Civil Rights By Leonard Peltier Summary

Once again, it is a week of new names and experiences for me to learn about. Prior to reading Leonard Peltier’s story I may have viewed his name with a hashtag in front of it and briefly clicked on it, but I didn’t delve any deeper than that. Per usual, I have a surplus of questions and fewer answers.
For example, I know President Obama didn’t commute his sentence, but I want to know why. Is it just my perception, or has the fight for Civil Rights among the, African American population been more successful? Are the fights for equality and civil rights among the two groups even comparable? When will society learn that prison is not a replacement for education? By my count, Mr. Peltier had a ninth grade education and he moved around quite a bit,
This is disruptive to any child, especially one whose family is trying to feed their children provide an education, a sense of independence and culture. His quote on page 67 drives the point home, “Prison’s the only university, the only finishing school many young Indian brothers ever see. Same for blacks and Latinos (Peltier 67).” As I was reading I remembered my grandparents participated, through the LDS Church in the Indian Student Placement Services.1 My grandfather is 98 now. When he was 76 he wrote a clinical life history. This is what he has recorded about that experience, “It should be recorded that we had the opportunity to share our home and lives with several Lamanite children who came to spend the school year. This began while we were in Soda Springs and ended in 1980 when we moved from Moreland. We became real close to these young people and had considerable success with some and others not so good. Two of the students were especially close to us. The first one we had was Valerie Swan, the other student, Edward Fasthorse, was with us in Soda Springs and made the move to Moreland and entered school. He was harassed by other students and moved back to Soda