Drive For Peltier Comes To East End

Dennis Banks, the American Indian Movement's founder and a veteran of Wounded Knee, made Southampton College and the Hampton Day School in Bridgehampton stop-offs this week in his latest tour to secure the release of AIM's co-founder, Leonard Peltier, who has been imprisoned for 21 years.

The case has received widespread publicity, including feature and documentary films, such as Robert Redford's "Incident At Oglala: The Leonard Peltier Story," and a book, "In The Spirit Of Crazy Horse," by Peter Matthiessen of Sagaponack.

"People have asked me over the years if I did not have any remorse for the families of the two F.B.I. agents" [Ron Williams and Jack Coler] who were killed during what he said amounted to a Federal Bureau of Investigation invasion of the AIM campgrounds in Oglala, S.D.

Other Deaths

"Of course I do. I feel sorry for anyone who is killed. But my remorse was already there," said the imposing, soft-spoken Mr. Banks, pointing to his hairline. "Sixty-four people, AIM members, had already been killed in the camp by Federal police goons."

Whereupon, Mr. Banks, whose talk began and ended with a "drum circle" before a group of about 100 at the college's Business Center Monday night, named some of the Native American dead. He said that, contrary to official reports, Anna Mae Aquash, an AIM activist, had not died of exposure, but from a bullet to the back of the head.

"Exposure? An Indian dying of exposure? It's like saying an Eskimo froze to death," he said.

"Came In Shooting"

The news reports that followed the violent Oglala encounter of June 25, 1975, had failed to name the Indian - Joe Stuntz - who had been killed in the firefight, said Mr. Banks. "After the news about Williams and Coler ended, they said, 'Meanwhile, an AIM Indian also was killed.' No mention was made of who he was."

Virtually the entire official version of the incident at Oglala had been fabricated, said Mr. Banks, including, he claimed, the evidence concerning the match of the shell casing and firing pin matched. This was the evidence that led to Mr. Peltier's conviction for aiding and abetting in the murder of the two agents.

"Can't Scare Us"

"It was said that two lone agents had gone into the camp to serve a warrant. The F.B.I. came in shoot-ing. . . . They came to destroy our people. Within the first two minutes we were surrounded by 150 agents."

Mr. Banks said he was familiar with the Government's preemptive tactics because of his earlier experience at Wounded Knee. He said that after he and Russell Means had been acquitted of all charges stemming from Wounded Knee, a prosecutor had promised that he'd see prison in time.

"Prison?" said Mr. Banks. "I came from prison. Talk of prison couldn't scare me. Our people have been in prison all our lives. Ask the families of Geronimo about prison, ask the families of Chief Joseph. We know about prisons and forced marches and the great hero, Andrew Jackson. Fifteen thousand to 16,000 Cherokees died on that march to Oklahoma. We know brutality. . . . They can't scare us."

The animosity that the United States Government has had for native peoples was ancient, he said, and continued to this day.

Case "Manufactured"

Mr. Peltier, said Mr. Banks, was "no murderer." The case was manufactured in a desperate attempt to round up a scapegoat, he said. A witness, Myrtle Poor Bear, whose affidavit claiming she had seen Mr. Peltier shoot the agents, which was cited in Mr. Peltier's extradition from Canada, had later recanted, he said. She acknowledged later that she had perjured herself because she feared F.B.I. retribution.

"I know Leonard Peltier will be free one of these days," said Mr. Banks. He cited pleas for his release over the years from such organizations as Amnesty International, the World Council Of Churches, the National Association of Defense Lawyers, 50 United States Representatives, four Senators, and world leaders, including Nelson Mandela, Jacques Chirac, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jesse Jackson, and the Dalai Lama. Petitions for his release had to date received 50 million signatures worldwide, he said.

Clemency Urged

Among the prominent petitioners is a Federal Appeals Court Judge, Gerald Heaney, who heard Mr. Peltier's last appeal, in 1986, and now thinks, according to a published report, that Mr. Peltier should receive clemency.

"The best news" Mr. Banks said he had heard recently was from Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a Senator from Colorado, who "five or six days ago" said he had written President Clinton and the Justice Department in behalf of Mr. Peltier's release, and had promised to hold "full hearings."

The "Bring Peltier Home" tour is to travel to university and college campuses in Massachusetts and New York this month. An international conference to urge clemency will be held in Tulsa, Okla., from June 19 to 22.