Incident At Oglala Movie Essay

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Native Americans and the United States government have had a long standing dysfunctional relationship that has resulted in the unjust treatment of people. In the past, Native Americans have been forced from there territory and moved log distances only to be confined to small lots of land they can call their own. Not only has the government confined the Native Americans to stay in reservations, but they have lead massacres of natives as their numbers dwindle to a genocidal levels. Even with all the suffering in the past, Native Americans and the United States government still have many issues that arise. In the film Incident at Oglala, another conflict between the United States government and Native Americans is explored. The film recounts the Pine Ridge Shootout on a Native American revelation of the …show more content…
By compounding a fair amount of evidence, the FBI was able to make a good case against Leonard Peltier. The one of the first pieces of evidence that was brought into question was the murder weapon of the two FBI agents. They report the riffle that Leonard Peltier was using was found in bad shape and had been severely damaged. This allowed the FBI to add evidence to pin the murder on Leonard Peltier by using the shells fired that killed Both FBI agents. This was a crucial point in the case because this put Leonard Peltier in the frame for murder. He also had a testimony from a woman named Myrtle Poor Bear claiming she was Leonard Peltier’s girlfriend and that she witnessed the murder of the two FBI special agents. The testimony of Myrtle Poor Bear is a big part of the guilty ruling against Peltier’s murder trial. With a motive, murder weapon, and a witness, Leonard Peltier’s case had all it needed for a jury to find him guilty of murder beyond reasonable doubt. With just the evidence the FBI has given, the case is fairly just in its

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