US vs LEONARD PELTIER TRIAL TRANSCRIPT EXCERPTS Case Number CR77-3003

Section II: The Pine Ridge "Reign of Terror" (Pages 13-27)
Mirrored information from the LPDC web site: this page
    (6) Testimony of Deborah White Plume, resident of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and
    survivor of a GOON shooting. Testimony given during May 17, 2000 Congressional Briefing
    sponsored by Congressman Porter.
 
 
 

    Congressional Briefing for Leonard Peltier
                    Washington D.C., May 17, 2000

    Deborah White Plume, Lift-Long Resident of Pine Ridge, AIM Supporter,
    Survivor of GOON assault

    Introduction: Our next speaker is Deborah White Plume. She's an American Indian
    Movement supporter and lifetime resident of Pine Ridge. She survived the Reign of Terror
    and is now an advocate for the needs of the people at Pine Ridge.

Deborah White Plume: Welcome. Good afternoon. My thanks to the people who made this day possible for Leonard. My name is Deborah White Plume. I am an Oglala-Lakota mother and grandmother. I came here from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. On Pine Ridge, while Dick Wilson was the Oglala-Sioux tribal chairman, our Traditional People suffered much violence. This time period is referred to as the Reign of Terror. Wilson and his GOONs targeted Traditional People, American Indian Movement people, and people who supported Lakota traditions and AIM. During that violent period, probably 90 percent of the violence was enacted by the GOONs. My family was directly impacted by such violence. I came here today to tell you about a tragedy that has befallen my family.

On November 17, 1974 the home of my mother was attacked by an off-duty Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs police officer who was known to be a Wilson supporter. He drove up to my mother's home and opened fire. My mother and I were preparing a meal. I heard a voice yell,   "He has a gun!" Rapid-fire gunshots exploded all around me. I grabbed my three-year-old son  and turned to protect him. I saw my mother fall, shot in the back, lay unmoving at my feet.

As I dove for the door holding my son, I saw his arm explode. I felt a burning in my own arm and a burning on my right temple. As we hit the floor, I felt another burning -- this time on my left temple. I saw the thumb of my son's left hand explode and disappear. I lay on my son, covering him with my body. From the floor, I saw my step-dad lay unconscious, blood pouring from a chest wound. I saw Lou, a family friend, laying across the doorway, blood spilling from his leg.

The firing lasted perhaps two minutes. I heard at least two different kinds of rounds going off. When the firing stopped, the house was filled with smoke and debris clouded the air. I stepped over the bodies and ran outside, carrying my son who lay very still in my arms, his eyes glazed and scaring me. I saw the car of the off-duty Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs police officer pulling away very very fast.

A neighbor drove me with my son to the emergency room. From the ER, we were flown to the Army Hospital in Denver. They said we would be sent there because no hospitals in the area could handle the type of gunshot wound my son had taken, and to save his arm, his only chance was a military hospital.

While we were being treated at the ER and waiting for the airplane to come after us, the federal officer who shot us was brought in with a gunshot wound to the head. While I did not know it until much later, he died that day. To this day, it is unknown who shot him.

While I was at the hospital in Denver, an individual in a nurse's uniform wheeled me to a room where a white man was sitting. He questioned me, but I didn't know anything. Later I learned he was probably FBI and people began to guard my hospital room.

On the day of the shooting, I saw another person in the back seat of the car [of the off-duty BIA police officer] shooting at us as the car drove away. I am unaware of any investigation identifying who that second person was.

The violence that was taken against my family is one example of many terrifying and sad things that happened on our reservation. During the years of Wilson's tenure as Oglala-Sioux tribal chairman, our people suffered violence on a daily basis. Most of the crimes were never solved. There was no justice shown to the victims of the crimes done against us. For those of us who lived there, it was common knowledge that Traditional People and AIM people were usually the victims of the beatings, shootings, car crashes, [and] destruction of property. Our people did not trust the tribal government, we did not trust the BIA police, we did not trust the FBI. Dick Wilson had the support of tribal government, tribal government had the support of the BIA, and the BIA had the support of the FBI.

From then until today, many of our people have maintained vigilant observation of what occurs around us every minute of every day. We do this because we do not know if and when the BIA and the FBI may lash out again against us. Living with such conditions creates much hardship for many of our people.

We are old, and we die before our time, and we want Leonard to be free. That is my statement.

    Transcript from the Congressional Briefing for Leonard Peltier, Washington D.C., May17,
    2000
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