On November 15, dozens of people from across the country came to the American Indian Center in Chicago for the opening reception of “Visions of Home,” a new exhibit celebrating the Native American art of Leonard Peltier: Native revolutionary, political prisoner, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s 2020 Vice Presidential candidate.
The exhibit, which runs until January 8, 2020, features original pieces by Peltier inspired by his memories of life outside of prison, where he has been unjustly incarcerated for over four decades now for a crime that he did not commit.
The opening reception featured guest speaker Chase Iron Eyes (Oglala), an activist, attorney with the Lakota People’s Law Project, and co-founder of the Native American news website Last Real Indians. In his address, Iron Eyes discussed the importance of continued struggle and resistance against all forms of oppression.
“We are fighting the same enemy,” Chase Iron Eyes told the crowd. “We are fighting against colonization, against colonialism.” Pointing towards Bolivia, where Indigenous people are resisting the fascist coup which forced the democratically elected president Evo Morales to resign, and Chile, where massive protests against neoliberalism and the austerity measures of the Piñera government have been raging for weeks, Iron Eyes noted that the struggle is international in character.
Highlighting the racist hypocrisy of the criminal injustice system, Iron Eyes discussed how no CEO or politicians have been imprisoned for their destructive violence against the environment, while Red Fawn Fallis, an Oglala Lakota Water Protector, is currently incarcerated at FCI Dublin, California for her heroic resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline.
One person who attended the talk, Sophia Loris, said she was “really moved by hearing how optimistic Leonard Peltier is still, even after being in jail for 44 years.”
In reference to the dire situation currently faced by Leonard Peltier, Iron Eyes told the crowd, “we do not want to let Leonard become a martyr.”
Free Leonard Peltier, Red Fawn Fallis, and all political prisoners!
You can donate to Leonard Peltier’s legal defense fund at the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee’s website.
