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Product Description
What are the facts? And what is the truth? in 1975, armed FBI agents illegally entered the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Gunfire erupted - a Native American and two FBI agents fell dead. After the largest manhunt in FBI history, three men were apprehended - only one, Leonard Peltier, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. This is his story. From the very beginning, Peltier's case has been dogged with controversy. Were the charges trumped up? Was the evidence falsified? Were witnesses pressured to change their testimony? Many people, including some of today's greatest legal minds, believe that Peltier is an innocent man. Twelve years ago, Robert Redford visited Leonard Peltier in prison. Today, after years of struggle with the FBI and the prison system, he and director Michael Apted (Gorillas in the Mist, Coal Miner's Daughter) are able to present Incident at Oglala - a riveting examination of the case and the real story of what may be one of the most outrageous abuses of justice in American history.
Amazon.com
Robert Redford is the executive producer (and narrator) of this fine, eye-opening documentary about the violent events that took place in 1975 on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Indian activists ended up in an extended standoff with FBI agents, and the result was several deaths, including two federal men whose killing (according to many people) was never clearly attributed to a specific gunman. Nevertheless, the government laid blame for the tragedy on Leonard Peltier, a Sioux political leader who has long been a focus for supporters believing he took the fall, possibly heroically, for others. Peltier has spent many years in prison, and Apted's film, which is hardly ambiguous in its commitment toward Peltier's hoped-for freedom, is persuasive in both its detail and its case against brutal federal policies toward Indians. Whatever one's position on the Peltier question, this is a compelling piece of work. --Tom Keogh
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