Rhetorical Exclusion in the Trial of Leonard Peltier

Bibliographic Data

ID4039475
AuthorsMark Meister, Ann Burnett (0000-0001-6500-0894)
Year2004
Volume28
Issue3
Pages719-742
Publication date2004-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe American Indian Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0095-182X • E-ISSN: 1534-1828
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1353/aiq.2004.0103
OpenAlexW1975344785
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited15

In February 1973 American Indians and members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) began a seventy-one-day occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Their goal was to protest tactics used by the Pine Ridge Reservation tribal chair, such as abuse of power, misuse of monies, and use of a repressive personal police force.' The United States government responded with a military-style siege against the protesters.2 In the end, various U.S. officials promised hearings on local conditions and treaty violations. These hearings never convened. Arguably, the incident at Wounded Knee and the unfulfilled promises that were proffered in its wake provided the setting for a clash of cultures that culminated in the 1977 federal case against Leonard Peltier. Peltier was convicted in a North Dakota federal court for the 1975 murders of FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Peltier, described by prosecutors during his trial as a leader of AIM and instigator of violence against the federal government, is presently serving two consecutive life sentences for murdering Coler and Williams. Peltier and his supporters maintain his innocence. Today, Peltier's supporters hail him as a martyr and victim of federally mandated injustice.3 Since his imprisonment they have mounted a campaign for his clemency or a retrial and believe that the government is still abusing him. In fact, on November 4, 2003, the loth Circuit Court denied Leonard Peltier's 1999 habeas corpus petition.4 Central to understanding Peltier's conviction and sentence are the notions of rhetorical power and cultural legitimacy.5 The clash of cultures that occurred in the winter of 1973 at Wounded Knee continued in 1977 at the federal courthouse in Fargo. Both the incident at Wounded Knee

Administration (probate law · Government (linguistics · Imprisonment · Political science · Sociology · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Law · Law in Society and Culture · Rhetoric and Communication Studies

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