How We Met: Peter Matthiessen & Leonard Peltier - "He's been a saviour to me, fighting for so long to keep my name alive" FOREIGN Edition

• Published in: Independent (London, England : 1986)
• Main Author: Interviews by Laurel Berger & Photograph by Jonathan Elderfield
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: London (UK) Independent Digital News & Media 05.11.2000
• Subjects: Matthiessen, Peter; Peltier, Leonard
• ISSN: 0951-9467

This was in 1979, two years after [Leonard Peltier]'s conviction for the murder of two FBI agents during a shoot-out on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. A few weeks later, I was in the Black Hills when I ran into one of his co-defendants in the murder trial. This man took me down to Pine Ridge, to the farm just outside the village of Oglala where the agents died, and we walked the shoot-out scene. When he finished, I realised it was impossible that the FBI could have identified Leonard Peltier as the killer. The more I investigated, the more convinced I was that he'd been put in prison on coerced and false evidence. The circumstances were so disturbing that by the time I met with him, the magazine piece I'd set out to write was turning into an immense book. Leonard Peltier: I first met [Peter Matthiessen] when I was stuck at Marion [prison]. I was nervous as hell, afraid of saying something dumb that might hurt my case. I remember we were in this cell-like interview room, and prisons are so noisy, you could hardly hear anything. And also I knew Peter was trying to read me, read who I really was. At some point in the conversation, though, I happened to look into his eyes, and I thought, you can trust this man. Other Indian people, they notice it, too. There's gentleness but also intensity and openness in that face of his, you just know the guy isn't going to let you down. Peter had worked a lot with Native Americans in the past, hung out with them. He was supposed to go into spiritual training with a Paiute elder in Nevada, but this man died, and he got into Zen. Even so, he's probably more Indian in his heart than a lot of "real" Indians. Sure he can be reserved but, hey, a lot of folks say the same about me. If an Indian comes over all friendly at first, you better watch your step - or your car keys! Both of us like whooping it up and talking about women and, as Peter says, getting snot- flying drunk. That sort of good ol' boy stuff crosses all lines.