By Jane Waide
Leonard
By Jane Waide
A Distinctive Style: Mr. Peltier,
thank you so much for your time and
for the opportunity to interview you.
We’d like to first ask you about your
Native American heritage and back-
ground.
Leonard Peltier: I am an enrolled
member of the Turtle Mountain
Band of Chippewa Indians—my fa-
ther’s tribe. My mother was Dakota.
I was adopted in traditional way by
a Lakota family, as well as by a First
Nation in Canada. Adoption in In-
dian way isn’t an honorary thing. It
is an honor, of course, but it’s real. I
guess you could say I have a very
large extended family.
Photo by Jeffry Scott
ADS: The subjects of your
artwork are clear expres-
sions of your cultural back-
ground. Has this always
been the case?
LP: I have always loved
painting my People... or cul-
tural subjects, scenes. I have
always believed that we
have a very unique culture,
and that’s true of all our
tribes—from south to the
north. I am particularly fascinated
w/the culture of the Aztecs and
Mayans. They were so far advanced
in many things. No one was sick or
when someone did get sick, these an-
cient cultures knew what herb to use
for a cure. They had the best agri-
cultural system in the world. They
were practicing brain surgery. They
invented the syringe to inject medi-
cine. Their tools weren’t like those of
today, of course. They used the bone
of a small humming bird, sanded it
down... and the bladder of a small
animal. They ground up the medi-
cines and added water and injected
it. So-called modern medicine didn’t
use this technique until the 1800s. I
PeLtier “I am an
Indian man.
All I want is
the right to
live as one.”
recommend that your readers go to
Washington, DC, and visit the Amer-
ican Indian museum there. They can
see everything I’ve written about
here and plenty more.
(http://www.nmai.si.edu)
I have always wanted to be an
artist... all my life... from day one of
school. But, as I said, life for us on
those reservations was not a pleas-
ant life and we were lucky to even
get through school. I had to quit and
find a job at 15 years old; I had fin-
ished the 9th grade. Then, I went to
work in a potato house at $1.10 an
hour, 10 hours a day. Since then, I
have earned a GED and some college
credits.
I have been painting now on and off
for over 35 years.
There are some murals I did in
Seattle, at the El Centro de la Raza
(I think)... should still be there. I did
other things, too. So there are a few
pieces of my work out there from
over 35 yrs ago.
My art gives me freedom and I
love it.