In the Spirit of Crazy Horse Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse - Essay Example What drives Matthiessen to write this novel is that twenty two years thereafter, one of them Leonard Peltier is still serving two consecutive life sentences. This is because he believes that Peltier is innocent forming the core of the story thus a classic work of investigative reporting. Metthiessen brings forth the larger picture of the Pine Ridge shooting. He shows us the systematic discrimination by the white people in power, determination by corporate agencies to exploit the uranium deposits in the Black Hills, dishonoring of treaties, the F.B.I hostility towards the American Indian Movement and finally the rampant corruption and ineffective judicial system (Matthiessen, 6).This makes the readers to inadvertly rationalize and justify the murder because it is a representation of the repeated historical injustices done to the Native American people in the US. Discussion According to Metthiessen (231-278), he argues that justice is around the corner. This arises because many a times has been disappointed when he sees justice is to be administered only to be denied basing on a technicality in the legal appeals. Everyone had deposited their hope in the legal system only to be betrayed at the last minute. This is because the jury never made the effort to listen to the testimony of the witnesses only to sentence Peltier to life imprisonment without witnesses. The jury based the judgment on the evidence fabricated and manipulated by the FBI. This just shows how the corrupt and discriminatory the FBI is with the back up of a very an inefficient judicial system. This Spirit of a Crazy Horse is a spirit of being on total resistance to the wrongs directed towards the community, the people and ourselves. This provides the back drop of constant subversion of justice for Native Americans and it is perceived as a metaphor to depict the history of injustice against the entire race of people other than an isolated incident of the Peltier’s case. Most of the time the F BI have been an opposing force in bringing to the table the real issues that are affecting the Native Indian community and other people, but they continue to base their argument on the American Indian Movement in the 1970’s. When Peltier serves more than two consecutive life imprisonment times he is actually deprived his constitutional right. Therefore, if Petlier’s rights are to be respected he is entitled to be freed but this is not the case. The string of injustices directed towards the Natives through corruption of the fundamental legal practices and fairness and many other cited ways tries to keep the Native Americans from ever making steps forward with low levels of education, corruption of legal frame work, inadequate food supplies and racist leaders. This is evidenced through Peltire’s case and many others not mentioned. The American justice system and other related government agencies are unjust in the way they undertook issues particularly those affect ing the Natives. Matthiessen easily moves the audience to rationalize and justify murder. He utilizes historical events and figures such as the creation of Mount Rushmore to poke holes in our sight of the superiority of the American legal system when he likens the President’s victorious dedication of the monument with utterances of Standing Bear who says, â€Å"