NOTE: This summer, shortly after the shooting of the FBI agents at Pine Ridge, John Trudell was arrested at his home in Nevada. This is a statement of the legal struggle which he is waging and facing. He requires assistance to cover legal fees.
I’m charged with assault with a deadly weapon and commission of a crime on an Indian reservation because of an incident that happened at a trading post in Owyhee, Nevada. But the real issue comes down to a jurisdictional question, because the way the federal law is set up, if an Indian is accused of committing a crime against a white on a reservation, that Indian is taken into federal custody and tried in federal court on felony charges. If a white commits a crime on a reservation, the white is also taken into federal custody and tried in federal court on felony charges. If an Indian commits a crime against an Indian on the reservation, nine times out of ten it is sent back by federal attorneys to tribal court to be dealt with. So we’re talking about racism being perpetuated by federal law. It’s an automatic crime for an Indian to stand up against a white on a reservation, no matter what that white does to you. The laws are set up so that anyone operating a business on a reservation can violate every law on the books and rob the people, but if the people stand up against the non-Indian for his violations, the people face a special federal law automatically guaranteeing a trip to federal court. Whereas if the Indians are fighting against each other, it is resolved in tribal court.
Everyone wants to know what’s wrong with the Indians and why are they complaining? Or, why don’t the Indians do it themselves, fitting into the term “self-determination.” But how can you have self-determination if tribal courts are not allowed to mete out a fair standard of justice? If there is a double standard of justice, a dual trial system that exists along racial lines. It is a violation of civil rights, a violation of human rights, and a violation of federal law. The crime I’m accused of committing, had I committed it against an Indian I would be facing a 6-month maximum sentence, but because I’m accused of committing it against a white, I’m facing a 10-year maximum. Jury duty is based on a selection from the tax rolls. So Indians are usually not on the jury. There is no jury of your peers.
Also, I have a right to be tried where the alleged crime took place, not 500 to 1,000 miles away. If a white man commits a crime [in one of his cities), he has to request permission to have the trial changed from the scene of the community in which the alleged crime took place. But here, we have no option. We are taken from the community and tried by another community totally unfamiliar with the conditions where the crime allegedly took place. I’m entitled to be tried by my peers. The way it is set up under this jurisdictional issue is that if you commit a crime against a white, you are tried by a jury of that white’s peers, not your own. That’s racism. It’s practicing, blatant racism. I’m out on $10,000 bond. The normal bond is $1500 in the state of Nevada. The government is taking economic advantage of me. I don’t have the tax dollars available for my defense that the government has available for my prosecution. I think there should be a limit placed on the amount of money the government can spend to prosecute me, because there’s a limit to how much I can raise to defend myself. That’s something the people better start looking at. Isn’t that inequity under the law? The government has total unlimited resources. It can lie, cheat, steal, and do any damn thing it wants to prosecute you because it’s drawing off the taxpayer’s money.
I live 500 miles from Reno, Nevada. Do you know how much money that’s going to cost me to move back and forth to prove my innocence, especially since they’re supposed to prove my guilt? Maybe the FBI agent who recommended my $10,000 bond would like to help with my expenses. Then there is the matter of the inflammatory statements issued about me in the press. Statements that I was drinking. That I had automatic weapons. I have signed affidavits, one signed by the tribal chairman, one signed by the trial judge, one signed by a Presbyterian preacher, that I was not under the influence of any alcohol or drugs. FBI agent Jack Neal, in charge of the state of Nevada, told the press this was “not a political crime”, that I was drunk at the time. I totally condemn the FBI for making that kind of racist statement. I don’t have to get drunk to stand up to a lying FBI agent or a scheming trader. I don’t have to get drunk to stand up for my rights. I used to get drunk when I was much younger. I used to stay drunk because I was running away from myself. But I’m not running no more, and I don’t have to get drunk to stand up for what I believe in.
The FBI owes me a public apology for slandering my name. The FBI owes the Indian people of Nevada and America a public apology for perpetuating a racist stereotype of a drunken Indian. It is common practice of the FBI to use clear tactics. Although I did discharge a firearm in a public building, the FBI threw this all out of proportion, from the fact of me being drunk and fighting off the BIA police for four hours with automatic weapons. This is an important thing because it goes right back to the situation in Oglala, South Dakota. This goes back to the vigilante witch hunt that the FBI, through its lies and smear tactics, justified to the American public. They justified the setting up of a complete police state over a tribally-governed reservation.
Regarding the banner headlines talking of a shootout with automatic weapons, I am used to sloppy journalism. It reflects on the condition of the American state that it would accept the first lie that comes along printed, and nowhere along the line print a retraction. We’ve read all the history books and the newspapers of America, and we see that this is not a free society. They lie. As soon as the FBI says “drunk,” they print it. The press should have more of a responsibility both to the Indian and white community to print garbage. The press should be held accountable as the federal agent who issued the racist statement. What I did was to confront a man who was exploiting the people with high prices and racist attitudes and treatment toward the people and I discharged a firearm in a public building, and that is all I have done. I do not deny it. I did it with the intention of getting at two issues. Who is going to bring these people under control, these people who flagrantly violate the law and rob our people? Who’s going to bring them under control? The other one is, who has jurisdiction? You see, the tribe can’t take this man to court for his practices, because there is a law protecting him from that. I don’t have the money to take anyone to court. I don’t have the money to subpoena nothing. I don’t have the money to go through the civil courts to change this law. The only thing that I’ve got is body politics to bring this issue out. I’m not ashamed of what I’ve done. I am ashamed of the fact that it had to be done.
If we’re citizens of the United States, the present law regarding jurisdiction is an unconstitutional law. If they’re going to perpetuate unconstitutional laws against us, then we’re not citizens. We fall within another sovereignty. That’s exactly the way I see it. I’m saying that the law has got to treat everyone equal and the same. Los Angeles County does not give up its jurisdictional rights to the federal government, why should an Indian reservation be forced to do something that the white citizens will not allow to happen? Why should we be forced into this position? Whoever commits a crime on an Indian reservation, be he white, red or black, should be tried by the tribal government. His whole judicial process should take place within the jurisdiction where the alleged crime took place. Equal justice for everyone under the jurisdiction of the tribal government. That’s the way I see it. It’s just a fundamental thing. On the one hand, the federal government is forcing busing on both black and white people in the name of ending racism, but on an Indian reservation, they are perpetuating racism with the racism in their laws. It you want to eliminate racist individuals, you have to eliminate racist laws. The federal government has got to accept responsibility for the racism in their laws. It’s just my personal feeling, but many are going to have to accept some of the blame too, because it’s their federal government. The federal government may work against the wishes of the people, but as long as they sit back and let that happen, they’re going to have to accept some of the blame. Something has got to be done about the racism of the federal government’s laws. And something’s got to be done about the people who hide behind that racism and exploit our people. If the average U.S. citizen is going to hide behind ignorance of what’s happening as an excuse, then we’ll do it ourselves. Something’s got to be done.
Let’s be realistic, what Indian wants to be tried by a non-Indian? We’re tried now by them every day. We’re tried by them in their classrooms, we’re tried by them in their churches, we’re tried by them in their poverty programs, we’re tried by them with their alcohol. We’re tried by them every damn day, and what we’re saying now is hey, man, in the name of justice, let us be tried by the judicial system of our own people. Usually the crimes we’re associated with arise directly out of these trials in the classrooms and preachers’ rooms and bureaucrats’ offices and the beer joints. We’re saying let’s eliminate that. We believe very strongly that the laws of the tribal government should be enforced by the tribal government. We don’t believe Indian people will find us not guilty of crimes. That’s not the issue. The issue is, the right to a trial by our people, if that’s where the crime was committed. If I commit a crime in Los Angeles, California, I should be tried in Los Angeles, California. And if I did it in Owyhee, Nevada, that’s where I should be tried. This is the issue that the government has been trying to avoid. The government has been taking the Wounded Knee defendants out of the community and trying them in white cities, and I’m not going to let it happen to me. I’m going to be tried where the crime took place.
Since the liberation of Wounded Knee the Federal Government has used their laws to parade us through their courtrooms under the charade of justice. They continue to make a mockery of the meaning of justice. They use the laws of the courtroom against us like they used diseased blankets and the Seventh Cavalry against our ancestors. The feds have broken their own laws and yet we are the ones who must go to trial. The American public in its ignorance and apathy allow this to happen because their government uses its law and order rhetoric to confuse people. They say we are criminals and must be prosecuted, while the Watergate gang goes out to Boy Scout camps to rest while serving their time, and Richard Nixon goes to hospital instead of court. The feds and politicians speak of law and order and justice, but there seems to be one standard of justice for whites and another for Indians. We watch the American elitist get away with treason while our people are kidnapped and held captive under the guise of federal laws. The only crimes our people are guilty of are wanting justice and peace for our people. America kidnaps us with federal law and holds us political hostages while American white juries decide if we are criminals or not, while America’s halls of justice and courtrooms sit on stolen land. When the thieves and their descendants try us, then their bonds and fines are no more than ransom. Prisoners no more than kidnap victims.
White court is no more than racism, and law and order is no more. The whites call themselves Americans now, but they still have the same value system as their European ancestors. They are still afflicted with the white superiority complex. They say they have changed, but they are wrong. Their technology has changed, but the white man has remained the same. His value system won’t allow the evolution of his humanity. We talk about human rights that birth creates. The white man counters with civil rights which he legislates. The American public wallows in its own obsession of self, while speaking to us of equality. They elect politicians to blame, while eminent domain creates exploiting traders, strip-mining, bureaucratic corruption, and less hunting and fishing. The politicians form the white man’s government which legislates the Manifest Destiny policies that have legalized the destruction of our peoples. The white Americans help us to blame the government as though to create the illusion that the white Americans have no guilt. The white Americans are guilty of apathy and self-indulgence to the extent that they have allowed inhumanity to thrive.
We can no longer accept America’s rationalizations and hypocrisy in place of honor. We can no longer accept racism for justice. We can no longer pretend that the pain of oppression does not exist. We can see through the mask of white America and see how white America’s dishonor has robbed our people of their honor. We know the sacredness of truth, honor and respect to be the value system of a free people. I demand to be tried in Owyhee, Nevada, by the people whom I am supposed to have committed a crime against. ~
SOURCE: Akwesasne Notes, Vol. 7 No. 4.