... with the mark made by the firing pin," "can tell to an absolute scientific certainty... whether a casing was fired from a particular weapon." "[ Narrator ] The government claimed that they had recovered the murder weapon, an AR-15 from Bob Robideau's burned-out car... on the Kansas Turnpike near Wichita." "We were able to put Evan Hodge, who was the firearms expert on the stand." "[ Ellison ] Agent Hodge testified that the AR-15 from Wichita... was so badly damaged by the fire and explosion in the vehicle that contained it... that while he was able to make a comparison, the microscopic markings that would ordinarily be left on the firing pin... were too badly damaged for comparison purposes... and he could not reach a conclusion... as to whether or not the casing... that the government claimed had been found in the trunk of Coler's car... in fact had been fired by the AR-15 from Wichita." "He tried to do a firing-pin test." "He couldn't, so he went to a less conclusive test, an extractor-mark test." "There was a match." "This piece of evidence... was used and argued by the government as direct evidence... that the casing that was supposedly found in the trunk of Coler's car... had been fired by the AR-15 from Wichita." "Years later, through the Freedom of Information Act, we were able to uncover documentation... that they had done a firearm-pin test... and it came out negative." "The F.B.I. told us that they had approximately 18,000 pages... on the investigation of what they called the "RESMURS,"" "the reservation murders or the deaths of the agents." "We have received, to date, approximately half of that file." "But amongst the documentation that we did get, was an October 2nd Teletype." "This document says very clearly... the AR-15 from Wichita had a different firing pin... than the firing pin that was used at the RESMURS scene." "One must understand the Significance of that evidence." "If that jury found as a fact that that cartridge case in the trunk... could not be matched to the weapon... that Leonard Peltier was identified as having-- assume that he had it down at the cars, even" "that means one of two things." "Either... somebody else had an AR-15 down there and shot the agents... or it means, at least, that Leonard Peltier didn't shoot the agents with his AR-15." "[ Ellison ] What this document said to us... was that Evan Hodge could do a firing-pin comparison, he did do a firing-pin comparison, and it completely eliminated the AR-15 from Wichita... as having fired any of the casings that day that were seized by the F.B.I." "[ Narrator ] In 1984, during the evidentiary hearing," "Hodge attempted to explain the discrepancy by stating... that the October 2nd Teletype referred not to the casing found in the trunk of Coler's car, but to seven other casings found near one of the Jumping Bull residences." "The October report basically examines seven shell casings." "That's what Hodge says." "Those seven shell casings were the ones that he, for some reason, probably known only to himself, decided were in the RESMURS scene area." "Agent Hodge's explanation... as to why he didn't examine the .223-caliber casing... from the trunk of Agent Coler's car... was because it had never been described to him as being from the scene." "It just doesn't make any sense." "This casing from the trunk of the car... would have been a red flag to any even beginning, any novice investigator, and would have been one of the first things that was examined." "[ Narrator ] Hodge, however, did not report a match... between the casing and the AR-15 from Wichita... until February 10, 1976-- over seven months after the killing." "The defense claims that this delay has never been adequately explained." "They wanted to conclude that Leonard Peltier had an AR-15... and that weapon was used to kill the agents." "So, having no match with any of the weapons they had seized, they go back to this damaged AR-15, this one that Evan Hodge testified he couldn't do a firing-pin test... because the weapon was so badly damaged." "And suddenly they have a match." "The only logical explanation is... is that somebody in the F.B.I. laboratory... substituted the bolt mechanism that they claimed was from the AR-15... and fired off a number of test rounds, substituted those casings." "It's not" " It doesn't involved massive collusion." "It's very simple." "It takes a bolt mechanism, an AR-15, a box of ammunition and a felt-tip marker." "[ Narrator ] The court of appeals, however, refused to overturn Peltier's conviction, stating that while the new evidence may have influenced the jury's decision, it did not meet the required legal standard for granting a new trial." "The standard that the Supreme Court has established... for granting a new trial... is that you have to be convinced that it was reasonably probable... that the jury would have reached an opposite result... had the new evidence been presented to them." "Now, that's a high standard." "If the standard... was one of possibility rather than probability, we would have reached a different result." "[ Narrator ] Although the appeals court did not find that this standard had been met, questions surrounding the case continue to this day." "Perhaps the most important question... concerns what vehicle the agents followed onto the Jumping Bull compound." "I think it was only after the F.B.I. got kicked in the teeth... by the Cedar Rapids jury... that they began to get into the machinations that occurred at Fargo." "And they needed something to pin on Leonard Peltier, so they invented the red van story... because they knew Leonard Peltier had a red van." "Well, I can only explain what the government presented." "They claimed that my" "I was driving this red and white van." "Special Agent Williams and Coler saw the red and white van." "It's kind of a Suburban vehicle." "Well, my recollection is that was, uh, a red Jeep/Suburban-type vehicle." "[ Kunstler ] But initially, all of the F.B.I.'s own descriptions of that vehicle... was that it was a pickup or a Jeep, but never a van." "And what Leonard Peltier had was a van." "[ Lowe ] And there was a report, an F.B.I. 302, that on the day before the shooting, a Bureau of Indian Affairs Investigator named Ecoffey... had a conversation with Coler and Williams." "They were looking for a man named Jimmy Eagle, and they were asking for his help." "We had no intention or anything of looking for Leonard Peltier." "We were looking for Jimmy Eagle." "[ Narrator ] According to Ecoffey's report," "Coler and Williams were looking for a red pickup truck... because that was the vehicle that Jimmy Eagle was identified as driving." "[ Lowe ] Just before the shootout on June 26, there was a radio transmission from Agent Williams... that he was in pursuit of a red pickup truck." "Agent Adams testified at both the Cedar Rapids trial and the Fargo trial... that he heard Williams say that he was in pursuit in a red pickup truck." "Now, one must assume that Agent Williams knew the difference... between a pickup and a van." "And certainly knew that if it was red and white, he wouldn't say it was red." "He would say it was red and white." "I don't know if Williams and Coler were raised on a farm or in the country, but that-- that van is a pickup to some people." "A pickup, to me, includes a van, it includes scouts, it includes covered vehicles." "It includes campers, perhaps." "All of those things, basically, in colloquial language, kinda mean the same thing depending on your context." "Why did they follow a van?" "I don't know." "Williams and Coler knew, but they're dead." "The F.B.I... was so certain right after the firefight... that the agents, Coler and Williams, were chasing a pickup... that on July 1 of 1975, when the director of the F.B.I., Clarence Kelley," "held a press conference in Los Angeles about this firefight, he very clearly described how the agents were chasing a red pickup." "One must understand that the F.B.I., several weeks after this shootout, had released a statement-- it was printed, I know, in the Washington Post-- saying that at the time this took place," "Agent Williams had been pursuing a red pickup truck... which matched the description of a pickup truck... the suspect had been seen in the night before." "So when Mike Anderson reports that he sees Leonard Peltier driving in red-and-white van, that gets them a foothold in trying to say," ""Oh, well, everybody misunderstood." "It wasn't a red pickup he was talking about." "He was talking about a red and white van."" "Mike Anderson, by the time that he got to the witness stand... in Fargo, North Dakota, became one of what was a growing list of people... who had been coerced or bought... into filling in the pieces... that were necessary, the government felt, for a conviction." "[ Lowe ] Mike Anderson made statements to the F.B.I. that... he was in the tent city area, and he heard the shooting, grabbed a weapon and ran up." "In the seven weeks between that February of 1977 statement... that he gave the F.B.I. agents and the start of the trial, he suddenly developed a memory that he wasn't in tent city at all, he was really on the roof of June Little's house... and he kind of had a bird's-eye view of the start of the shoot out... and saw Leonard Peltier shoot at the agents." "No." "He was down there with us." "He was with us before the shooting happened." "Mike Anderson, he was around the camp." "I think he was changing clothes or hanging clothes up or airing something out, but he was busy around the tent, you know?" "We believe the evidence showed that he just was so intimidated, so threatened by the agents-- and at least his perception was he was threatened in all sorts of ways, being prosecuted and being hurt." "His perception was he had to say what he knew they wanted to hear or else he was in big trouble." "I'm not aware of anyone coercing anyone for any kind of a statement, and it was never done to my knowledge." "The government decided it wasn't Jimmy Eagle in a pickup." "It wasn't anybody in a pickup the agents chased in." "They needed it to be Leonard Peltier." "They knew they couldn't link him to a pickup, so they linked him to a van which they could establish." "And Mike Anderson filled in those pieces, even though it wasn't true." "[ Narrator ] The defense contention... that Coler and Williams followed a red pickup onto the compound... was supported by a report that a vehicle matching this description... had left the area shortly after the agents were killed." "[ Lowe ] You have to understand that the F.B.I. 302... that was filled out by Senior Resident Agent O'Clock... at the Rapid City F.B.I. office... on the basis of the radio traffic that was taking place while this was all going on," "reports that at 12:18 p.m., 18 minutes after the stipulated time of death of the agents," "Special Agent Gary Adams reported... that a red pickup truck was seen leaving the killing site." "This was the vehicle that clearly, it appeared to us, contained the people that the agents chased onto the compound, that killed the agents." "That would have left Leonard Peltier off the hook, because Leonard Peltier was still in the camp, as was his red and white van." "So they had to undermine that." "[ Kunstler ] We we had him on the stand in Cedar Rapids," "Gary Adams denied that he'd ever said that." "He denied it." "He said it might've been a mistake... or maybe the stenographer got it wrong or what have you, but that it simply wasn't true." "Adams later tried to say, "Well, I was talking at 1:26." "That was a time mistake." ""Somebody at the office had made a mistake on the time." "It wasn't 12:18." "It was 1:26." "And I said a red and white pickup truck."" "There simply is no real way... that I can answer your question, uh, of whether or not the 12:18 incident or event actually occurred, simply because the one man that was supposed to have made it," "Mr. Adams, Special Agent Adams, said that he didn't." "Nothing like that occurred." "That was certainly a legitimate question in that trial." "I have no way of knowing whether it occurred or whether it didn't." "If I had to make my guess, my guess would be that something like that happened... and Adams simply forgot about it;" "that somebody came into the area, went back out" "And the red pickup sorta disappeared into the mist somewhere... and the red van became the central vehicle." "And that was, of course, was one of the two big lies in the Leonard Peltier case." "Yes, there are inconsistencies, but you have not yet pointed out one of them... that was not available to that jury... and fully explored on cross-examination." "And you don't simply retry cases... because people aren't satisfied with the result that the jury came up with." "[ Prison Door Slams ] I still really don't understand what justice is all about, because me, I get acquitted, and a year later, my brother gets convicted on the same thing." "So where's the justice?" "What is justice?" "Is the justice just for me or for somebody else or" "You know, I don't know what justice is." "[ Narrator ] In 1989, a man who identified himself only as Mr. "X"... came forward and admitted killing the two F.B.I. agents." "It was only a couple years ago... that I had an opportunity to talk with the individual, uh, that, uh, was the individual that killed these two agents." "He told me that he was coming to the Jumping Bull home... to deliver explosives... that we had, uh, asked him to bring here." "Shortly after he had passed the Oglala housing, two cars entered Highway 18 behind him." "He became very apprehensive, because he didn't know who they were." "He pulled off onto the Jumping Bull home, and he glanced in his rearview mirror... and he said he noticed that these two cars had followed him onto the property." "And he became very apprehensive then." "He stopped." "He got out of his pickup, along with the driver, and when they got out of the pickup, they brought with them their weapons." "And when they did that, these two individuals also got out of their vehicles, bringing their weapons with them." "And he claims that these individuals fired on them first, and others, evidently, joined in." "There were bullets flying all about... and they realized that, "Hey, we got this dynamite and we better get it out of here."" "And that's exactly what they did." "They got back into their pickup and, uh, pulled it further up on top and out of the line of fire of these two individuals." "They stayed there until... they ultimately tried to leave the property." "That day I noticed a red pickup... coming down from that white house up there... and when it got on the other side of these cars, it stopped, an individual got out" "Of course, I knew who he was" "Well, I heard several shots fire." "In the last year, he related to me... that when he came down to these two cars... that he wasn't intending to kill these two individuals;" "that, uh, when he, uh, got to the cars, one of the individuals raised his handgun to him... and at that point he just reacted and fired and killed both of them." "Shortly after that, the individual got back into the driver's side of the pickup... and the pickup left... and made its way up along this tree line up here... and past the green house, and I never saw the red pickup again." "[ Peltier ] This story is true, but I can't and will not say anything about it." "For me to testify against anybody, or even mention-- try to get somebody else in trouble is wrong and I won't do it." "'Cause it's against my belief." "It's against my religion, my culture." "It's against everything that we have fought for and stood up for... and what we were told by our elders... what a warrior society is all about." "It's the only thing I got left in life." "Right now I'm just living." "I'm being stored here as a piece of meat, to put it literally." "And for me to-- And I got my dignity, my self-respect, and I'm gonna carry that with me, even if I-- even if I die here." "It's" " That's just my fate." "[ Narrator ] Although admitting his guilt," "Mr. "X" will not reveal his identity." "[ Crooks ] Where was Mr. "X" when all the trial was going on?" "If there is a Mr. "X,"" "he hasn't walked into any F.B.I. office to confess yet." "When he does that, I might take it a little more seriously." "[ Girl ] My Dad says he knows who it is, but it's not his way to go and tell on one of his brothers." "And I think that's kinda stupid, but if he believe that way, then, you know, he's not gonna change his mind about that." "My personal feeling... is that if somebody wants to state that they did it, they shouldn't make a game out of it." "They should just come out and do it." "All I can say is that he's a murderer.... and he's doing his time." "June 26 was just, uh, something that I dreamt of, something that happened in my mind... that, uh, was not real." "But, uh, of course, I know it was real... and, uh-- and that a lot of us suffered for it, including Leonard Peltier." "I have no doubt as to the guilt or innocence of Leonard Peltier." "He's guilty as charged and as a jury found." "I believe in the powers that are greater than us." "I believe that those powers will some day provide Leonard with what he needs." "♪ [ Drumbeats ]" "We were who we were in our generation, caught between the past and the future... in a society that wants to deny us a present." "♪ [ Drumbeats Continue ]" "[ Peltier ] The only thing I'm guilty of is struggling for my people." "I didn't kill those agents." "Yes, I'm frightened of dying in prison." "The thought does frighten me... that I won't be able to sit down with family and friends just to eat dinner with." "According to the Bureau of Prisons, my release date is 2035, I believe." "Uh" "Hopefully that's not true, you know?" "I'll be an old man when I get out." "[ Chuckles ] If I get out." "♪ [ Drumbeats Continue ]" "[ Radio Newscaster ] This is the worst outbreak of violence... on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation... since the 71-day siege at Wounded Knee two years ago." "♪ [ Chanting ]" "♪" "♪ [ Chanting ]" "[ Man ] The people held in bondage." "The people pray to freedom as freedom cries." "A man waits in a cage." "A man calls to justice, but justice lies." "In the dream of the living lies change." "Genocide remains." "♪ [ Chanting Continues ]"