SCREEN SCENE

By John Carlos Cantu

INCIDENT AT OGLALA

[1992. Directed by Michael Apted. Narrated by Robert Redford. Miramax Films/Carolco Video. 93 mins.]

(Clip art of a pointing finger, scissors, hand holding a pencil & sound reel.)

Incident at Oglala" is Michael Apted's translation of the tragic June 26, 1975 events on the Pine Ridge Reservation, and their continuing legal repercussions for Native American political activist, Leonard Peltier. On that date, two federal agents and one Native American civilian were killed during a six-hour gun battle. Apted's carefully constructed investigation makes it unquestionably clear that Peltier was convicted of the agents' murders on trumped-up charges. Further, it contends that the U.S. government was guilty of fabricating these charges to avenge the murders without concern as to whether Peltier was responsible or not.

"Incident" has a crisp intelligence about it which is equally as thoughtful as it is indignant. Apted, a first-class documentary filmmaker, has chosen temperance instead of cutrage to craft his film. Apted rightly believes he's got a strong enough case to play his cards close to his vest. Like a first-rate lawyer who knows underplaying his hand will beguile the Jury, he simply allows events to speak for themselves in this riveting textbook drama.

As such, a crucial element of his strategy has been to enlist the services of Robert Redford for the narration. While Redford's vaguely western twang doesn't have the authoritative quality of James Earl Jones, his familiar voice does more than adequately serve the function of being both reasonable and understated. As a result, the sheer comfort of Redford's diction and cadence adds yet another decisive element in persuasively stating Peltier's case.

On June 26, two FBI agenls, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, chased a pickup truck to the Pine Ridge Reservation bearing an arrest warrant. The warrant charged young, Oglala tribe-member, Jimmy Eagle, with the abduction and assault of two white men earlier that week. Agents and local law officials swooped down on the isolated farmhouse, on the northwestern edge of the reservation, that was known to house the leadership of the American Indian Movement (AIM).

What they got instead was a face-off with no less than 16 members of AIM. AIM fought to defend their tribal lands and to protect their leader, Dennis J. Banks, who was at the reservation waiting to be brought to trial on charges stemming from the 71-day stand-off which took place at Wounded Knee, South Dakota in 1973.

It has never been determined who started the ensuing firefight - which started after the two federal agents chased their prey onto reservation grounds - but both Coler and Williams, and one Native American, Joe Killsright Stuntz, were killed in the ensuing exchange of gun fire.

As in most tragedies of this nature, the exchange of weaponry was an act of senseless violence which merely reflected the tip of the proverbial iceberg. For there was tremendous strife on the Pine Ridge Reservation at that time between AIM members and an older clique, led by tribal leader Richard Wilson's Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOON). Wilson's GOON squads, whose control of patronage at the Pine Ridge Reservation was being challenged, had been literally at war with AIM throughout the early '70s. The inadvertent invasion by agents Coler and Williams lit a fuse which had been smoldering for two years. The tensions between the two factions of the Oglala tribe turned from festering hostility to armed provocation. Scores of innocent bystanders perished in that year.

The ensuing arrests and legal process afterward amounted to a travesty of American fair-play. The FBI readily admits it intended to bring in Coler's and Williams' murderer(s). What they haven't admitted - and what the American judicial system has subsequently ignored - is the way they went about achieving their goal.

"Incident at Oglala" questions both the govemment's intent and the tactics used to gain Peltier's conviction on the charge of these murders. Getting any conviction for the agents' death was no easy task. Two Native American defendants charged with the crimes - Darrelle (Dino) Butler and Bob Robideau - were tried separately and both were acquitted after citing self-defense.

Peltier, sensing that he would be the scapegoat, fled to Canada. He was later extradited back to the United States with the service of testimony which has subsequently been proven to be perjured. The repudiation of the prosecutlon's most reliable witnesses did not lead to a mistrial. Accordingly, the U.S. government fabricated an enormous amount of evidence to gain Peltier's conviction. Peltier is currentjy serving a life sentence at the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, for two crimes which it is unlikely that he committed.

Redford, in a New York Times interview at the time of the documentary's 1992 release, said that he believes it's important that "Incident at Oglala" is focused solely on the fairness of Peltier's trial, and not on the issue of his innocence or guilt.

Yet it's ultimately this issue of innocence and guilt which is the most troubling aspect of the film. For Peltier is less the sum total of the film's tragedy than he is a symbol of what is seriously flawed in our judicial system. More than as a hero, villain, or victim, Peltier is a reflection of the odd state of affairs in our sense of simple Justice.

Even at this late date it comes as a bit of a shock to see government officials blithely speaking in unmitigated legalese about the injustice concerning Peltier's conviction. Apted's camera captures this blatant hypocrisy flawlessly, as though the deeper ethical issues about falsely imprisoning and destroying a man's life hasn't the Orwellian quality of double-thought. The film asks viewers to wonder at how a cynical conviction on trumped-up charges could in any rational fashion revenge the death of two government agents.

It's on this ground that "Incident at Oglala" gains its considerable currency and strength. The film is paradoxical in that such a travesty of justice can co-exist with a publicly screened document so roundly criticizing the government, without recourse by state police slamming the lid on the truth. Instead, one leaves the film with the vague notion that somehow our social values aren't in synchrony with our political experience.

One wonders how our political, judicial, and social consciences can so blithely accept what has happened to Leonard Peltier. It'a as though in a deeply hidden recess of our nation's psyche, there's a slight touch of designer-chic authoritarianism which has made this collective amnesia possible.

It's a chilling fact, but Apted seemingly wants to pass along one simple message with "Incident at Oglala." And this is the fact that such injustice can, indeed, happen here. Just ask Leonard Peltier...

RATING KEY 

• Star: Acting
• Flower: Cinematography
• Pointing Finger: Direction
• Scissors: Editing
• Hand holding a pencil: Narrative
• Sound reel: Sound
• Cross: Visual Effects

This rating system is designed to inform the reader, at a glance, about the strengths of a given film or video. Thus, when a symbol appears following a title, it implies that the corresponding category is a strength of the movie.