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I am sympathetic to Leonard Peltier's plight, given the vicissitudes of Pine Ridge vs. the Government in 1975. Peltier's associates, the Butler Brothers, I have run across some, having operated a tavern that they frequented occasionally in Newport, Oregon, where the clientele are commercial fishermen and loggers, and a host of others, including Native Americans. When Dino Butler was extradited from jail in Canada, if my memory serves me correctly, he had fled to Canada for allegedly murdering a man in Toledo Oregon, seven miles from Newport, a man named Donald Pier, for robbing Indian grave sites. My wife worked at the school across the street from the apartment where Dino broke in at night and cut the man’s throat (a newspaper article stated that an accomplice testified that Dino said stabbing him was a very powerful feeling). The victim had a 16 year old son, I believe, who escaped by jumping out the window.
CULTURE AS JUSTIFICATION, NOT EXCUSE
By Chiu, Elaine M
Publication: The American Criminal Law Review
Date: Fall 2006 2006
State v. Butler
Gary Butler, Dino Butler and Robert Van Pelt were Native Americans who belonged to the Siletz tribe and lived in the Portland, Oregon area.10 They also belonged to a politically active organization known as the American Indian Movement. They began to hear from fellow tribe members that artifacts buried in the graves of dead relatives had been appearing for sale at local antique shops.11 For many years one of the names circulated as a grave robber of valuable objects from Siletz burial grounds was Donald Pier.12 On January 21, 1981, these three men went to Donald Pier's home where they smashed his fingers in order to get him to confess to robbing Siletz graves and then cut his throat.13 They believed that killing the grave-robber restored the spirits of their ancestors.14
The case was dismissed on a technicality, I believe, some mistakes that the investigators made, and Donald Pier, whoever he was, remains dead and forgotten. Whatever happened to his son, I do not know; he probably does not rob graves. Grave robbers, I suppose, deserve a special place in hell. Whether they deserve to be murdered or not is debatable, given that there are already laws in place. At the time, the murder was kind of a big story on the Oregon coast.
Still, I wish Leonard Peltier well, and hope he is set free. Just once in a while, however, I wonder who Donald Pier is, or what his son is doing. I suppose if someone robbed his bones, maybe justice might be served. Just maybe, in some cases, all life is not sacred.
